Published oversubscription criteria difference to verbal

[CalpolOnToast]

We're looking at a school for Y10 entry in September 2027. They've said they are full for September 2025 (fair enough I know the deadline was ages ago) and nearly full for September 2026.

That's fine, I'm organised and I'll get the form filled in as soon as it opens for 2027.

But I looked at their published oversubscription criteria and it says after looked after children, siblings, and staff children, then it'll be decided by lottery.

What's going on here?

I want them to be doing first come first served, it suits us! I'd rather they didn't get in trouble and have to start doing a lottery just when my son wants to apply...

By law they have to follow their published admissions criteria, they have no choice.

Is this an independent school?
State schools never do a " first come first served" system. The criteria usually is- Looked after children, children of staff, siblings of children already at the school and then nearest home addresses to the school. It doesn't matter when you apply as long as you apply by the deadline, there's no benefit in being the first applicant.

How can they be nearly full for Sept 2026 when applications haven’t opened? Which year group are you talking about?

In year admissions are different.

Is this a school that starts at year 10? If so those are normal criteria - they're not allowed to rank by date of application.

If it's a normal start at year 7 school then over subscription criteria doesn't exist for year 10 - you apply for an in year place. If there's a space it's yours, if there isn't you can appeal, but obvs there's no guarantee they will take you.

Schools don't have to maintain a waiting list after December 31st in the normal year of entry (so year 7 for most), but where they do maintain some kind of list for in-year applications, if there are more applicants than places when a place becomes available, then the oversubscription criteria for the year of application should be used to rank those asking for a place. So e.g. if applying now for an in-year, current year 7 / 8 / 9 / 10 / 11 (the last if you are bonkers, or desperate), the relevant admissions policy is the one for 2024/ 2025. But if applying as a late applicant now for September 2025 year 7 entry, the relevant admissions policy is that for the 2025/2026 academic year, and there may well have been changes between the two.

@CalpolOnToast if you want your DC to join year 10 at a new school in September 2027 as an in-year applicant (that is, the normal point of entry to the school is year 7), then the earliest you will be able to apply is likely to be after the May half term when they are in year 9 - the main point of an in-year application is that one needs a school place 'now'. If a place is available and your DC is not the only applicant, then ranking would be done at that point according to the 2026 / 2027 admissions criteria.

If it's a school where the normal point of entry is year 10 (Studio School / UTC?), then applications would probably be made according to the normal secondary school application timetable (applying Sept / Oct in year 9), but in any caseyou need to look at the admissions policy for 2027 / 2028, which must be published by March 2026.

But I'm sort of confused re the mention of '2025 entry' and '2026 entry', because if your DC will be going into year 10 in September 2027, the 2025 and 2026 year 10 year groups being full / nearly full surely is irrelevant?

Y10 entry will be a very different landscape to the normal y7 entry. Their policy of looked after children, siblings, and staff children, then lottery woukd be how they allocated the (?) 180 (?) places (or however many there are) in March 2024 (with applications in December 2023) for the cohort who started y7 in September 2024 and who will be starting y10 in September 2027.

Outside of that major exercise what you are asking for is an "in year" admission and that isn't done on the same scale or timescale.

If you want a place to start y10 in September 2027 then the earliest you can really apply is in July 2027 because if there is a space available then you are expected to take it immediately and your child start attending immediately. If there is no space available then the LA is obliged to find you a place somewhere but not necessarily at that school. The oversubscription criteria are only relevant if more than one family makes an application at the same time when there is an available space.

No it's an academy, and it's a UTC with Y10 entry.

We've home educated DS from the start but when I went to secondary it was done on distance (after LA/sibs/staff)

But clear as day several teachers at the open evening and now the marketing person have said said first come first served!

I know! But that's what they've said.

We just went to the open evening to show DS what a school even looks like as he's never been in one and he's a massive engineering geek so it looks like a great place for him.

@MarchingFrogs

If it's a school where the normal point of entry is year 10 (Studio School / UTC?), then applications would probably be made according to the normal secondary school application timetable (applying Sept / Oct in year 9), but in any caseyou need to look at the admissions policy for 2027 / 2028, which must be published by March 2026.

Yep, UTC. I think it's 31st Oct deadline for the following year where we are. I went along thinking we don't have to do anything until autumn 2026, we were just curious!

They said the form for 2027 entry will go online this autumn.

But I'm sort of confused re the mention of '2025 entry' and '2026 entry', because if your DC will be going into year 10 in September 2027, the 2025 and 2026 year 10 year groups being full / nearly full surely is irrelevant?

It's totally irrelevant to our situation, I had emailed the office to ask for a tour during the school day without saying what year entry and that's what she said, I replied saying that's no problem we're looking at 2027!

But clear as day several teachers at the open evening and now the marketing person have said said first come first served!

It's not unusual that open day teachers spout bullshit. The entry criteria are what you should go by. They're fixed, and speediness of application are not a legal criteria.

Yes I'm thinking do they just unofficially discourage people once they are getting close to PAN?!

They may have said “first come first served” if they thought you were a late application for the upcoming year ie get your form
in asap or you have no chance of a space from the waiting list even if you would
have been top on the criteria

For in year applications, if there is no waiting list and there is a place available, the first person who applies will get the place. However, if there is a waiting list or you apply in the normal admissions round, the law is clear that they cannot use first come, first served.

Sadly, it is not uncommon for parents to be given incorrect information by schools. What matters is their published oversubscription criteria. That is how admissions will actually be decided. Anything different they have told you verbally is irrelevant, I'm afraid.

I think they are running a "parallel" system and only sending the official application link to the 120 that have expressed interest, and banking on no one actually reading the admissions criteria or following the link on the LA site!

Why would they do that? However many apply, they have to admit the 120 that rank top in the criteria.

The LA would pick up on this very quickly and it could lead to the school losing its funding.

I don’t know of any state school that is first come first serve. It’s common to have a policy which has to be followed and is very common to have looked after kids, siblings then everyone else for example.

Your frustration is misplaced.

Unless they had children of their own at the school, I'd be surprised if the teachers knew exactly the criteria for normal entry/ in year admissions unless specifically asked to to learn it!

I think I'm going to politely say "what about the published oversubscription criteria?" to the marketing person.

And I need to make sure my son knows it's not a done deal until spring 2027!

my understanding is that UTC first entry point is yr9 - is this not the case at the utc you are looking at? I thought y10 entry was by exception???

There are some UTCs where the normal year of entry is Y9 and a few where it is Y7, but it is Y10 for the vast majority.