When making choices for high school - what reasons do they care about?

[KatyMac]

She is in a school out of catchment which is a feeder school for where we want her to go

The school we want her to go to is closer than her catchment school

They won't care that we childmind & it would be easier to drop her off at the school we want her to go to (because of our drop off of other children), will they?

Anyone?

I am filling the form in now

Sorry, as far as I know, they won't.

Lovely - I won't waste time writing it in then

I love systems - they never make sense

Thanks

I know what you mean. A friend of mine lost 50% of her business when her sone never got into the primary school she had been dropping off/collecting at, even though he was in catchement. It was an oversubscribed year so they drew the circle closer.

As someone said in the Guardian today (Education section), one of the biggest mistakes parents make is using up highest preferences on schools they have no hope of getting into.

Sadly, they won't care.

Well I am hoping that feeder school attendance means something of course I won't know until March

Yes it would - but only if that's actually stated in the school's admission criteria- and if it is, obviously places would go to children IN catchment AND at a feeder before your DC, sadly. You should be able to get the trend figure from the school, as in how far 'down the list' they accepted in previous years though of course this guarantees nothing THIS year.

The list goes

1. in public care
2. SEN
3. feeder school
4. Siblings
5. Proximity
6. Medical

So DD is 3 & possibly 5 as she is closer to this school than her catchment school

Last year was oversubscribed & used 1,2 & 3

This year is ikely to be oversubscribed too

Can I ask where 'catchment' comes into that list? Because obviously 'feeder school' and 'catchment' may not be the same thing! I assume the school does have a catchment as such? Not all do!

Have you asked the school directly what your DCs chance of a place is?

When we chose a Secondary school for DD1 last year I had heard all the usual local rumours about not getting in etc. I asked the headteacher on the open day what the chances of getting a place were and when he found out our address he said we would be guaranteed a place and although they were usually over subscribed, he then went on to list the towns (huge catchment are) which were borderline.

The school I want to go to doesn't

The one I don't want does

Open evening is on Thursday