School preference questions

[BettySundaes]

I’m beginning to look at options for Sept 22 intake and feeling reasonably au fait with the admissions process but I have a couple of questions, if anyone can help?

Firstly, I know schools like to talk up their over-subscription stats but one school I am looking at is highlighting how many 1st and 2nd preferences they receive and I was wondering how they might know this when supposedly they aren’t told where a parent has ranked them, only that they have listed it as one of their choices (we have six round here).

Secondly, there are some oversubscribed schools we wouldn’t have a chance at on distance but they have scholarship places too – on the scholarship application forms it says that I commit to listing the school in my preferences. I know that I will only qualify for a place if my child gets a scholarship one. Fair play they don’t want to test all and sundry, but equally I don’t want to waste a valuable slot on my CAF if my child doesn’t pass the scholarship. What do other parents do in this situation?

Don't know about second question. On the first, schools get told total numbers of first, second, third preferences etc, but not which children have named the school as which preference.

I assume you mean place admitted on grounds of aptitude for a particular subject as I don't think state schools typically award scholarships?

Normally the test results are available before you have to submit your school preferences (certainly they are in my area), so you can factor that in to your CAF choices.

@UserAtLarge - yes some are called aptitude tests, some say scholarships I guess because some have financial benefits attached eg free instrument lessons. The schools do seem to want you to commit to including them on your CAF at the point of applying to take the test, so before you even take it!

You should know whether your child qualifies for a scholarship place before you apply, so basically they are just saying that if they do, you will apply - it's not a wasted effort on their part.

They can't commit you to anything legally or in any other way, so it's just a way of reinforcing that you should be sure you want the place before going through the scholarship route. People will, of course, not do this sometimes, (maybe if they move, or decide to go private) and the school has no recourse if they don't.

Also, depending on the LA, there might be a date for amendments which is after the initial deadline for submitting the CAF, whereby you can alter your preferences after you've applied. The LA should be able to tell you if they allow this. Does the scholarship school tell you when the results will be released?

I’m an admissions officer in a large secondary school in Wales and we do get to see preferences. It doesn’t make any difference to us as we operate an equal preference admissions system through the LA, the only thing that seeing the preference helps me with is my waiting list as it helps me see who has been allocated as non 1st choice and may appeal and win freeing up a space for someone from our waiting list. Years of experience means I can usually tell by the primary school and address where their 1st choice is and the likelyhood of them getting a place at their 1st choice. We don’t have scholarships and have never had more than 20 on our waiting list but we have noticed a trend this year for some parents choosing private education and other families moving to cheaper housing areas or returning to their home country.