Secondary admissions

LIZS · 29/10/2023 09:02

Most likely all preferences not just first.

Original poster

Sarahlovessandwiches · 29/10/2023 09:10

@LIZS thank you 🙂

OP posts:

BrimfulOfMash · 29/10/2023 09:18

All.

prh47bridge · 29/10/2023 09:31

"Number of preferences expressed" is definitely everyone who has named that school, regardless of whether it was their first, second or third choice.

redskyanight · 29/10/2023 10:32

Agree it's all preferences. Other than showing you that the second school in your list is not popular (which I imagine you knew anyway), I'm not sure this is information is terribly useful. Many people fill up all their preferences but are likely to get their first choice; some are planning to go private or home educate but applying as a back stop ...

At the secondary admissions talk at our local school, the principal puts up a slide that says something along the lines of "we have 480 places available at our school, with priority given to students living in catchment. We believe there is 520 children of the right age living in catchment."" And then, before everyone panics, she then goes on to point out that due to the preference system and some people planning to use alternative schooling, there has never actually been a case where everyone in catchment who wanted a place didn't get one.

mugboat · 29/10/2023 12:44

Sarahlovessandwiches · 29/10/2023 09:01

Can anyone clarify something for me please?

These are last years allocation numbers for the 4 secondary schools in our are.

In the column where it says “number of preferences expressed before the deadline” is that people who have put that school as their first preference? Or listed the school as either 1st, 2nd or 3rd (three choices is the limit in our local authority) on their application form?

Thank you!

I have a locrating subscription, if you can PM me (can you PM here???) the name of the school I can find it in locrating and tell you this!

Original poster

Sarahlovessandwiches · 30/10/2023 11:24

Thanks all. @mugboat - I've just signed up for a month's subscription of Locrating so thank you for suggesting it!

OP posts:

DrMarshaFieldstone · 30/10/2023 11:31

Wow, school 2 is in trouble.

Dadzzz · 30/10/2023 11:42

Is this information usually available on the La website or do you need to do an FOI for this?

TizerorFizz · 30/10/2023 11:53

@Sarahlovessandwiches My LA gives way more info than this about admissions: for free. How allocations were made for a start. @prh47bridge would know if this is a legal requirement. Distance from school is another criteria. This is published so parents don’t think their Dc can get into a school 10 miles away when it only admits from 3 miles away most years. It says if Dc admitted are catchment too. I would see if LA has more detail before paying for anything. If it’s not published, Locrating cannot magic up data.

mugboat · 30/10/2023 11:56

Sarahlovessandwiches · 30/10/2023 11:24

Thanks all. @mugboat - I've just signed up for a month's subscription of Locrating so thank you for suggesting it!

awesome, hope you find the info you need. I found the stats on there very useful

Original poster

Sarahlovessandwiches · 30/10/2023 11:56

Yes, there is a whole load of more info on the LA website with the full oversubscribtion info / furthest distance etc. I was just curious to know more about the preferences

OP posts:

TizerorFizz · 30/10/2023 12:16

228 is an odd pan. Not divisible by 30, 29 or 28. They would have uneven class sizes.

EduCated · 30/10/2023 15:03

I would hazard a guess that those who didn’t get Schools 1, 3 and 4 as their three preferences probably end up there. The number on roll is low, but not as low as the number of applications (from what we can see).

Original poster

Sarahlovessandwiches · 30/10/2023 15:24

School 2 is single sex and reputation gone downhill a bit over the last few years, hence the low numbers

OP posts:

prh47bridge · 30/10/2023 16:41

TizerorFizz · 30/10/2023 11:53

@Sarahlovessandwiches My LA gives way more info than this about admissions: for free. How allocations were made for a start. @prh47bridge would know if this is a legal requirement. Distance from school is another criteria. This is published so parents don’t think their Dc can get into a school 10 miles away when it only admits from 3 miles away most years. It says if Dc admitted are catchment too. I would see if LA has more detail before paying for anything. If it’s not published, Locrating cannot magic up data.

No, it isn't a legal requirement for the LA to publish allocation information. I think it should be but sadly it isn't at the moment.

TizerorFizz · 30/10/2023 16:53

We are lucky where I live then as parents do have more data about admissions which is really helpful.