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.

Note to self - remind DC to either answer every question perfectly or forget how to spell their own name…..

(I’m joking of course)

Thanks @OhCrumbsWhereNow. and thank you for the luck. I am feeling a lot happier now than the other day and a lot more confident in how it all works.
Glad you’ve enjoyed having a look at all this, the other day I would have said that it was mad that you could enjoy this, but I’m actually quite getting into it and it’s got a bit of enjoyment/satisfaction about it.
Good luck with choosing sixth form!

It looked an absolute nightmare! I had never seen anything so complicated. However, there is a lot of support and advice in this thread which I have followed and it’s made things a lot clearer and helped me work through things to create a short list. If you have a read of it all, hopefully it will help you figure it all out too. Good luck, and please keep asking the questions because you are asking ones I hadn’t even thought of.

Not related to schools, but get both your kids Zip cards, little ones don’t need them for the bus but I think under 11’s might be free on the tube with one and reduced train prices.

once you receive them, take a photo of them so you have the numbers for when they invariably lose them.

Yes as @AuditAngel says you can get the Oyster 5-10 Zip card which means children travel free on trains within the London Zones. This is very useful in South London where it's mainline trains (Southern, South West Trains, Southeastern Trains etc) rather than the tube.

Don't think train is completely free for 5-10, think there is a small charge.

@Fluffycloudsfloatinginthesky no train is definitely free for 5 -10 year olds with the 5-10 Zip Card. My daughter's card was used at least 4 times weekly between the ages of 5 and 10 - often more. All free !
We are in that area of South London with no tube. Southern Trains are our "tube". She has the 11-15 card now where we do have to pay but despite the blurb saying "half price fares" it's usually much cheaper. I think it's 85p one way from our Zone 3 station to Victoria but the adult version is £2 or £3 something.
(off peak fares ......)

• 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

@OhCrumbsWhereNow St Augustine is a very diverse school both ethnically and in terms of religion, and usually (from memory going back a few years) admits a minority of it's pupils under church attendance criteria. I'm not sure how "religious" it is in ethos, but would imagine it is less so, reflecting it's pupil population. Something for the OP to try and evaluate from an open evening or local parents who know the school I guess. I know of two families who have sent kids there in recent years, one non-religious and one Catholic, and both have been happy in general with the school I think.

OP, I'm not quite sure where you are ?Maida Vale-ish?, but Marylebone Boys and Harris SJW would both be "bankers" I think for you (maybe St Augustine as well if you are including faith schools), so you have room for some non-banker schools. Also, you are correct about Ark King Solomon being an extra 7th choice outside of e-admissions, so certainly worth applying to as well.
You mentioned that your son is at a Brent primary so it is worth noting that, just to confuse you even more (!), some Brent secondaries (including Queens Park Community School for example) give most of their places to children attending named feeder primaries, with distance as a tie-breaker cut off. So might be worth double checking whether he would fall into one of those categories for Brent schools.
Also bear in mind that there is usually a lot of movement after offer day for large London state schools. This means that people can get offered places from waiting lists quite quickly and that the distances offered can, depending on the school, expand a lot further than the quoted numbers you are seeing on the various LA websites (which usually show the furthest distance offered on March 1st).
Good luck!

@BananaDaiquiri thank you for that insight. Very reassuring. We are going to have a look at St Augustine’s. (And the others I’ve picked out on the short list). I had a really good look at St Augustine’s website and liked the general what I was reading, but agree, a visit will tell us so much more.

Yes, Marylebone is probably our ‘banker’ (we are Maida Vale/Paddington border) and I seem to get a good feeling off the website and from another thread on MN at the minute. Again, another one to visit.

Thank for the tip about Brent schools. I will dig that admissions brochure out again and check the feeder primaries because there are a couple on my short list I am umming and arring about for various reasons, one is Harris St. John’s Wood as I’m not hearing good things about Harris academies, but that might be just talk and seeing the place will be so much different. But might be good to have a quick look at something else/brent schools just to cross reference even if we don’t go and see them. Or we might see one of the Brent ones and know one off the current short list, regardless, I’ll be having another look.

@CultureShockInTheSameCountryIsReal I'm really intrigued as to where you used to live! I'm assuming somewhere like Cumbria or Northumberland?

I'm not in London and feeling thankful about that as DS is year 6 but we have other issues such as physically getting to school due to rubbish public transport albeit I am in a major city. Urgh. It's all rather stressful.

If your child goes to Brent primary, definitely check if it is a feeder for Queen’s Park community college. I know kids that go there and like it. I have also heard good things about Paddington academy but we are too far away.

Out of your others, St George’s is very strict and very Catholic. I knew Harris Academy before it was taken over and perhaps unfairly, would have not considered it for that. I liked Marylebone boys and it was 3rd on our list (I would have put it as second).

It can be worth putting a school down that you really like, even if chances are slim as you will be put on the waiting list. Also some schools might have art or music aptitude places as well. I applied for a few of those with my DS. Also look at tube routes - a few stops can be much quicker than the bus in rush hour.

Oh and definitely do open mornings rather than open evenings. The mornings give you the vibe of the school. That was a really important thing for me.