Secondary school application in kent

[Runningmummyof3]

Hello. I don't know if anyone can help. We have submitted our secondary school application for my daughter to start in Sept this year. The school choices get sent out in March. However, we are due to move house and should exchange contracts by the end of Jan/start of Feb. My question is do I need to inform KCC that we will be at a different address to when we submitted our preferences? The reason being is that we actually put our daughters preferred school as second choice because it was slightly out of catchment for our current address and she didn't want to risk not getting 1st or 2nd choice schools. However, we will be moving closer to her preferred school now so not really sure what to do. It's too late to change our choices and I don't want her to be on a waiting list.
Thanks in advance for any advice

Email them. From their website:

Secondary school applications for Kent residents closed on Monday 1 November 2021.

We process applications between 2 November 2021 and 28 February 2022.

If you have not applied and are a Kent resident please contact [email protected] with your child’s name, date of birth, full address and current school. We will then advise you of the next steps.

If you have applied but your circumstances have changed and you need to amend your application please also email us so we can assist you.

It is too late for Kent to use your new address. The deadline for that was 10th December. You don't want Kent to treat you as a late application so you should inform them of your change of address but tell them that you want them to use your original address for admissions purposes for the initial round of allocations and your new address for correspondence.

I'm not clear why you named your preferred school as second choice. Naming it as first choice would have made no difference to your chances of getting a place at your local school (which I presume is the one you have named as first choice). It is too late to do anything about that now. But it means that, even if Kent did use your new address (which they won't), you could still have missed out on a place at this school.

The reason for putting our preferred choice as second is because we are out of catchment and our second choice is heavily oversubscribed. If we had put our first choice as 1st preference and didn't get in due to distance, it highly likely that we wouldn't get 2nd choice either as it will have already been filled by applicants and we would then be offered a school we don't want. Sadly we've seen it happen before and didn't want to take that chance.

@Runningmummyof3

The reason for putting our preferred choice as second is because we are out of catchment and our second choice is heavily oversubscribed. If we had put our first choice as 1st preference and didn't get in due to distance, it highly likely that we wouldn't get 2nd choice either as it will have already been filled by applicants and we would then be offered a school we don't want. Sadly we've seen it happen before and didn't want to take that chance.

That's not how it works op. If you were eligible for a place at your second choice, you would be offered it wherever you put it. Someone else further away putting it higher on the form would not trump you.

The preference system is just that - you get a place at all.schools you qualify for and then they offer you the one you put highest. Tgats why people are always advised to put down their catchment school somewhere. I don't think I've explained that well and sadly it can't help you but it apmay help,others.

Yep @clary and @prh47bridge are correct- you have misunderstood how the preference system works OP. The equal preference system has been in place nationally for at least 10 years now, so 'gambling' by putting a school you prefer but may not get into first was not the reason people didn't get into their second choice.

Each school you list on your form is treated as an entirely separate application, regardless of whether it is first or last choice, and everyone who has listed a school is ordered according to the admissions criteria, with the preference number ignored. The only time your preference order matters is if more than one school is able to offer you a place, in which case you will be offered the one you put higher.

I'm going by the booklet I received from KCC that clearly gives examples of when places are rejected and we fit into those criteria. I also spoke with the schools and they advised them same. So if I've misunderstood so have the schools

@Runningmummyof3

I'm going by the booklet I received from KCC that clearly gives examples of when places are rejected and we fit into those criteria. I also spoke with the schools and they advised them same. So if I've misunderstood so have the schools

The examples here? www.kent.gov.uk/_data/assets/pdffile/0005/125456/secondary-admissions-book-2022.pdf

I can't see any where it says someone has been rejected for not putting a school first, or those that listed it higher had been prioritised. It says that those who lived nearer or gained a higher score in the test had been prioritised, yes, but that's not related to preference order. Honestly OP, what we are saying is most definitely 100% correct, @prh47bridge is an admissions expert and really knows their stuff. Schools most definitely do not prioritise people for putting them first, and haven't for many years now.

Thank you, however it really doesn't matter now. My question was do I need to advise if our address change? My daughter likes both grammar schools equally and there really wasn't much in it. I just need to know if it will make a difference now we've moved but I think I get the picture now

If you make a change to your application it will be treated the same as a late application.

Late applications are assessed after all the people who applied on-time have had places allocated so you will only get assigned an undersubscribed school.

So leave your application as it is. They don't need your new address anyway. The correct address for your on-time application is the place you were living then, so that address should continue to be used. You can set up a redirect with royal mail if you are worried about postal communications.

There is a second round of applications after the initial places are allocated. You can put in a new application then using your new address and see if you get the other school. You may be lucky.

Perfect, just eat I needed to know. Thanks so much

@Runningmummyof3

I'm going by the booklet I received from KCC that clearly gives examples of when places are rejected and we fit into those criteria. I also spoke with the schools and they advised them same. So if I've misunderstood so have the schools

If it is the one on their website, the examples in Kent's booklet include one where a child misses out on his first preference as it is oversubscribed so gets a place at his second preference as he qualifies for a place there. He doesn't miss out through naming it second - that doesn't happen in any of the examples.

Some schools give poor advice, either because they don't understand the system or because they want to make sure the school is full by getting lots of people to name them as first preference. However, if they told you that you need to name them as first preference if you want a place, they were giving correct advice which you have misinterpreted. They don't mean you could miss out because other people named them as first preference. They mean you could miss out because you will get a place at your first preference. If a child qualifies for places at both first and second preferences, the parents will be offered the place at the first preference and the place at the second preference will be allocated to someone else.

Unfortunately, many parents get this wrong and do what you have done, thinking that places go to people naming the school as their first preference first and therefore they have to game the system. What this actually means is that, if your daughter qualifies for a place at your local school, that is what will be offered regardless of whether she would have got a place at her preferred school.

Unfortunately, it is too late to do anything about this now. If Kent allowed you to change the order of your preferences, they would treat you as a late applicant which means you would be unlikely to get a place at either school. You may strike it lucky and get what you want. If you don't, you can always appeal for your preferred school.

By the way, if your daughter is offered a place at your first preference, you will need to ask Kent to put her on the waiting list for the school she wants. It won't happen automatically.

I know this isn't what you want to hear and I'm sorry to be the bearer of bad tidings.

OK thanks for your help. I guess I just panicked because both 1st and 2nd choice schools are always heavily oversubscribed so thought we were being sensible not putting a school out of area 1st. There are not any other schools in the area that we would consider. Thanks again