School place allocation

[Thingsthatgo]

We live very close to 3 secondary school. They are all within half a mile of each other, and then all of the other secondary schools are over 3 miles away.
The school I would like for my DS is the furthest of the 3, but we are still well within the distance of the furthest place offered in previous years, after all of the other criteria ie siblings etc (We are .3km and it's usually .7 or .8km).
Will it count against us that we are closer to other schools?

No, that isn't how they allocate. If you qualify for your first choice based on admission criteria you get your first choice even if there are other schools closer.

No, put them in your order of preference. Each application will be considered on its merits with your dc ranked according to criteria among all the applications, then allocated the higher preference of those. So he could qualify for a place at all three but be allocated the furthest away one if you placed it higher.

You need to read the admissions criteria. Generally its something like LAC/ECHP, siblings distance but some areas have priority admission areas, or feeder schools or both.

If it is first on your form and you qualify for a place, you will get a space. They won't say 'oh but school X is even closer so you should go there'. It sounds like you should be fine for a place at your preferred school, assuming no massive changes in distances.

Though just to clarify, you don't actually get any advantage on getting in for putting a school first on your form. It is the law across England that the equal preference system has to be used, so each school on your form is effectively a separate application and the order only matters if more than one is able to offer you a place, in which case you will get the one you listed highest. If someone lives nearer than you (or meets the admissions criteria better in another way), they would get a place before you even if they listed it lower down their form than you. It doesn't work by schools looking at people who listed them first and going through offering places, then looking at those who listed them second, etc, no matter who tries to tell you that (unfortunately sometimes even people associated with the schools do).

So in summary, as others have said, list schools in your genuine order of preference, including somewhere at least one school where you can be fairly sure of getting a place

And also, do list the other schools near you as lower preferences if you would prefer them to home-educating/having to travel further. You don't reduce your chances of getting your first choice by filling up all of your preferences.

Fantastic, thank you all for your replies. Sounds like we stand a good chance!