Secondary school place allocation - 1 March

[LilySLE]

How is everyone feeling about the fact that we find out tomorrow which secondary school our Year 6 children will be going to?

I am wondering whether to stay up till midnight to wait for the email 🙈

We’re in Devon and the website says from 10am on the 1st. But when you log in to the portal, it says decisions released on the 2nd. 🤷🏻‍♀️

Where did you hear that it is a baby boom year…? I thought the opposite was true!

Certainly that seems to be the case in primary schools round here (tho even more so in the current Year 5)

@LilySLE yeah where we are is def a non-boom year we think which helps. Last year was an unusually high birth year which caused lots of kids to lose out.

Someone told me that 2012-2013 wasn't a boom year too, which I'm holding on to - feeder + sibling but not catchment for an over subscribed school! Sitting here sweating...

I was told 2012 was a baby boom year when mine couldn't get the redbook straightaway after birth. But this current cohort only starts from birth from September 2012...

And I recall seeing the statistics 2012 was the peak and then it slowly dipped...

Are “feeder” schools an actual thing or is it just a way of describing when both a primary and secondary are in the same catchment

people tell me that our primary is a “feeder” for the local secondary but that term is not used in any of the council literature. “Feeder” suggests that everyone from the primary gets a place at the secondary but of course it’s not that straightforward

It depends on what the admissions policy for the school says.

E.g.:

• Some secondaries which are part of an academy trust give priority in their admissions criteria to children attending primary schools which are also part of the same trust.

• There is a Catholic school in our area that gives priority in its stated admissions criteria to children attending local Catholic primary schools.

Schools have to publish and follow their admission criteria so it should be possible to work out whether the concept of a “feeder school” is an actual thing for the school you are interested in - or if it’s just colloquial for “most children from
this primary end up going to this secondary”.

Where it is an actual thing, you can then look at the published historic admissions data to see whether all children from that primary school have historically got a place, or whether some children from the feeder school have sometimes missed out.

Our first choice has 5 feeder schools that get preference...after EHCP/kids in local authority care/parents working at school/catchment with sibling/catchment without sibling/sibling and feeder/feeder and then lastly distance.

Thanks both. It appears that jt def can be a thing. I don’t think it really is in our area despite what parents say though. We just have catchments and usually kids go from the local primary to the local secondary however there are always exceptions

In our area this is definitely a bulge year, a lot of families didn’t get any of their primary choices.

we’ve put a catchment school as first choice but we’re unlikely to get in because it has a two tier catchment. We put our nearest school as second choice and then the least worst option out of the bad schools as third as advised by the council. Unfortunately rumour has it that our ‘safe’ third choice is oversubscribed for the first time ever this year so I’m panicking we’re going to end up either miles away or at the really bad school ( the opening line of their latest ofsted is ‘pupils report school is not a happy place’) I’ve already filled in the waiting list form and started work on my appeal

May I join please? I don't know what time the emails go out here so I will be checking all day.

What’s a two tier catchment…? 🤔

Wishing you lots of luck 🤞

Basically they have two catchment areas and children in area one get priority over children in area two

We are also in a busy area and live in a bit of a dead spot between secondaries, so we aren't close enough to any of our local schools to have much hope of a place tomorrow.

There are a few schools further away which have admitted all applicants for the last few years so we have put one of them as our "banker" in 6th place. Of course they are less popular for a reason, but we chose the one we liked best after trawling them all.

I am hopeful that we may get a waiting list place at one of our closer schools further down the line.

Feeling very nervous even after all the rationalizing about likely outcomes...

Interesting; I’ve not come across this before.

It’s quite surprising how the whole process seems to be so different in different parts of the country

This is another good example of regional differences. You got six choices; we got four 🤷‍♀️

Absolutely dreading it. Primary school allocation was awful for us, the LA email
system failed and we had to phone them. We got 3rd choice, so stressful waiting and not able to get through to them and then finding out he was 1 of 2 kids from the nursery class who didn't get a place. It did work out ok in the end.

So nervous. I just want things to go right for my DS for a change.

Spent yesterday panicking that I'd forgotten to apply or that I'd misunderstood the form and done it wrong. I've also put a school on there that I've changed my mind about, I really don't want him to go there.

I also don't know what time the email should come through. So I want to wait up until midnight but not convinced there would be any point.

That's interesting @LilySLE - I suppose I had assumed it was the same everywhere. Four doesn't seem many.

Worrying about the baby boom thing now. It's definitely the case in our area, but I thought last academic year was the peak. I hope we at least get our banker.

I have logged into the portal about 5 times today despite knowing it will probably be tomorrow evening.

Oh god, I am so nervous

This was in active - so not waiting this year but just wanted to say good luck everyone - I remember the night before well.

DD is yr8 now. She showed me the headteacher video this evening for the new starters that was filmed today to send tomorrow.

Fwiw - Dd had a friend who got 1 school on offer day, went to a 2nd for a transition day, and started at a 3rd in Sept and is doing brilliantly - tomorrow might only be the start of the journey.

If you check their FB page they say that the 2nd March comment is a mistake and it'll be tomorrow by 9am

I’m really tired and despite my best intentions am now doubting whether I will make it to midnight 🥴

What a lovely idea for the head to record a message to go out tomorrow! I want my child to go to this school!

I keep refreshing the portal too in hopes that their IT system makes a mistake and puts it live early 🙈😂

That is what we will be doing. I live on the doorstep of the school that I even didn't apply to. But thank God here in London we have catchments and a wide choice of options