Trying to make sense of offer & no offer of same score resul

[bluejay]

yes

Thanks Quas, so we should put down the school we really want regardless of whether you think your borderline or not. You never know what can happen with cut off scores each year.
You have nothing to lose however if you don't put the school down on the form there is no way of getting in.

didn't apply on the LA form because they thought they wouldn't get a place and so there were offers on 297

That would have been awful for these poor families who would have achieved more than the 297.

[Thumbsup]

Am i right in thinking that if you really want a particular school then you put that down if your DC achieved over the 300 mark.
If your child doesn't meet the cut off score criteria then your no. 1 choice is noted as something along the lines "you don't meet this school requirements" criteria and then your no. 2 choice becomes your 1st choice.

In the meantime if you get allocated the no.2 choice (should you meet that schools requirements) would you stay on the waiting list for no.1?

I really hoped this would be the case! I have this phobia that if I don't get 1st choice then I would have lost all hope for our 2nd choice (as this would be allocated to those who selected as 1st choice?) As 319 is a borderline score, various scenarios keep running through my mind. However, in the QMGS letter it does state that you must put your 1st choice school as the one you really want and not the one you think you are more likely to get. So this is what I shall do. But easier said than done! Lol.

[ToadMum]

Each school assesses your application against its published admissions criteria, completely blind to any other applications you may have made. Where you are ranked by them will determine whether you are eligible to be offered a place at the school through your LEA on March 1st; assuming eligibility at that and at least one other school, where you ranked the school on your CAF determines whether or not that school is the place you are offered. So if you really want a grammar place, even if your child is 'borderline' you put your grammar options first and your 'fall-back' comprehensive last. The LEA assumes you have done what they tell you to do and ranked your schools in your true order of preference. If you put the comp first and your child is ranked highly enough by that school to be offered a place, this is what you will be allocated. The LEA has no way of knowing that your real first choice was the school you ranked 2nd / 3rd / 4th or wherever.

[Petitpois]

Toadmum and just for absolute clarity - how does living in diff LEA, affect things. I am presuming the answer is absolutely NONE??

The hardest thing as somebody said is giving up the GS place, if its possible to get a very good local comp without the commute. Psychologically difficult thing to do, after all the selection and preparation effort.

[Turtlegirl]

No effect in applying from a different LA. My older two were offered places at schools in a different LA to the one we live in.

[ToadMum]

Toadmum and just for absolute clarity - how does living in diff LEA, affect things. I am presuming the answer is absolutely NONE??

The hardest thing as somebody said is giving up the GS place, if its possible to get a very good local comp without the commute. Psychologically difficult thing to do, after all the selection and preparation effort.

On the first point, it may help to think of each LEA fulfilling two roles:

- acting as agent for the residents within its boundaries, processing their requests for school places by liaising with their own schools directly and with the relevant other LEA for 'outside' schools

- acting as the agent for the state schools within its boundaries, collating all the applications for all those schools both directly from its own residents and from other LEAs acting as the agent for their own residents.

Hence you apply for all state places (with a very few exceptions) through your home LEA only and receive through them your single offer of a state school place.

CTCs and free schools in their first year of admissions are different, but just cloud the issue here.

No the second point, true. I guess you just have to think hard about the overall advantages and disadvantages. Good luck .