11 Plus Exams Forum

I am applying to Henrietta Barnet for my daughter but have been told by her current headteacher that if I don't put our local high school as first choice, as it is a popular school, she will not be offered a place there. I would want this school to be back up in case she does not get in to HB. On the other hand I am worried that if I put HB down as second choice, she won't be offered a place there even if she does achieve top marks in the tests as the guidance books say that if there are 2 offers, she will only be offered a place at the school which was ranked as higher preference on the application form. I would be really grateful if anyone could help clarify this?

Hi

Assuming your local school is in London, then you will get one offer - from the higest school or which you qualify, ie if you put HB first and pass thatis your offer, if you don't pass then you get the next school for which you qualify...in order of preference, if you do not put HB firs tthen you willonly get an offer if you A)pass the test and b) do no qualify for hte school whichyou put first...If however your local school is not in London and therefore not subject to the pan London agreement then things may be completely different...I suggest you check very carefully with the advice from the relevant admissions authority/ies, and not take too much stock from what I say - not the headmaster nor the school!

Hi

I am sure someone will confirm this, but the schools do not know the order in which you put schools on the CAF

If you put HB second and pass the exam you will not get a place there if the school you have put higher can offer you a place also. I also understand that if you take HB and do not pass ( assuming you put it first ) then that is written off and your choices move up one and hence your second choice becomes your first

Good Luck
Herman

chantal73 wrote:I am applying to Henrietta Barnet for my daughter but have been told by her current headteacher that if I don't put our local high school as first choice, as it is a popular school, she will not be offered a place there. I would want this school to be back up in case she does not get in to HB. On the other hand I am worried that if I put HB down as second choice, she won't be offered a place there even if she does achieve top marks in the tests as the guidance books say that if there are 2 offers, she will only be offered a place at the school which was ranked as higher preference on the application form. I would be really grateful if anyone could help clarify this?

You (and mad and hermanmunster) are right and the headteacher is wrong, possibly because the rules changed last year and he/she may be out of date.

Each admission authority (VA school, foundation school or LEA) is sent a list of applicants who have named that school on their CAF. They are not told where you ranked them. They then apply their criteria and produce a list of those to whom they wish to offer a place at the school, which are sent to your home LEA. The LEA looks for people with more than one offer, and tells the lower ranked schools to re-allocate the place. This continues until there is no movement. (In practice the admissions authorities send a ranked list for each of their criteria, but the effect is the same.)

So if you rank HB first and the local school second and if both accept you, your final offer will be HB and the place at the local school will be allocated to someone else. If only one of them offers you a place, that will be your offer. Or to put it another way, if you meet the criteria for the local school, your offer there will be withdrawn only if you have an offer from a higher-ranked school.

I'm so glad I double-checked. After all if school headteachers hold a meeting specifically about secondary school transfer and completing the forms, you would think they would have made sure they were up-to-date with the information. I suspect several parents will have taken the headteacher's advice and will have completed their forms incorrectly. Very sad.

chantal73 wrote:I'm so glad I double-checked. After all if school headteachers hold a meeting specifically about secondary school transfer and completing the forms, you would think they would have made sure they were up-to-date with the information. I suspect several parents will have taken the headteacher's advice and will have completed their forms incorrectly. Very sad.

Yes, Chantal, I agree. We often hear stories like this! I find it astounding that so many who actually work in the field of education seem either unwilling or unable to keep abreast of such important changes as this, especially when they are the very ones who are responsible for advising parents about the school application process.