Advice please - order of preference in application

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ducativalentino
Posts: 12
Joined: Mon May 14, 2012 2:04 pm

Advice please - order of preference in application

Post by ducativalentino »

I've heard some conflicting advice and I need your help please! My DD has been offered a place at both SHS and HSFG but isn't within the 120 for each. If we put HSFG first and then don't get it, SHS have said we jeopardize our place with them by not putting it first. Is this true? Apparently all those who did put SHS first, even if they are way below DD in the rankings will get a place. Can someone confirm if this is true or not?
Weaver
Posts: 107
Joined: Sun Mar 14, 2010 8:40 pm

Re: Advice please - order of preference in application

Post by Weaver »

ducativalentino wrote:I've heard some conflicting advice and I need your help please! My DD has been offered a place at both SHS and HSFG but isn't within the 120 for each. If we put HSFG first and then don't get it, SHS have said we jeopardize our place with them by not putting it first. Is this true? Apparently all those who did put SHS first, even if they are way below DD in the rankings will get a place. Can someone confirm if this is true or not?

Hello,

She won't have been offered a place yet - that can only happen once you've sent in the CAF and the council notify you in March 2015. The letter you've had tells you whether she achieved a qualifying mark in the test for that school, and if so, whether she is top 120 or her ranking number if she's not in the 'definites'. I think all schools have provided a useful summary of how far down the ranking order they have gone in previous years, so that should give you an idea of how likely you are to get in.

Bottom line - you need to put the school you want most first. If your daughter doesn't get her place there, the next on your list becomes your effective first choice, as if the other one never existed.

Hope that helps :)
DebsB
Posts: 144
Joined: Sun Sep 22, 2013 7:25 pm
Location: Cheltenham

Re: Advice please - order of preference in application

Post by DebsB »

Weaver is right. Put the schools on your form in your actual order of preference. The schools cannot and do not take their position on your CAF into account when they decide whether to offer your child a place.

When the schools say you may not get offered a place there if you don't put them first, it's only because they mean you might get offered the school you have placed first - and then obviously you won't get offered the schools you put lower down!
Guest55
Posts: 16254
Joined: Mon Feb 12, 2007 2:21 pm

Re: Advice please - order of preference in application

Post by Guest55 »

Schools don't allocate the places anyway - they have no idea where you put them on the CAF!

Put the schools in the order you want them ...
stroudydad
Posts: 2246
Joined: Sat Oct 08, 2011 2:25 pm

Re: Advice please - order of preference in application

Post by stroudydad »

Hi there,
As has already been mentioned some of the schools appear to have put a phrase in their letters along the lines of "you need to put this first if you want a place here.." Which is actually true if that school is your first choice.. The way the system works now is that if you don't get your first choice, your second choice becomes your "effective first choice" as if you had never put the first school in the first place.. So please put the schools in your order of preference...
ducativalentino
Posts: 12
Joined: Mon May 14, 2012 2:04 pm

Re: Advice please - order of preference in application

Post by ducativalentino »

Thanks all - massive help.

We do plan on putting our first choice but it is now good to understand the system better. It was definitely implied differently to me by one of the Grammar's :shock:
capers123
Posts: 1865
Joined: Sun May 13, 2007 9:03 pm
Location: Gloucestershire

Re: Advice please - order of preference in application

Post by capers123 »

ducativalentino wrote:I've heard some conflicting advice and I need your help please! My DD has been offered a place at both SHS and HSFG but isn't within the 120 for each. If we put HSFG first and then don't get it, SHS have said we jeopardize our place with them by not putting it first. Is this true? Apparently all those who did put SHS first, even if they are way below DD in the rankings will get a place. Can someone confirm if this is true or not?
False.

What the school is saying is that if you don't put the school first, your chance of getting allocated that school is lower. That's because the LEA will try and allocate you your first choice.

What you're thinking "is that unless I put the school first, they won't consider me". That's not what happens*. If you don't get your first choice, and have put SHS second, it becomes your 'effective first choice' and you will be considered for a place equally along with all other first choices. This is all carried out by the LEA, and the schools have no knowledge of how you ranked them on the CAF.

* It did used to happen 8 or 9 years ago with one particular faith school, who said in their admission policy that the children had to have put the school first to be considered. At that time, results of the grammar test were not given out to parents until allocation day. What ended up happening was parents who really wanted a grammar but had this school as a fall-back were forced to put it first, ended up getting allocated it, then had to appeal for a grammar place even though their child may have got the highest score in the 11+. This is now expressly not allowed under the Schools Admissions Code, but the 'folk memory' of it happening still persists in Playground Gossip.
Capers
ducativalentino
Posts: 12
Joined: Mon May 14, 2012 2:04 pm

Re: Advice please - order of preference in application

Post by ducativalentino »

Thanks Capers!

What is scary is that one the Grammar's when I telephoned again about it, expressively told me that it affected my chance of getting them by putting their school 2nd option, if I didn't get my 1st choice. :? Honestly, the school which has been the most helpful and knowledgeable so far is the local comp and not any of the Grammar schools.

I am glad I stumbled on this forum as it is proving so helpful in our decision process. :D
Tolstoy
Posts: 2755
Joined: Wed Aug 13, 2008 5:25 pm

Re: Advice please - order of preference in application

Post by Tolstoy »

ducativalentino wrote:Thanks Capers!

What is scary is that one the Grammar's when I telephoned again about it, expressively told me that it affected my chance of getting them by putting their school 2nd option, if I didn't get my 1st choice. :? Honestly, the school which has been the most helpful and knowledgeable so far is the local comp and not any of the Grammar schools.

I am glad I stumbled on this forum as it is proving so helpful in our decision process. :D
This is worrying and goes some way to explaining why year in year out this sort of question keeps popping up on here at allocation time. Just browse the threads here and previous years with no sign of it dying off as it should. The having to put an oversubscribed school first in order to ensure getting a place system has long been abolished many years ago and surely by now play ground gossip alone shouldn't be creating this sort of confusion. I do know that a governor at the primary school my boys used to attend was merrily doling out the same misinformation a couple of years back. I thankfully put DF right on that score or her DS might have lost his Grammar place at the time.

Maybe all primary schools should have a legal obligation to ensure that parents, staff and governors are given the correct information by way of meeting. I know some schools do this but many don't. I attended a meeting at my DSs new school and there it was 'this is a 1st choice school' pole position on their posters. Yes they wanted people to chose it over other options in the area but it does lead to confusion when filling in CAFs and they must be aware of this.
ducativalentino
Posts: 12
Joined: Mon May 14, 2012 2:04 pm

Re: Advice please - order of preference in application

Post by ducativalentino »

Thanks Tolstoy, it really does help to have people's advice who are more knowledgeable at this than me :D

To be fair, I haven't heard any 'playgroup chat' around the Grammar schools and applications - all my mis-information came directly from the Grammar schools! DD school is quite anti-Grammar so there is very little chat about it all. Luckily I found this forum to help clarify it all, otherwise I'd still be none the wiser.
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