If you don't get in any school, can you choose among the undersubscribed ones or must you accept what the council chooses for you?

[PForParent]

We are in London (I mention it as I have no clue if the rules are different outside of England)

Suppose you apply to six state secondary schools, and don't get it any of those.
Suppose there are 3 undersubscribed state schools within a commutable distance, none of which you had applied to.

Must the council give you a place in the closest school? Or can they give you any of the 3?

If the council gives you a place in one of the undersubscribed schools, can you say: "Thank you, but I'd actually rather go to that other undersubscribed school" ?

Or is the only option to accept the place you were given, ask for a transfer, and possibly do a couple of weeks in the school chosen by the council before the child manages to transfer?

Of course there's a strong argument to be made to use the 6th option for the "least worst" among the undersubscribed schools, but that must be weighted against the odds of getting into a school you may like more.

Thanks!

If a school has places you can ask to go there yes

There are 3 undersubscribed schools in my borough (Wandsworth): Harris Battersea, Southfields Academy, Ark Putney.
There are more undersubscribed schools in the neighbouring borough of Lambeth.

Harris Battersea is the only outstanding school among the undersubscribed in Wandsworth and Lambeth.

Like I said, I don't find Ofsted ratings that useful, and there are plenty of outstanding schools I wouldn't touch with a bargepole, but I am probably in the minority on this

Sounds like I had better put the least worst of the undersubscribed schools as my 6th option, probably...

PS until now, Harris Battersea has been undersubscribed both in March and September.

There is of course the possibility that next year it may be undersubscribed in March but not in September. If that happens, there will be an advantage in putting it down as 6th option

There is a second round of allocations and waiting lists you can be added to. Accept the place you are given though - you can give it up again if you find a place you'd prefer.

It's a long time since I had to get to grips with school admissions but I thought this was outlawed decades ago.

No, you've misremembered and mixed up two different things. Schools aren't allowed to use borough boundaries to define their oversubscription criteria (known as the Greenwich Judgement). However (and paradoxically) all local authorities are still responsible for placing all the children from their own area. If some children can't get a place at a preference school, the LA needs to allocate them to the nearest school with a space within their own boundaries. They can't allocate them a non-preference place in another area (unless they have some sort of agreement in place with the other LA of course).

Thank you, that makes sense.

I would suggest that it is actually a good idea to see what schools you are likely to be in catchment for and opt for at least one or two out of the six options than rely on there being space post allocation in March. Why are you choosing 5 schools you don’t think you’ll get?

Although this isn't a guaranteed way of working out chances...

How full is your child's year currently? Are there spaces in other local schools in the year group?

Birth rates have fallen, plus people moving out of Central London, so theoretically admission distances are increasing and under subscribed schools becoming more under subscribed.

@minnienono I didn't say I want to choose 5 schools I don't think I will get.
I want to choose 5 schools which are a bit hit or miss. If I look at the past years, admission would not have been guaranteed in all 5 in all years, but in every year I would have got in at least 1.

The big unknown is if waiting lists will move more than last year, because of birth rates falling and people moving out of London, or less, because of fewer people going private because of the VAT.

A school where we are likely to get in is a school where I'd never send my kids. I'd rather turn tricks to raise money to go private than send them there. That's Ashcroft. It's far too strict (detention if you cycle to school!) and far too similar to schools like Holland Park or Mossbourne, where emotional abuse was rampant. No way.

If I compare the March 2025 admission results with March 2024 to 2022, the distances are shorter but that seems driven by more siblings than usual. Like I said, the big question is if waiting lists will move more or less than in the past between March and September 2025.