Grammar sixth form entry

[CurlyGirlHW]

Hi. I am applying for my daughter to join a grammar school for sixth form / A-levels. They all use the ApplicaaOne system for applications.

It's asking me to rank my choices in priority order. Does anyone know if for example we get our no. 2 and no. 5 choices accepted, are we forced to take no. 2 or can we take no. 5?

Wondering how important the ranking is and how tied to it we will be. Thanks in advance!

We applied last year and ranking seemed only preliminary for us. On GCSE results day we had to post evidence of actual results and were free to accept several choices and enrol. It was quite confusing at the time. We made sure to cancel the enrolment of the ones we definitely did not want. With DD’s top choice they initially offered one A level she did not have a first choice so there was some negotiation (very oversubscribed grammar). I am not so sure whether Applicaa is working optimally yet. One of the schools admissions department did tell us to email in too.

Thanks. That's helpful. When you say Applicaa might not be working optimally, are you suggesting an email to their admissions dept. to check they have our application?

From what I remember, we got an email from Applicaa once an application had been received. It was just one school we applied to we never heard anything back and so there it appears applicaa had not worked. As it was only DD's 4th choice we did not bother following up.

I think it was in August when you have a narrow window to upload GCSE results (few hours only sometimes) when the system was at times overwhelmed. The admissions lady at one school admitted to them struggling so just see how it goes. It is relatively new system, I think devised to stop too many enrolling for different schools. It may well be working optimally by now.

It was quite stressful in August on results day. The Aplicaa system would not let us load the results and the cut off time for the 1st choice school was something ridiculous like 10.30. Fortunately I managed to speak to the admissions team so they were able to check my son’s results (via his name and DoB) at their end. It was a couple of hours later when I was able to upload the details.

It is probably best to be mentally prepared for chaos on results day. DD has a close friend who got pretty much all 9s but a random 6 in English language and nearly got bumped off her English A level at a superselective. On a remark of the English language papers, said friend got a 9! It had been completely wrongly marked. Unfortunately these things do happen and system errors do occur etc, it may be rare but Applicaa last year seemed to be an issue for several people we know. Luckily the Admissions Teams are all used to handling this manually anyway so hopefully in most cases it ended up being fine anyway.

@CurlyGirlHW The ApplicaaOne process for school sixth form entry breaches School Admissions Code clause 2.4 because schools should not ask for supplementary information that has no bearing on the admissions decision (when Local Authorities ask for rank order as part of formal coordination for Year 7, the info isn't shared with the school). They do say in their blurb that the ranking will only be used to help schools with their planning, but they have no control over how it is used.

If I were you, I would create separate accounts on ApplicaaOne for each application, using different email addresses. Then you won't have to rank them.

If you or your child has a gmail address then you can use the same address repeatedly with added punctuation, like this:
myname@
m.yname@
my.name@
myn.ame@
... the Gmail server ignores the punctuation so you will still get the emails, but the slight differences will allow you to make multiple ApplicaaOne accounts.

@CurlyGirlHW fyi, this Schools Adjudicator decision corroborates the fact that the ApplicaaOne process breaches the admissions code: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/hampstead-school-and-haverstock-school-12-january-2026

Thought I would share our experience as my DD visited the grammar schools to apply for 6th form and decided they weren't for her and didnt apply so went to a catholic 6th form instead and very quickly hated it. We then went back to the grammar 6th forms and within 2 days she had a place at a grammar.

There is a lot of movement in those first few weeks so even if she doesnt get a place and they get good GCSE's then its worth reaching out in the first few weeks of term.

hello - on the off change does anyone know if Tonbridge Grammar has any flex on their sixth form conditional offers. We have a conditional offer and overall not worried about grades but those 2 6s in science may be two 2 5's....Just not a science kid.

@alice732 the chance of anyone happening upon this thread noticing your question about a specific grammar are quite slim, but if you start a new thread with something like 'Tonbridge Grammar sixth form' in the title, there is a better chance of it being spotted.