School choices for Sept 2013

kjmtidea

Definitely wait, I won't be doing my sons until next month when I get his grammar test results.

Spendless

balletshoes wrote: »

my DD's friend's mum did the same, had her application submitted before she visited any schools. However, she was adamant her child wasn't going to any other school so she only put one preference down (which is another topic altogether, because I don't know what she would have done if she hadn't got into that school :cool:).

I only put down one choice for my son. That's because the main criteria here is catchment and I'd attended an evening at my son's Primary school, that is taken by the Secondary school HT and the question was asked 'how many children are your admission limit for the year' and how many children are you aware of living in catchment (attending the feeder Primary schools)'. The answer was there was enough places for the children in catchment and though there wasn't many spaces beyond that, I knew that should there be an over-subscription for catchment kids, distance factor would kick in and we were close enough to the school to not have to worry. If I'd been in a different admission criteria though, or close to the catchment outskirt, I'd have put an alternative down.

balletshoes

Spendless wrote: »

I only put down one choice for my son. That's because the main criteria here is catchment and I'd attended an evening at my son's Primary school, that is taken by the Secondary school HT and the question was asked 'how many children are your admission limit for the year' and how many children are you aware of living in catchment (attending the feeder Primary schools)'. The answer was there was enough places for the children in catchment and though there wasn't many spaces beyond that, I knew that should there be an over-subscription for catchment kids, distance factor would kick in and we were close enough to the school to not have to worry. If I'd been in a different admission criteria though, or close to the catchment outskirt, I'd have put an alternative down.

I understand that - however my DD's friends mum was definitely taking a gamble, as like me, her daughter didn't fit into any of the criteria for priority for the school she listed as her only preference (not in catchment, no sibling already at the school, no LA support, and feeder school doesn't count at all for priority at this school).

Spendless

That's certainly a risky strategy, though sometimes you can get a 'feel' for how likely a school is to be oversubscribed in the preceding years. I knew son's year (current yr 8) would be manic as it is the year of millennium babies and we'd all 'fought' over nursery places and even pre-school places several years earlier. I know that the current yr 7 locally had similar issues. When it comes to the current yr 6, I also know there was a dip in the birth rate as I was on a playgroup committee at that point, and a nearby pre-school closed due to drop in figures.