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.

@CultureShockInTheSameCountryIsReal from the Transport for London website.

@Needmorelego wow! This is amazing! How is this even possible? I’m actually shocked such a think like this exists! This doesn’t exist in other parts of the country. Thank you so much for sharing.

I’m going to share my list below because you will all know far more than me and might have some insight you would like to share.

• Marylebone boys
• Ark king Solomon
• Paddington academy
• Westminster academy
• St. George’s catholic
• St Augustine’s CE
• Harris Academy St. John’s Wood
• UCL academy
• Ark Burlington
• Westminster city boys

I have a few questions as well

• Firstly, do people think this is a sensible list? There’s nothing on there people are screaming ‘NO!’ at?
• Ark king Solomon is a don’t apply on the CAF. That’s fine, I can apply separately, but does this me an you only get 5 schools or still 6? (sorry, that’s probably a daft question)
• Paddington academy and St. George’s we were really close to the cut off. Live 0.61 miles away and cut off was 0.63/ live 0.78 and cut off 0.82. I read that this years admissions was a low birth year and haven’t managed to track down previous admissions yet. Is naming 2 schools with really close cut offs ok or should we stick to one?
• Harris St. John’s Wood, it’s been mentioned Harris academies are a bit draconian and I seen a thread somewhere about this which I will go and read. Is anyone able to shed some more light on the Harris academies though please?
• It’s been mentioned londons religious/faith schools are quite religious/take it seriously. I know St. George’s and st Augustine’s select on religion but also Paddington academy and Westminster city boys have a Christian ethos. Is this more ‘light touch’ than the schools that select on religion or about the same?

@CultureShockInTheSameCountryIsReal there were plans to stop the free buses but thankfully there was a petition against it.

@CultureShockInTheSameCountryIsReal as a "newcomer" to London (17 years now 😂) I think public transport in London is actually fantastic and reasonably priced.

• Marylebone boys

All applicants offered a place here P8 - 0.09 A8 - 53.3 5+ E&M: 63% Ofsted: Good (2022)

• Ark king Solomon

This is an all-though school from age 4 to 18, so you could potentially try and move your DD there straight away if your DS goes as they have siblings as priority criteria 3. They have a high Progress 8 score P8 - 1.24 A8 - 61 5+ E&M: 83% Ofsted: Outstanding but 2013

• Paddington academy

This looks good P8 - 0.96 A8 - 59.8 5+ E&M: 71% Ofsted: Outstanding (2023)

• Westminster academy

This looks good, but it does IB not A level for 6th form so that may be something to consider. Would have been a hard no for me as my DD is not an all rounder, but if your child is then well worth considering. This looks good P8 - 0.43 A8 - 55.4 5+ E&M: 65% Ofsted: Outstanding but 2013

• St. George’s catholic

Only took 11 students out of 180 who didn't have paperwork from a priest. It will be very Catholic P8 - 0.59 A8 - 60.2 5+ E&M: 67% Ofsted: Outstanding but 2014

• St Augustine’s CE

Took everyone who applied - but non-religious is criteria 14 on the list so suspect religion is a big thing. Banding Test P8 - -0.17 A8 - 50.9 5+ E&M: 56% Ofsted: Good (2023)

• Harris Academy St. John’s Wood

P8 - 0.82 A8 - 55.9 5+ E&M: 63% Ofsted: Good (2019)

• UCL academy

P8 - 0.24 A8 - 52.4 5+ E&M: 60% Ofsted: Requires Improvement (2022)

• Ark Burlington

P8 - -0.10 A8 - 49.7 5+ E&M: 50% Ofsted: Good (2022)

• Westminster city boys

All applicants offered a place. Banding Test needed P8 - 0.03 A8 - 53.1 5+ E&M: 59% Ofsted: Good (2022)

You could potentially add Pimlico Academy - they offered 86 places on distance with last distance 2.09 miles.
P8 - 0.54
A8 - 55.2
5+ E&M: 58%
Ofsted: Good (2021)

Based on those, I'd be booking visits to:
Ark King Solomon
Marylebone Boys
Paddington Academy
Harris St John's Wood
Westminster Academy
and if I was up for dealing with religion then St George's.

I would ditch the others unless one was literally round the corner and would do as a banker.

Visiting is REALLY vital. Schools I loved on paper I really hated in person and vice versa.

One thing to mention work out when the open days are as some get over subscribed and some dates will clash if in different boroughs. Visiting the schools in a real priority I changed my mind viewing some - also try and go for visits by the means of transport your dc would use 😊

Good luck

@Needmorelego London transport is probably one of my first London culture shocks. I hadn’t seen a public bus in about 20 years never mind trains and tubes😂
But It’s absolutely amazing! I mean, there’s actually public transport that’s cheep and reliable. Although cashless and oyster completely threw me. I’ll never forget the first time I used a bus and tried to use cash…..
Love it though!

@OhCrumbsWhereNow thats absolutely fantastic. Thank you. I really appreciate the effort you have put into help.

We are 3.1 from Pimlico so that’s probably a no. Ive had a look at the website though and I will take a more in-depth look. Plus it might be one we can add into the list now I think I’ll only end up with 4 schools on it so worth considering.

I have no opinion on IB vs A levels, but lots of people move for college/sixth form so I’m not seeing this as a big problem. That said, I should probably look into what the IB is and what it’s all about.

I’ll go see Ark King Solomon. This seems like a free 7th choice from what I’ve worked out. I think both kids are already on the waiting list for this one for the primary section.

I think I’ll cross UCL academy off because there are better closer schools. I think I could get rid of Ark Burlington purely on the 38 minute bus journey.
I’m not really up for dealing with full on religion so I might cross St. George’s, St Augustine’s and Westminster City off the list because all select on religion. I’m going to have a search of their websites first though.

If I did that I would end up with only 4 schools on the CAF
Marylebone, Paddington, Westminster academy and Harris St. John’s Wood. Our ‘banker’ I think is included in that list and I’ll go see all of them.
From reading a few threads and the main advice is to fill all the spaces I might have to be a bit more open to religion and include 2 of those or add Ark Burlington back on the list and only one religious school.
Haverstock has also been mentioned which I haven’t looked into, although I’ve crossed it off my original long list for some reason, and yesterday Regent High and Phoenix Academy were mentioned. Although my original list had Regent High crossed off because of cut off distance so probably not and Phoenix would be a 59 minute bus journey.
Hmmmm….. and I thought getting my head around the admissions system was hard, this might be harder!

I think the next thing I need to do is work out how to apply/register for banding tests but I think this is covered in the booklets so I can figure that out. I also need to book some open days. Ive looked at websites but I haven’t looked properly/ in depth yet so I should probably do that. I have no reference to secondary schools other than 2 northern comprehensives. Are there things London specific which I need to look out for?

If I remember correctly, the banding tests are all after the CAF is submitted, so the schools will send you details of the available date/dates.

Pre CAF you only need to watch for application dates if you are applying for aptitude places (a lot closed yesterday) as they like to get the results back to you before the closing date for the CAF.

Details of open days/evenings are all listed on the Westminster Council brochure (coloured column on right hand side of each school info page) and normally you just turn up, you don't have to registered.

In terms of London specific - really check the journey times. It's far better to have one long bus or tube than 2 or 3 shorter ones with changes. Also check if there are multiple routes to get there and back in case tube is down or buses go wrong.

Agree 6th form is a not a major factor - basically IB you carry on doing maths/MFL/English etc rather than narrowing to a specific subject set. Suits some kids really well if they are all rounders, but hell if you loathe humanities and just want to focus on maths (or vice versa).

Gut feeling on schools is really important - more so than the Ofsted rating. Know where your child sits and how that cohort fare at each school (if they're aiming for top grades and there isn't a cohort getting that then you have a problem, but if they're likely to be around middle/lower middle and the percentage getting 5+ in Eng/Maths is low then you probably also have a problem).

Also personality counts. I love DD's secondary, but she's a very assertive, confident kid who knows what she wants and isn't shy about asking for it. She's an ideal fit for them. If I had a very shy child it would probably be a disaster. So ignore all the glossy PR spin at the open days and focus on whether you can see your child being happy there and fitting in.

Regent High doesn’t have a good local reputation, but I don’t have direct knowledge of it. I wouldn’t include anything with an hour’s bus journey.

Personally I think it would be a mistake to cross schools off which talk of a Christian ethos - or at least a mistake to infer that that would necessarily mean they ram religion down your throat. The diverse demographics of the likely intake of some of these schools will mean that often the Christian ethos means roughly “be kind” while the children learn just as much about their classmates’ Muslim, Hindu, Jewish and other traditions. Certainly at my DCs’ “Christian ethos” schools elsewhere in London anyone who is actually Christian is in a minority.

@OhCrumbsWhereNow I think based on how quickly I’ve had to figure everything out and the little time we have to sort anything we will just be going for places based on distance and will do the banding tests if they are needed for a school we name.
I’d already decided journeys were either walk or one bus/tube (although we don’t seem to have any tube journeys on the list). Everything else was crossed off, but good to hear I wasn’t being too brutal with my discarding schools.
Thanks for all the other tips, I will certainly be keeping all of those in mind.

@Marisquita Thank you for that insight. Based on that I’ll keep the 3 select on religion schools on the list, we were in cut off for distance for all of them which is why they made the short list, and stick with what I originally picked out rather than looking further afield for more. That gives us a potential 7 to choose 6 from that we can put on the CAF then there’s Ark King Solomon so 8 to investigate and visit.

Next questions are: which is better - open evening or open morning? Are you allowed to take your child out of school for an open morning?

I did lots of open mornings on my own and then took DH and DD to the open evenings of the ones I liked.

That way I didn't end up with DD falling in love with a school based on them having chips for lunch in the canteen or something else that was not a priority.

I only took her out of school for things like banding tests or aptitude tests, but I know when I did the sign out book that there were LOADS of entries for Y6 on 'school open day' visits - so it seemed to be deemed reasonable. Primary ran lots of parent sessions on how to pick the school, what the local ones in the area were and how to fill in the forms etc.

Good luck with it all! You seem to be going about it all the right way. (I've also had lots of fun having a look through the brochures again... fun and games start for me again this year with starting to think of 6th form choices 😱)

In my limited non-London experience, Open Evenings are the shiny rah-rah wow the kids. (Make some art! See fire in the labs!)

Open Mornings are school in session so you get a bit more of a look at how the school feels during the day. (But it will still be "managed" i.e. extra hands on deck so that problematic truants aren't seen.)

The locrating website posted by a PP upthread is your friend OP. It gives a visual map of all the local secondaries and shows circles of the distance of the furthest place offered last year. It's so clear and easy to use and was a godsend for me in primary and secondary admissions.

For faith schools, it's worth asking around on local forums if you need to be of that faith to get in. I teach in a Catholic school in outer London and, although we get great results, you don't have to be Catholic or even Christian to get in as all the local Catholic parents want to get their kids into the Grammar Schools instead. and also don't like that most of our students are black.

Can anyone explain the thing about it being important to put down a school you can definitely get an offer at, even if you don't like it?

Because at least it's close. If you put down 6 options you don't qualify for, you'll get whatever's left with space at the end. In London, where good schools are often oversubscribed, that could mean a Needs Improvement school a few miles away away, instead of a 'just not great' school that's 15 mins walk from your door.

@Pinkglobelamp because it's better to have a place at a school you might not like so much but is a ten minute walk away vs a random one you get allocated on the other side of your borough that takes over an hour to get to by 3 buses.

Don't you then risk just being allocated to that school, if it's close and you put it as a choice?
Is the idea to put it e.g. 5th or 6th, so you are considered for schools you prefer, but if you don't get them you still get somewhere nearby?

Yep, you put the ‘backup’ one last on your list.

@Pinkglobelamp yes put it as choice 6. If you don't get 1-5 and haven't put your nearest school as 6 those who did put School 6 on their list will take priority over those who didn't - even if you live closer.
You could end up with random school you've never heard of possibly on the other side of the borough.
Always put your nearest school down that you would qualify for because after the usual admissions things like siblings, sen, looked after children etc it mostly comes down to distance from school.

If I did that I would end up with only 4 schools on the CAF

If you have more slots on your CAF (?6 in London), then for the same reasons given by others re making sure one of your options is a 'banker', it is a much better idea to use them all up (but obviously not with 6 schools which your DC doesn't have a feline in Hades' chance of getting into).

Great, thanks. My nearest is a Catholic one (we're not) so maybe second nearest too...
It's so complicated, even for long-time Londoners! I can imagine it must have looked bewildering to OP at first.

@Pinkglobelamp yes if the Catholic school gives priority to practicing catholic children and rarely has extra places for non catholic children don't include that one. Basically your nearest that you would qualify for - even if you don't particularly like it.