Order of preference on CAF

[FoxFamily1]

We are making our secondary school application today and we have a dilemma.
I have read several times and been told several times to fill in the CAF in true order of preference. Here's the dilemma though. My son has a pass mark for a grammar school and that school would be our first choice. However, it's a super selective school and he only scraped a pass. Looking on Locrating, more places for that school go to second preference applications (because presumably the boys that applied to the school in 2nd had higher grades than those that applied in 1st and they were not offered their first choice). On the other hand, our local comprehensive has a lottery system where 90% of their offers go to first choice preference and only 30% of first choice applications get in. In this very specific scenario, it feels like I should put the comprehensive first or risk missing out on BOTH schools just because of the preference order. Can anyone change my mind?

Your order of preference isn't taken into account when deciding whether your child qualifies for a place. So put your schools in your true order of preference.

The schools don't know if you put them 1st, 2nd or 6th. They rank all their applicants and offer based on their admissions policy. It will make NO difference where you put it on the form, other than if you would have been offered a place at both, they will only offer you the school you ranked highest.

The data about numbers of 1st choice preferences is misleading. Schools sometimes share it as it makes them look popular if they are mostly giving places to those who ranked them 1st.

If the grammar school allocates purely on score, a child with say 250 but ranked 3rd would be offered a place above a child who scored 249 but put it 1st. HOWEVER the child who scored 250 would only get offered the grammar place if he didn't get his 1st or 2nd choice.

Put your genuine preference order. You can absolutely put the grammar 1st and have just as much chance in the lottery for the other school. If you would rather he went to the lottery school, put that 1st.

Put in your order of preference if he does not qualify for no.1 he will be considered for 2 then 3 in the same way as if he placed them first. You get allocated the highest fir which you qualify. Those getting the grammar form second reference (although not sure how you got the data) presumably did not qualify for their first, perhaps on distance but achieved a high enough score at the the super-selective to qualify. Ideally your list should include one for which you will definitely qualify.

it feels like I should put the comprehensive first or risk missing out on BOTH schools just because of the preference order.

This will not and cannot happen as a result of the preference order.

If the comprehensive school can offer a place according to their published admissions criteria, irrespective of the order of your CAF, they will tell the LA this. Ditto the grammar. If they both offer a place the LA will allocate you the school highest up your preference list, and throw the other place back in the pool for applications further down that schools list.

It is the Equal Preference System and is law in England and Wales. Equal Preference refers to the fact that an application to a school has an equal chance of success whether it is in first or last place, and the chance of an offer rests solely on how far you meet the published admissions criteria.

Your chances at the grammar sound slim, but you have nothing g to lose by putting it first

Is the comprehensive a school you should easily get into on distance or other criteria?

If not make sure you include a third school that would definitely offer a place.

This is the system . Thousands every year waste their chances by not understanding / believing it.

our local comprehensive has a lottery system where 90% of their offers go to first choice preference

Unless your local comprehensive is breaking the law on admissions with help from the LA (highly unlikely), they aren't choosing to give 90% of their offers to first choice preferences. That is purely the outcome of the lottery. The lottery will include everyone who named the school, regardless of whether it was first choice or a lower preference. They will choose people entirely at random.

The reason they end up with such a high percentage of first choices is that most of those who name it as a lower preference get an offer from one of their higher preference schools. For example, if the first name out of the hat when they hold the lottery is someone who named the school as third preference, that person will only actually be offered a place at the comprehensive if they don't get a place at their first or second preferences.

As others have explained, if you put the comprehensive first and get a place through the lottery, you will be offered that regardless of whether the grammar school is willing to offer your son a place. You really must put your choices in the genuine order of preference.

Every year, some parents put the school they really want as second choice and the local school as first choice because, like you, they are worried that putting them the other way round risks not getting a place at either school. Every year, some of those parents end up wondering why children who were behind theirs in the queue for the school they wanted got a place but they didn't. Every year I have to explain to some parents that this wasn't a mistake - it is because they didn't put the schools in their genuine order of preference.

Great post from @prh47bridge as ever, explains it well, as do other pps.

@FoxFamily1 put them in order of preference. Putting the grammar first will not stop you getting the comp (unless you get a grammar place!).

I agree tho is there a distance-prioritising banker you are sure if? If so put that on the list.

Thank you so much everyone. I have a better understanding now. We will put true order of preference, with a local school thrown in. I really appreciate your time on this.