Random allocation of places (not by distance) : thoughts and experiences?

[ParentOfOne]

I understand that some schools in England allocate places by random allocation rather than by distance. Michaela in Wembley (NW London), Kingsdale in Dulwich (SE London), some schools in Brighton.

I also understand that a similar system is more common in some other countries.

Who has experience of this system? What do you think are the pros and cons? Would you welcome this system being implemented nationwide?

I think admission by distance can make sense for primary schools, because children are too young to go alone, and being allocated a school that's far can make parents' logistics a nightmare.

For secondary schools I'm not sure what to think.

On one hand I'd welcome getting rid of the tyranny of having to live next to good schools, and the admission by income/wealth which it indirectly causes.

On the other hand, I wonder if we can end up in situations where no person gets their preference. Eg what if I wanted school A, you wanted school B, but this random allocation allocates me to B and you to A? Is this a real risk? Is there a way around it?

Thoughts?

It’s generally advised on here to put a “banker” last on the list of preferences even if it’s bad, as it’s better to be in a neatby bad school.than a further away bad school.

It isn’t just good schools that would be in the lottery. I’d rather be at the bad school 100m away than the bad school 2km away (and I’m sure the same is true for those living 100m from that bad school)

perhaps we would both prefer the good school right in the middle, but the lottery means we miss out (luck of the draw) and both get the worst possible option, and the kids cross each other on the 2km journey

Well, the article admits that the reform has stopped that golden triangle where the house prices skyrocketed.

Brighton uses lottery within a catchment, which is different from the system of every school having a different catchment, which I had discussed.

Under Brighton's system it should be even easier to plan school numbers. If the council knows that there are, say, 600 kids in year 6 in a catchment, but only 500 secondary school places, that's not so much a problem of the lottery system being flawed, but of the catchment areas being set incorrectly and/or of local secondaries not having enough capacity.

The crucial question, not addressed in the article, is: would a distance-based system have prevented that? A distance system does not magically create new secondary school places

@SheilaFentiman I agree it's important to have a safe option, but I am not sure a lottery system will necessarily make much of a difference. Where I am, the safe schools are the undersubscribed ones, which no one wants, for one reason or another. I am not sure that a lottery system alone would necessarily change that much.

Even with a lottery system, I could still put down a less coveted school as my safe choice, and, even in a lottery system, it's quite possible that school will continue to be not very desired

Rolls are falling now, the bulge years are all but through most secondaries. We need fewer places, not more.

The lottery can't create or destroy places in school. It an

That's a comment from the parent who has not been offered a place at the schools they put as their preferred choice, not an independent statement - or even one from the Local Authority or government based upon actual sale prices; it would be difficult to conclude that the only reason behind house price inflation reducing is an admission policy when it could be for multiple reasons including average incomes, increased inflation making everywhere more expensive, changes in bank affordability calculations, knock on effects from people selling in other areas such as London to relocate to coastal areas, loss of major employers in the area and myriad other factors.

The article also states that there was going to be a change to the policy (but not that the LA policy had been changed at that point). As it was published in March 2017, shortly after National Offer Day, due to Local Authority policy and therefore new admissions arrangements to take into account any revisions having to be determined well in advance by Law, the timescales involved mean that applications for September 2019 would have been the last year before a significant change.