Secondary applications open today (england/state), what's your approach?

[BernadetteRostankowskiWolowitz]

1. Already know which one you want, add in a couple of token alternatives under it

1. Wait to visit them all and decide then

1. List them in order of distance to you / liklihood of getting in and hope for the best

1. Something else

1

Waiting on some open evenings - we live next to an outstanding high flying academy but I've never heard a good word about them for the kids who aren't high fliers, socially don't quite fit in or have SEN... while everyone else is fighting to get their kids IN there - I'm desperate to keep mine OUT - I think DD1 who we apply for this year will academically fly there and socially flounder completely, and DD2 would be lost completely.

A combination of what you've put.

• Visit them.

• Put your choices in order of preference.

• Make sure you put several choices and include some realistic choices that are your closest schools.

If you just put 1 or 2 choices and don't get them you'll just be dished out whatever places are left over which probably won't be great.

We went for the nearest only 15 min from home. I was a bus kid and spent over an hour travelling each way to school and hated, it really pleased to move to a town and have everything on the doorstep.

There's no benefit in applying early so, unless you're already sure about your preferences, visit the local secondaries if you can. Obviously, make sure you apply before the deadline though!

Find out how many options you have - 3? 5? 6? You don't have to use all the slots as long as you make sure that one of the schools on the list is an absolute banker - your child is certain (or as certain as you can reasonably be) to get a place at that school.

Once you have your list of schools, put them on the list in your genuine order of preference. This is really important. Any school or person that says you should name them at the top of the list to have a better chance of getting in is misleading you: you will be offered a place at the school highest up your list for which you meet the criteria.

If the only school your child is guaranteed a place at is one you dislike, you should still put it on your list, but at the bottom. It is much better to be offered a school you dislike that is very local and convenient, than to leave it off the list and find your child being offered another school that you also dislike but that is miles away with a very awkward commute.

Last year we did 4. We were buying a house, chose our favourite school and bought in the catchment are. The buying was done 6 months before the deadline. With Covid, it was chosen from online open evenings.

Its a bit of an extreme approach though! (To add... this is catchment as in a fixed area, not just nearest distance. Usually all children within the catchment get a place, as do some outside it.)

Your first step is to work out which schools you reasonably have a chance of getting into. There is no point visiting a load of schools you have no or a very slight possibility of getting a place at.

Do not do your option 3. There is no point in writing the schools in anything other than your order of preference. Make sure you include at least one school you have a good chance of getting into.

My approach was to visit my catchment school and second closest school (only 2 schools I had any vague chance of getting into other than ones I knew I didn't want). And then put them in order of preference I was in the happy position of knowing a place at my catchment school was definite (barring odd statistical anomaly), otherwise you should use all your preferences. For my second child I only put one school for the same reason.

To look at the OP's list, numbers 1 and 3 are not a good idea.

1. • it's good to know which school you want, but unless your child is guaranteed to be offered a place at that school, you should research the alternatives properly and put them down in your order of preference, including a 'banker' school. Picking 'token' alternatives is very risky.
2. • listing in order of distance or likelihood of getting in means that you are more likely to get the first school on your list, but that is only a good idea if it's your favourite school! You should, instead, list them in your genuine order of preference.

We did a sort of mixture.

We looked at all the schools within a certain radius of our house, and looked at the council’s data from the previous year to get an idea of how likely my DC was to get in.

I also rang the council to check which our nearest school was as my council’s distance categories go on shortest walking distance and I was struggling to work that out myself.

So from that we had a shortlist, went to open evenings etc to work out which ones were most likely to suit our DC, and then decided which ones to put on our form.

And on our final list, we made sure to include a school that, based on previous years admissions, we were very likely to be offered a place at.

We get three choices so I'm putting:

1. School we want and where DD attends but nobody from our primary has got into it for 4yrs.

1. School which I don't particularly like but would be the best of the remaining bunch. DS unlikely to get in as it's oversubscribed.

1. Catchment school.

We will be offered number 3 but will appeal and hope that we will be given 1 instead.

DS1: visit the ones we were in priority zone for and were prepared to send DS to(ie 3 of the 4 identified by the council).

Reject one, let DS2 choose which order the other 2 went in. Put rejected one third. Put out of priority, but decent reputation, 4th.

DS2: see if he had a preference. Go to open day of brothers school. Check he didn't want to go to any other schools, and used same order as DS1.

We live rurally, there’s Only 1 choice for us and we live 200m from it so that’s that. Luckily it’s a good school! I always find it interesting how much choice there is elsewhere and how much angst it leads to and wonder if it would be better to remove all choice and you just go wherever you’re in catchment for.

We are applying for dd2 this year. I'm inclined to just put down dd1's school as we will have the sibling link. Dh says we should add a couple more schools in, just in case! We are in a London Borough so have 6 choices. What did others or would they do in this case?

I would always recommend using all your choices. Every year, some parents put down just one school because they are certain they will get a place. Then they find it is a freak year with way more siblings than normal (for example) and they miss out, ending up with a school they really hate. There is a good chance your daughter will get a place at your older daughter's school, but I'm with your husband. Put down some others just in case.

My personal strategy was getting them in to a feeder primary for a decent secondary. It is pretty much the only way to get in from where we live and the alternative is a school we don't want at all, but which is undersubscribed so we would be allocated should all else fail.

Strategy has worked twice so far, just 1 left to go in this round of applications.

We will visit the 3 main schools and let dc out them in whatever order they want. Chances of getting in to school A is tiny like pigs flying tiny. School B is not unheard of but not in recent years as has become very popular and we live too far out. School C is the one their primary feeds in to and where siblings go. The most likely outcome is the one their siblings go to and that is fine with us.

OK. We will make sure to include our closest school as well then 👍

Visit any schools your child might realistically end up at. If the one you want is undersubscribed that should be enough. If there is any chance they'll be allocated to the school from hell 5 miles up the road, visit that too so at least you've seen it. And your gut instinct - what the schools actually feel like - is very important.

Make sure that there is at least one realistic option somewhere on the list or, as other posters have said, you might find you get somewhere unthinkable.

Did this last year. Didn't visit every school we might be able to get into as we're in London and there were a lot (not great reputations so undersubscribed). We thought about what we wanted in a school (non faith, walkable or single bus journey). Visited a few schools that fit that bill. Put them on the list in order preference, making sure we had at least one that was pretty much a dead cert for entry.

Our first choice was one that was a bit of a long shot. I made sure DC knew this to try and avoid disappointment on offer day. Whatever you do please make sure you've prepared your child for the fact they may not get first choice if you are going for one that is uncertain. Make sure you talk about all the good things about your lower down choices. We didn't get first or second choice and if we hadn't prepared for that I think it would have been awful.

We did get a place at first choice via the waiting list in the end so I'd say it is worth taking a punt. But just be realistic about your chances with your DC.

Also London, our forms are already open though - since 1 September I think. We will put a few schools we would like dd to go to at the top but know we have only a tiny chance, then 4 - 6 will be schools that we like and are more realistic in genuine order of preference - we have a banker that is fine and will be school 4 or 5, DD fully understands and accepts that is the school she is likely to go to. She would probably put it nearer the top of the list, because some / a lot of kids she knows will go there.

We could list 3 preferences that we could list on the application form. We lived in largish city (not London).
We made a list of all the schools that there was a chance dd could be offered a place at. this gave 8 possible schools. We ruled out some where the chances of a place were too small or that we definitely didn't want.
This left 5 schools that we visited and then narrowed down to 3.
We double-checked that we met the entry criteria for all the schools.
Final (3rd preference) as a good, but under subscribed, school in neighbouring LEA.
First preference was closer to our house than the catchment school, but had additional entry criteria than we met.
Second preference was a school that we really liked the feel of when we visited it.
So a mixture of the above to be honest.
We obtained first preference.

Wish MN had an edit button.
Post should read "first preference had additional entry criteria that we met".

If you are new to this please remember

List your schools in order of preference.

Even if your first choice is a long shot.
The system means you get equal preference. So if you don't get a place at your first choice, your second choice becomes your first choice and you are considered alongside those who put it first (the computer system doesn't quite work like that but that is the effect)

Remember that if you choose 3 schools that are unlikely and don't get a plac ein any of them, you will NOT get given a place in your nearest school, but in the nearest one that has places, which may be miles away.

Only putting one school, or putting long explanations as to why you need this school will make not one bit of difference. It is a computer processed system that gives the places out according to the criteria listed.

We have three places on our form.

For DC1 - visited our two “guaranteed a place” schools, we loved one and really disliked the other (complete opposite to what we had expected). Put in first and last place on form respectively.

Considered two other nearby schools, where a place was possible.

Ruled out one for being single sex.

Looked round the other, liked it despite transport being more difficult than all the others, and so put it in second place on the form.

Got a place at first choice school.

For DC2 - again suggested applying to single sex school, dc2 didn’t want to either.

Put the same schools in same order as on DC1’s form but only went to look round first choice, as DC2 was set on it, and as a sibling was absolutely guaranteed a place.

All this is behind me now thankfully but for what it's worth my advice is

1. do your research - look at all the possibilities because things change, different schools suit different kids and Ofsted reports and even longstanding reputations can be misleading if looked at in isolation. Also research previous years admissions so you get a rough idea of how likely you are to get a place, but remember that things can and do change, especially if there's lots of new housing going up in the vicinity of a particular school.
2. Follow the instructions - every year you read on here about people who miss out because they forgot to include something. It does vary a bit from place to place so make sure if any supplementary forms are required you've done it all right.
3. Be realistic. No point in using all your preferences on schools where nobody who lives more than 100m away has been admitted in the last decade if you live 3 miles away. Make sure you include at least one school that is acceptable and probable even if not your top preference.
4. Don't try to game the system. You can't. The published criteria will be adhered to. Putting only one school, putting the same one multiple times or any other "trick" won't work. If your child is eligible for a place at that school they'll get it. If they aren't, they won't, and if you haven't expressed other preferences they'll be allocated wherever is left over when everyone else is placed. Basically, look at all your options thoroughly and follow the process correctly and honestly.

Don't pick based on what friends may (or may not) be putting.

I am just about to do my 3rd (and final) application. With dc1, the primary school that she went to had a split secondary catchment / admission zone with a 3rd umbrella catchment school, so it was always going to be that she would be split from her friends. Out of the 7 schools in the area we looked at 4 - two were too far away and the last was the Catholic School. We then looked at the one in the next LEA.
Her order was: 1) Outside admission zone but favourite school. 2) Different LEA but a perfectly acceptable choice. 3) My banker as rather a school I hated on the doorstep (my admission zone school) then another one miles away. None of her friends went to her 1st choice school, but she has just left and it was absolutely the right choice.

DC2 - by then we had moved near to DC1's school, but he remained at the same primary school. We put admission zone school down as choice 1 and number 3 from last time. There was an absolute nightmare of admissions that year with nearly 100 children not getting any school place at all (this was eventually resolved). Of the children I know who didn't get a place none of them had put down a banker, obviously there still would have been issues but it was a very harsh lesson.

So now we come to dc3, new primary school. This is within the one catchment plus the umbrella catchment school, though there are a few outliers from outside the primary school catchment area which fall into another school. I think we will just put the one school, she doesn't want to visit any other school. Her sibling is still in the school and we can see the school entrance from her bedroom window. There isn't 294 children living closer than us.

I did some number looking today - for dc1 118 children outside the admission zone were offered a place, for this September that had dropped to 28. (So within 5 years)

For the majority what I did the first time round is generally the recommendation - visit as many as you can / want to and then slim it down to your choices. Only do what I am doing this time if you are absolutely certain of a place.

Good luck everyone.