2024 Year 7 Admission

[BusySuzy]

We are in the process of applying for secondary schools for 2024.

DD didn’t score enough to apply for grammar schools which is fine as we are happy with a girls school nearby.

Last year the last applicant lived 2284 metres from the school and we are 2285 metres away. So naturally very nervous.

A couple questions if I may:

1. If we end up on a waiting list how likely is it that we’ll have a chance at getting in?
2. What are reasons for appeal which have been successful in your experience?
3. I understand there was a baby boom/ bulge class in relation to last years cohort any idea how this compares to this year? Are we likely to see more or less siblings as a result?
4. Anyone been in a similar position in terms of distance how did it play out for you?
5. How are you parents of 2024 year 7 intakes getting on?

Completely dependent on the admissions criteria - read it thoroughly.

Make sure you put down a safety option that you will definitely get into.

I am afraid it's out of your control

We will almost definitely get into our 3rd choice which is further out but not typically over subscribed but really want our first choice option. It feels so close yet so uncertain.

Hey OP
Will try to answer some of you questions but it might not be much help sadly

1. No way of knowing as there are many factors. Is there a lot of churn in your area - people moving away? Do a lot of people apply for state and then choose private? These factors make it more likely than if there is a stable population with no popular private schools close by.
2. Appeal - this needs to focus on things the school can offer that are not available at the offered school - obvious examples are your child plays violin and there is a string orchestra at the preferred school, but not the offered school. Things like passion for science (evidenced) and school offers triple science/science club; specific language needed bc grandparents speak it with them. Distance to school, local friends and good Ofsted will not weigh. Obvs medical or access needs will be a good argument but these would hopefully have been addressed at time of application.
3. I don't know anything about this - are siblings given priority at this school? Do you mean there was a bulge class at this specific school? I would say this is more likely to impact next year tbh (more ppl have a 2 or 3 year gap maybe?).
4. Distance offered doesn't vary masses IME from year to year; over a longer period it may vary more as a school becomes more or less popular with the immediate locality. Would you have got in in the last 2-3 years?
5. NA sorry :)

Sorry this is not much help. Is this your nearest school?

The admission criteria is the most important thing.

It will depend on SEND and looked after children numbers, siblings, then the school’s other criteria such as distance.

@clary is right in saying that if you were on the waiting list, you would need to demonstrate that the school you want offers your child something the offered school doesn’t.

Does anyone know if last year's published distance is based on the March 1st offers or does it include the second offers made end March / early April?

This is anecdotal rather than firm evidence...

This years yr6 is smaller than Yr7/8. Since we are a military family, we moved a few times. We never had any trouble finding a school place for our current Yr6 DD (her current school has only 54!) But her elder sister, now Yr8 was always a nightmare. She was out of school for half term after one move...

So hopefully, it will be good news for you.

Where we live, birth rates peaked in 2012 and drop rapidly after that.

Is the distance you have from national offer day or from 1st Sept. Catchments usually grow a lot between March and Sept.

We have also seen numbers of children grow substantially from families moving to the area from Hong Kong, Ukraine and Turkey. 5 years ago the school had around 23% of children with English as a second language and its now 42%. This has put pressure on in Year admissions and waiting lists.

Appeals are hard to win but panels can do random things so it's generally worth a try but do lots of research so you know what to put in your paperwork.

This is very helpful, thank you!

It’s not our nearest school but it’s the best (to us) within a reasonable distance. Some things are not perfect ie ofsted result isn’t good but academics and culture is good, and I think DD would really fit in here and do well.

I don’t think we have viable options to appeal by your response.

I was thinking along the same lines about siblings - likely to be more of a factor next year.

Thanks again :)

Getting in via waitlist or via appeal do you mean?

Thank you!

I’ve been trawling through birth rates and the statistics have been giving me hope. On the open day I vaguely recall the headteacher saying something similar in passing but at the time I wasn’t thinking along the lines I am now so didn’t catch the point she was making. Wondering if it would be weird to email and ask what she meant (haha I won’t).

I didn’t think about refugees, this is interesting. Year I’ve seen birth rates peaked at 2012 but next years applications will be both 2012 and 2013 born.

Unless there is a process / administration error or there is no other needs that make your DC only able to attend your 1st choice - your appeal is highly likely to fail

Last year the last applicant lived 2284 metres from the school and we are 2285 metres away. So naturally very nervous.

I think many of us who are going through school applications are feeling similar. From my local council website the published distance data appears to be based on the first round of offers. So it is highly likely that even if you don't get in on round 1 then you will likely get an offer in round 2 or going on the waiting list.

For primary in London we were 300 metres away from the last offer of 200 metres. By end July we had an offer. Now it's secondary time and we are on the edge of the catchment again.

You may find the distance increases once the offers/acceptances/declines etc shake down. I would think by the summer term you should be sitting pretty.

Re no 3, in 2013 was less kids born than in 2012. Actuallyz there was a decline.
The important factor also is how the other nearby school performed at last year's GCSE. E.g. if any of the schools in the are did very badly then you will see more interest in the school where you are applying. And the same opposite.

In terms of appeal it's worth bearing in mind that if the school has taken buldge classes etc in previous years, then it can be harder to get in on appeal as the school can make arguments that the total number of students on site is too high etc. In theory, the more full the school in general, the higher the threshold needed to get in via appeal.

In terms of waiting lists, it really depends on your local area and admissions criteria. I teach at a school with a pretty stable local population and not many people who apply then go private, so we don't admit many students from the waiting list. In a large city with lots of school options and a more transient population, waiting lists can move a lot. If you're in a grammar area, some people may get into the grammar on waiting list/appeal which then, in turn creates movement at other schools.

Yeah but 2024 year 7s will be made up of both 2012 and 2013 born. Current year 7s will be 2011 and 2012.

Thing is @BusySuzy you are thinking ahead a lot here.

While it may be useful to think about appeals and maybe consider what the preferred school may offer that you could adduce, you have not applied yet.

Speculation about birth rates and distances is not really going to help; put the school you really like as first choice and your DD may get in. Or she may not.

Make sure you put one that is a "banker" on the form - for many people this is their local school that perhaps they don't like but is better than an unpopular allocation many miles away. For you, you say it is your third choice, further, but always has spaces. Fair enough.

If there are a lot of children in this school year, or there are not - won't make any difference to whether you put the desired school in spot 1. You cannot know at this stage whether you will get a place in March, or later, or from the WL, or even on appeal. There's not really anything you can do to influence this tbh so I would just put your schools on the form in order and put the whole issue to one side for a while.

You do need to factor in local knowledge. For example, I live in an area where the population is aging, so it's known that the number of secondary school aged children in the area is decreasing year on year (of course this is in turn affected by size of year groups). There was also another secondary school opened in a location that is more convenient for some of the children that would historically go to different schools so that changes the order they put schools on their forms. Not many children in this area go to private schools, however this is a huge factor in some areas (as parents apply to private school as a back up and then relinquish their place when they don't need to).
Finally, the local area has high mobility - there will be many parents who apply for places in Y6 but have moved by Y7.

There will be similar but different factors at play in your area.

Yeah agree I’m just quite an anxious person with adhd and tend to think ahead to try and make the best decisions, know what I’m going to do and I suppose begin to come to terms with it if it’s doesn’t work in our favour.

If there was an extra class for last year's intake, then that may have enabled them to admit from further away than they would have done without. Do you know how far away they admitted from the previous year?

Sibling effect will be very small - an extra 30 kids in that year, most of whom won't have siblings in the year below - it would probably be at most a couple of extra siblings in my area, maybe more if your area has a lot of large families with children close together. I think the fact that the net was expanded last year to take an extra 30 is fra more significant.

If there's a lot of pressure on school places locally, and the school has space on site, maybe there will be another bulge class, but it might be that another school has the bulge class this time to even out overall numbers.

You can't really do much about it, so try not to worry until the offers come out. Even then, there is often movement after the offers are made - how much varies between areas, but if there's a fair amount of mobility in the local population, there may well be a space by September.

I hear you on that as I often do similar; but you really cannot know in advance on this.

If you knew that it was very unlikely (but just possible) that yr dd would be offered a place at this school, would you still put it first? I bet you would. So do that. And realise that yes, she may not get a place.

But listing it first and applying on time are literally the only things you can do to influence this at this stage.

The distance was previously nearer 🙈 They had a bad ofsted result in 22 so I think that impacted on admissions but now people may be convinced the school is still good despite the ofsted it’s probably likely to get smaller again.

I think we will still put it as number 1, won’t appeal and give it until the first term for any spaces to become available (longer if DD isn’t particularly settling in the other school).

I think this is a good plan for us.

Wondering if anyone has applied to a school with full knowledge it’s very unlikely they will be admitted in hopes they’ll get in via the waiting list 🤔

You can go on a WL for any school, you don't have to have applied there.

If admission is so unlikely, then a WL place is as well, tbh. Not impossible tho of course.

Just list the schools you want - and make sure the "banker" is a genuine cert you would be happy with, overall.

Example - there is a very popular secondary near me, but we are out of catchment, and another one that is also well rated, but has no catchment, then there is the very nearby school, not the best but handy and pretty much everyone from your child's class will go there.

So a lot of people put those three down in that order. School 1 - sometimes lucky if they have space this far out; school 2 - sometimes lucky with the lottery; school 3 - will get this one anyway for sure and in fact it's fine.