Admissions

[Ml2210]

im applying for my child’s secondary school, his first choice school we are out of catchment and not in feeder school, so would only be allocated a space via aptitude test, he sat aptitude test which takes top 10% (24 children) he scored 39 in previous years the lowest score allocated in the 10% was 2024 - 43
2023 - 37
2022 - 38
2021 - 35
2020 - 41
2019 - 39
2018 - 33
his second choice of school he is in a 9% feeder school (30 children in a class only one class per year) also sat the aptitude and scored 52 average score this year was 41 and last years lowest score that was accepted on aptitude was 51, no previous years data available. Do I jeopardise his place at the second choice school if I put it second and not first? As I’m confident if I put his second choice school he’s likely to be allocated it as feeder and aptitude, however his heart is really set on first choice school, but I’m unsure his score is sufficient enough and I don’t want to lose his second choice school as his back up as it is also a very over subscribed school with lots of children listing it first whereas we would be listing as second. HELP!

Thank you so much for this explanation you really have put my mind at ease and I have submitted the form with my sons first choice school as he originally wanted, it’s really crazy how misinformed everyone seems to be surrounding school applications so again appreciate your time explaining it correctly to me

Having read the rest of the thread, I think you understand now what the process is which I’m really pleased about.

But as it was a direct question I’ll answer it anyways.

Say you put
Preference 1: 2nd favourite school
Preference 2: Favourite school

Situation 1: Your DC manages to qualify for a place at both. You will be offered preference 1, your 2nd favourite school. Other people might have put your 2nd favourite as their 1st preference but your DC is higher up the admissions criteria by getting higher school therefore is higher up the list for places at that school and the others who put it first might not get a place.

Situation 2: Your DC doesn’t qualify for a place at your favourite school. You will get offered preference 1, your second favourite school.

If you put
Preference 1: favourite school
preference 2: 2nd favourite school

Situation 1: Your DC qualifies for a place at both schools. You will be offered preference 1, your favourite school. Others might live closer but your DC got a higher score therefore qualifies for a place above them.

Situation 2: Your DC only qualifies for a place for your 2nd favourite because they didn’t get a high enough score for your favourite. You will be offered preference 2, your 2nd favourite school. Others may have put it as their first preference but they could live further away or could live closer but not in the feeder school. Therefore, you are higher up the admissions list than the other applicants and will get priority for a place above them because of your position in the admissions criteria.

This whole process depends on your position on the admissions criteria. The schools never see your preferences. Only the computer system sees your positions on the admissions lists for the schools you applied for then looks at your preferences and selects the highest preference you qualify for using some complicated algorithm. Schools find out who they are taking in September round about the same time you find out which one you have been allocated. They will never know where you placed them on the preference before places are allocated.

Please don’t stress too much about filling in the form. Put your true preferences and the computer takes care of the rest. You just concentrate on deciding which are the schools you would be happy for your DC to attend and then put them on the list in your true order of preference. Don’t listen to the other parents talking absolute rubbish.

Can’t remember if it’s been said. Remember to include a “banker school”. One you are 100% guaranteed a place at.

https://www.birmingham.gov.uk/info/20119/school_admissions/1778/apply_for_a_secondary_school_year_7_place/2

It’s for Birmingham but the whole of England uses the same system. This provides some nice examples that explains how the process works a little like I was explaining above.

'OK, kids, I've got some snacks, I want everybody to let me know what you want in order of preference from 1-5'

<hands out snacks>

'Oh, I've got a couple left over. Fred and Wilma, you put down chocolate as your second choice and you're closest, here you are

<hears quiet, sad sniffing>

'What's wrong?'

I don't have chocolate, I like chocolate the best.

'But you said you wanted bananas more?'

I know, but I thought I might get chocolate anyway.

'I've given out all the chocolate now. We can wait and see if anybody's changed their mind. Don't cry, I'd have given it to you if you'd said you liked it best, but you said you wanted bananas more'

Where do you live because where I live the LA allocates places not the school

Schools that are their own admissions authorities rank the applications once they've been given access to the applications data and link them up with the stuff that's part of their admissions policy (faith, testing, feeder schools).

Year 7s have to be coordinated by the LA by law, so they make the offers, but it's dependent upon the school applying their admissions criteria to them first over November-mid December, then getting them approved by governors, then uploaded to the LA.

No, they wouldn’t.
That isn’t how the system works.
Each school you apply to says yes or no according to their admissions criteria ONLY.

Not according to where in your list you put them.

Then they send that list to the LA, and the LA allocates you the school that has said ‘yes’ that is highest up your preference list.

They cannot favour applicants who put the school first.

Tins is in all areas of England and Wales, it is the law.

right! Thanks so much for the explanation really helps

Thank you for this, it’s really bad as even the schools receptionist when I asked her said that putting a school second would lessen your chances I will be informing her Monday that she is giving out incorrect information to parents

I live in Hertfordshire and the two top choices of schools I am speaking about are academies so deal with they’re own admissions and presuming then send over to LA

This is the best information! I wish my LA would have put this up on they’re website because I would of been able to understand from the beginning, thank you so much

But she's right - if you put your #1 school (in my daft example, the Chocolate Academy) down as 2nd preference, you are lessening your chances of getting it, as if there's a place at both when the schools upload their rankings, you'll be given the other school (the Banana Academy) following iteration - you need to say that you want chocolate most and banana second.

Except that she is not - unless you've typed it weirdly. Putting a school second would lesson your chance (well, your son's chance) of getting in since, if you qualify for both, you'd be given your first choice school.

No she meant it in the way of if I put my second choice school second to see if he had a chance at his first school then anyone that has listed second school higher would have a better chance if that makes sense, I think I’m not wording it correctly you! I was more worried of losing my fall back second school so she said i must put it first to get that school

Yes I understand that but my main concern was if he didn’t obtain a place and his first choice school that he wouldn’t be given then second choice school because so many other children will be listing it as they’re first choice

Chances are, she is just wrong, because she is as ignorant as lots of other folk who cba to actually look up how it works (and she is ancient enough to have had her DC start school when the 'first reference first' way of ranking applicants for each school was a thing) but... she's also sort of right in that if you really want a chocolate - sorry, a place at that school - but you for some reason you say that you want a banana - sorry, place at a different school - more than you want a chocolate and it turns out you were eligible for either, but because you only get the one snack and you said I prefer bananas, you scuppered your chance of the chocolate.

@Ml2210 The bottom line is that all your preferences are treated as if they were your first preference. If you are eligible for more than one place, they look at your preference order and give you the highest preference.

So you should always put your preferences in the true order of preference. It's also wise to put one school on the form that you're very likely to be offered a place at, even if you put it last.

In my area, there is only one school that a child living here will be allocated, and the allocation is guaranteed (300 places and less that 300 children of each age group living in the area). We still put down the two next nearest schools but have no chance of getting those because they are in larger areas and we're out of distance.