I really don’t understand the secondary school admissions - please demystify this for me.

[CultureShockInTheSameCountryIsReal]

We moved house over the summer to London for work reasons. We came from a part of the country where almost everyone goes to their catchment school and for secondary we have 2 schools in town so you go to the one you are catchmented to on the map. Most people know the schools their children will go to before they are even born. I know in other parts of the country demand in places is higher but, over the summer, when we applied for a Y6/primary place I had my first education culture shock. I applied for the 6 closest schools and got none of them and offered a school for the kids miles away.

Anyways, fast forwarding, eldest one Y6 and I’ve been looking at admissions. I am so confused. I know I have to apply for 6 schools on genuine order of preference. I’m looking through the books and the find a school government website and half the schools on the website aren’t even in the book so are we allowed to apply for them? There’s these things called banding tests which apparently determine whether you get a place on ability - are these grammar schools? Can you only apply for them if you do a test? Most of the schools are faith schools which need either a feeder school or 2+ yeas or church attendance which we don’t, and never will, have. I don’t understand how to navigate this system. I am so lost. I just want my children to go to the local school but I cant find any catchment maps to say what our catchment is.

https://www.camden.gov.uk/secondary-school-admissions

This is the hardest bit I think! Admissions here are extremely complicated and borderline insane! I’m sure it’ll all make sense in the end though.

No school here is truly appalling by northern standards. My kids can go to any and still get a better education than they would back home so I’m not too fussy over things like results etc. I’m just trying to figure out how I know we will get a place - I’m lost without my catchment maps and guaranteed local school. 😭😆

I linked to Camden’s webpage upthread.

There are certainly “dead cert” schools in your general area. E.g. so far as I know, neither Marylebone Boys’ (single-sex, Westminster) nor Haverstock (co-ed, Camden) has been oversubscribed in any recent year.

They key thing is to understand is the furthest distance people got into each school to guess your chances. Good to look at a couple of years to see if it moves.

@Fluffycloudsfloatinginthesky how do I find the data for previous years? I’ve only quickly looked through Westminster and Brent booklets but they only mention admissions details for 2023.

@CultureShockInTheSameCountryIsReal my council publish it in an admissions booklet. Maybe see if you Google you can find the older one.

I think those distances are offer day though so it's possible reality is a little further out.

I have noticed it’s definitely a very big topic of conversation down here which I think in some parents can be taken to the extreme.
I’m not really buying into this competitive school, talk behind the back “bitchyness” (apologies, I couldn’t think of what else to describe it as). I don’t understand it and find it a totally foreign concept. People can choose what they want and I’ll chose what we want as far as I’m concerned.
I will be asking them about the admissions process though and any other information freely given will be stored in the memory banks for reference but not necessarily responded to (because I’m clueless so can’t actually comment anyways)

You can go onto the borough websites & see the furthest distance offer by school; some will be tiny.

What borough are you in?

For secondary they don't all need to go to the same school - it's quite common in London to pick different ones for each child.

Yes my siblings & I all went to different schools all of which were out of borough.

@KeepTheTempo

Good point about asking DS. He will be hearing about schools more than me probably so might actually be a bit more clued up than I am.

Start now by gathering all the information from your local council, find each school on a map, read the admission criteria for each school and make a list.

@endofthelinefinally this is great advice. I’ll have to get a map and borrow my child’s pencil case compass to make little circles and see which ones we land in.

@CatsOnTheChair good tip - time for some people watching, almost my favourite hobby so should be too hard. Finally found something in admissions that I might actually be able to understand.

Looking at the Westminster brochure, there are some faith schools where it is probably pointless applying unless you have either gone to church weekly for last 5 years and can back it up, or you live practically next door. If you're over 0.5 miles then don't risk wasting a space.

Some faith schools offered places to all applicants - which suggests they were not high up on anyone's list of preferences. You may like the school but worth asking why they are able to offer everyone who wants one a place.

Somebody commented upthread that you should consider whether a school has a sibling link, so that you don't have to go through all this again next time.

PLEASE do not interpret this as meaning that your younger DC will just be allocated a place at the same school, without you having to apply for it. I mean, hopefully you won't have done, but if I had 50p for every parent whose response to the question at their school appeal Why didn't you apply on time? is 'I didn't think I had to, because his / her sibling is already there'.... as the saying goes

So much variety! I’ve never thought about any of this before (because I’ve never had to).

I suppose, Co-Ed, non faith, local, comprehensive, all the DC in the same school but sensing this isn’t the done thing here. I really don’t mind in all honestly. If it’s a boys school than it’s boys but Co-Ed is preferable. If we end up with a faith school then that’s what we end up with. I’m mainly interested in local I’m not convinced commuting large distances for hours a day does anyone any good and having happy children who do well, enjoy school and get out of it what they need for their next steps is probably the most important thing.

I wouldn’t say either of them had a particular ability, DS interested in rugby and plays the piano and DD plays the piano (although I don’t think she’s that interested so will probably be giving up any day now)

DS is year 6.
I also have a DD in year 3.

This is really great to know. Thank you.

I would avoid faith schools in that case - they tend to be much more heavy on the religion in London that in places where they just happen to be the local school.

Just go for your closest decent co-ed comprehensive. If you have a view on liberal v draconian when it comes to discipline and rules then watch that. Harris has a reputation for being strict.

I'm on the opposite view point and targeted specific schools with specialisms for DD and she does a very long commute (but thinks it's worth it even after 4 years of early starts).

Like I said, I need to look into policies properly, but really appreciate what you’ve said and for the advice.

I think I need to make a list of all the schools and just go through crossing them out if we wouldn’t have got a place and see what we are left with.

Don’t worry, I am aware of this. Application paperwork might have been a formality in the past but know that each child needs a separate on time application.

@CultureShockInTheSameCountryIsReal don't forget that when looking at schools if they aren't walking distance check if your child can actually get there. Is the school on a bus/tube/train route? Would they be able to get one bus or would they have to change several times? Remember bus travel is free (with an Oyster Zip Card) but tube and train isn't so you have to account for paying for transport.
There's no point applying for a school that is impossible to actually get to.

Also with banded schools you have more chance of getting in if your child’s ability is above or below average

Here's what I did, albeit with a bit more time than you have. Decide how far you think is acceptable for your child to commute, if you are fairly central in London you no doubt have good transport connections and children criss-cross the city in all sorts of ways. Draw that on a map and see what boroughs it contains. Then go to each Borough website download the booklet and look at the list of schools. Decide your priorities: distance, co-ed, faith etc. Look at admissions criteria, if its your first child and no other extenuating circumstances then in the main last distance is going to be your main criteria but a number of schools have places for talented pupils in sports, art, music etc so if you think you have a shot at these you need to find out when entrance tests will be held.

After desk research the main thing is getting dates to view the schools, which will all be coming up fairly soon as deadlines for applications is end Oct

There's a lot of help yo be had here so do return if you want to ask local area specifics.

London does have catchments to an extent that if your top choices of schools are over subscribed then they will use the various checklist to decide who gets in and last of that is proximity. We missed out on all our DD choices as we moved house and she got a place at the closest school with vacancies.

seems like you’re looking at not just the local comps though so a different set of rules for public and grammar schools

@Needmorelego - how is bus travel free? Don’t you have to pay to top up the oyster?

@BettySundaes - extremely helpful. I followed this in my own little way and it has helped me create a short list.

Well my plans for naming the 6 closest schools soon went out the window. Last night I digested all of the information on this thread and today spoke to a few parents at the school gates. This afternoon, armed with all this information, the find/check a school website, Google maps and borough booklets I embarked on the first admissions trawl I have ever done and emerged 2 hours later with a short list. It’s thanks to you all that I managed it. I wouldn’t have managed without you. Thank you so much for everything so far.

@CultureShockInTheSameCountryIsReal if a child has the 11-16 Oyster Zip card buses are free and tube/train/DLR are discounted. The card costs £10 (I think) and is valid for the whole 5 years. It is for use by that child only and has a photo and their name.
If it's only used for buses you don't have to put any money on it at all.

This is what I did, you will obviously have your own priorities for sifting and sorting but hopefully how I approached it will help you in some way.

I went on the find and compare schools website, filtered for academies and maintained schools which were mixed or boys and wrote a list of every school in 3 miles and the distance it said it was from our address. It was a long list. I think there were more schools on it than the whole of the county we used to live in!
I then went through the appropriate admissions booklets (I figured out the find and compare website tells you which borough the schools are in) - that was an education, not just in admissions, but geography of London boroughs. I knew there must be some benefit of all of this.
Next I wrote down next to each school on the list the cut off distance in the distance category and whether a SIF or banding test was required. Any we were 0.5 miles out of cut off I crossed straight off (thanks @OhCrumbsWhereNow for this tip - I applied it to all schools in the end not just the faith schools)
I then tidied up/rewrote the list and went through it using Google maps to look at journeys. I assumed all the schools started at 0830 and wrote down the journey times. Anything over 30 min walk was looked at for busses and anything with more than one bus was straight away crossed off. I looked over the list and a couple were crossed off which were over 45 min bus journey. We’ve ended up with a list with the longest bus journey (door to door) being 38 minutes and the longest walk being 29 minutes. I would have expected DS to do a 35 minute walk to school (assuming no dawdling) at out old house so I think that’s a reasonable distance/time.