Dd no longer wants to go to first choice school…

[SirMink]

Hi.
We are lucky to live near 2 good schools. They’re very different to each other though and dd couldn’t pick which one she liked best. She had been fairly set on school A for a while - but was increasingly swayed by school B, so we ended up putting that as first choice. We live close enough that she’ll definitely get in (school A has a smaller catchment so although she might have got in she also might have been at the top of the waiting list)
Anyway, she’s now panicking for a few reasons that she’s made the wrong choice.
So, my question is, when we are inevitably offered our first choice school - are we allowed to accept it and also ask to join the waiting list for our second choice school? I assumed we would be, although a friend said you can initially only go on waiting lists for schools you put higher than the one you are offered. I can’t find confirmation of either online.

Thanks

After allocation day you can go on whatever waiting lists you want

It's fine to do this.
I think it's only if you want to appeal that you want to have listed appeal school higher up list.

Great. Thanks both. That’s what I thought.

Ah yes that might be what my friend was confused by @Nicelynicelyjohnson

As I understand it you can appeal for any school you listed on your form. I might be wrong tho.

You can go on any WLs, even if you didn’t list the school.

I might also be wrong.
I just thought it added weight to your appeal to have listed the school high on form, presumably though things could change between submitting form and appealing.
Anyway, this is just about waiting lists, your place on a waiting list is not affected about where you listed a school, if you even listed it at all.

Yes you can add your name to the waiting list of the other.

However I think if you have two good choices there will always be times you wish you chose the other one.

For primary we had two good choices. We pit school A. There are days I wish we put school B. But I don't doubt if he was in school B there would be days we wish we chose A.

Maybe you chose the one you did for a reason.

Just to say that you should check with your Local Authority- where we are there are some schools (all the popular ones I think) where you can’t go on the waiting list until after the first round of continuing interest has been run.

Is this for Year7 September 2025? Contact the LA right now and see if you can change the application.

You will automatically be added to the waiting list for any schools listed higher than the one you are allocated. So in your case, if you get the first choice you won’t automatically go on the waiting list for any others. However you can contact the local authority and request to be put on the waiting list of another school.