Wilson vs Tiffin - CAF

[kamayani]

Hi All,
Need some advice, please.
My son has cleared Sutton Stage 2 and Tiffin Stage 1.
Our top choices are either Wilson or Tiffin. Between these, we prefer Wilson because of its music program but the distance is more than Tiffin's ( we live in Wimbledon).
If we put Wilson as the first preference in the CAF and Tiffin as the second - because we are further away from Wilson - will it impact the allocation?
We want to avoid a situation where we don't get Wilson because it was far and we don't get Tiffin because it was listed as a second preference.

Any advice will be most helpful.

No, absolutely not. ALWAYS put the schools in your genuine order of preference! Schools do not know the order you listed them in.

As @DurhamNatSci says above.

And Wilson is so much better than Tiffin Boys

The only reason you won't get Tiffin 'because you put it second' is if you get the school you ranked first.

Of course, you may get neither, but that will be because your DS wasn't high enough up on either school's ranked list of applicants to be offered a place.

Thank you so much! This has been most helpful!
We also got the Wandsworth test results and he is off by a few marks based on previous year cut-offs.
So now we have another quandary - Sutton above Graveney or the other way round.
While we visited Graveney and really quite liked it, we couldn't visit Sutton so have no clue about the school except what other parents have said.

@kamayani my ds went to Sutton and absolutely loved his years there. We were in the same position many years ago and my advice would be chose the school you want rather than trying to be strategic!

For us pastoral and distance matter the most and Sutton was our first choice.

Good luck and hope you get what you want.

Thank you so much @Blubell46 - it's great to hear the positive feedback about Sutton Grammar.

Given distance is more or less between the 2 schools, I was just unsure of which one would be a better fit for my DS.

Both of my sons went to Wilson's from Merton Park, next to Wimbledon. They went on the tram to Wandle Park and walked (about 20-25 minutes) or caught a bus to the school. Wilson's is a fantastic school. Wilson's also has loads more space than Tiffin. Tiffin has hardly any space and is on that busy road.

As everyone has said the school don't know your preferences. Put the schools in your true order of preference.

we couldn't visit Sutton You can ask to have a visit.