School application

[Pammi2]

Can someone advise, on the eadmissions school application form, it states "Reasons for Preference (Optional)
Only use the space below if you wish to give any reasons for your preference for this school. These might include religious, philosophical or any other reasons. Please do not use this box to enter any exceptional, medical or social reasons or sibling (brother or sister) information. Please complete the relevant sections above."

I would like to know can you write about your child in this box as to what she is achieved so far?

It actually has no purpose. It doesn't make any difference.
I'm guessing it's simply for research purposes.

so not sure why they have it, better to write something so that it is there and if they want to ignore it they can?

@Pammi2 school admission is (usually) based on a priority list.
It generally goes -
(top priority starting first)

• "Looked after children" (children in foster care)
• Child with an exceptional need for that school (medical, sen)
• Children with siblings in the school
• Distance from school

It's all figured out by a computer programme - not on your child's ability or anything. It is a pointless box but as I said it's probably for research. For example if a school is oversubscribed but loads of people write "this is my closest school" it can be looked at whether the school needs to expand.

yes understand the process and priorty list but was trying to phathom out the box

@Pammi2 as I said.... it's a pointless box.
Don't worry about it.

Someone on another thread said that legislation requires that parents are given an opportunity to explain why they have selected their preferences so that’s why it’s there. As a pp said though it doesn’t actually count for anything so is rather pointless.

Similar thread here:

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/secondary/5191593-secondary-application-additional-reasons-for-preference

I guess there might be a case to pit something in if you are choosing a school that perhaps is not in your catchment or the obvious school they would go to to give your application more weight, I don't know. Just write something if you think it is relevant but you can leave it blank by if you have nothing to say.

I filled it in, figured I had nothing to lose if I did and on the off chance it did get looked at they had a good understanding of why we chose the school.

The box is there because the Admissions Code requires the LA to give a space on the form where parents can put the reasons for their choice. However, it plays no part in the process at all. Schools are not allowed to make subjective judgements as to who they want to admit based on what parents put in this box.

Personally, I think the Admissions Code is wrong and that having this box is misleading. But, until the government changes the Code, the box will continue to exist.

@Pammi2 I'm the admissions governor for a secondary school. Sometimes an applicant will write something in that box that suggests they might have some "exceptional medical or social circumstances" and yet they haven't ticked the exceptional circumstances box. If so, the LA's admissions team contacts them to ask if they want to tick the box.

I've never seen it used in any other way.

Agree with @grumpigrotts I've seen a lot of these filled in, and the only time it's relevant is a very significant medical need where the medical box hasn't been ticked, or mention of a sibling where the sibling box hasn't been ticked.