Secondary school application - does the top choices affect your chances of getting the lower choices?

[Physical100]

Hi,

If I put two schools as my first and second choice which I am unlikely to get would it affect the chances on my third choice?

1 and 2 are out of catchment but local kids still get in sometimes. Third choice is in catchment but is also regularly over subscribed. Would the fact that I have put that school as 3rd choice affect my chances against others that have put it as 1st choice (if my 1st and 2nd choice was not available for me)

Hope that makes some sense :-)

Thanks

In a word, no.
Every application for every school is ranked according to the published admissions criteria and then if you are eligible for more than one you are offered the one that was higher up your preference list.

No it would not.

List your schools in genuine order if preference. If you put your local school last on your list, you would still (if no place available at your higher preferences) leapfrog someone further away who put it first.

No it won't affect it. This is exactly what you SHOULD do. List your schools in genuine preference order but have at least one 'banker' I.e. a school you are almost certain of getting a place at.

I thought that would be exactly what would happen.

The applications are processed against the admissions criteria and then based on which school offers you a place, you'll get the highest preference they can offer.

It's why it's strongly recommended to put a local school down that you'd be guaranteed a place at. Sometimes people fill their list with schools they are unlikely to get a place at and then complain when what they're given is any school in the area that has a space

Probably best not to advise then if you have no idea. This is really important stuff and people commenting stuff that isn’t true is unhelpful.

I did a fair bit of reading up on this last year when applying and my understanding (in England) is:-

Each application on your form is treated (by the computer system that sorts this) as an independent application for that school without preference. The algorithm sifts through every single application (for most people this is three per student) and allocates. It does this over and over trying to get every student a school on its list.

It's possible the system will see "accept" for one, two or even three of your choices. Then, once everyone has been sifted, the preference kicks in, and you will be given the highest acceptance on your list.

So put your genuine preference first.

Dds letter came home with each of the three schools listed with sorting similar to this:-
School a - place offered
School b - offer discarded in favour of preferred school
School c - offer discarded in favour of preferred school

So we took that to mean she was allocated places at all but obviously the end result is they only keep the highest offer.

If your third is not a sure bet I would take out one of your long shot choices and put a guaranteed one in.

@Thelondonone I'm not advising I'm saying what I thought.

But the OP isn't asking what people think happens, she's asking what does happen.

If you don't know how can you say?

It’s not really the thread for opinions though, the op needs facts, which thankfully, other people have given. It’s like me commenting on a thread on best boliers (i know nothing. Anyway I’ve derailed the thread enough.

I didn't think I did say. I said I thought.

In case you want confirmation your local authority should have a section on the equal preferences system on their website under admissions.

Put the one you want most as 1, the next best 2, the next 3 - because you'll only have a place at the one that's your highest preference on offers day.

You don't want to be upset you've been given the place at your 1st choice because you really wanted the one you put down as 3rd.

No. Equal preference system

is this bitchnet or mumsnet? I don't see anything wrong with what benoticanarsed posted, and it definitely wasn't misleading. She should be free to express herself smh

Thanks for the info on here anyway, it has provided clarity on the process for me😊

Typically I'd agree with you, but the OP seems to be actually asking for facts. Not opinions.

There's a time and a place for opinion.

It's like someone asking "how do I drive a car?" and someone else who doesn't driving coming along and saying "well, you do X, Y and Z" when in fact, the process is A, B and C. That poster advising X,Y and Z isn't actually giving a proper answer to the question and is coming from a place with zero knowledge on what actually has to happen to make the car move. And in fact, if that was the sole piece of advice on the thread, could cause more issues as its just incorrect and could make the OP make a wrong move.