11 Plus Exams Forum

Is there any merit in listing a secondary school as first choice in the knowledge that most will have grammers as their 1st & 2nd choices? Would a place be more likely to be secured than putting the secondary as 3rd choice?
I know BCC says it doesn't matter since 1st& 2nd get discarded if the child doesn't qualify for a grammer place but our school head says that 1st choices are allocated 1st, then 2nd etc and by listing a preferred secondary as a 3rd choice you are at a disadvantage.
I accept that if the child passes they will miss out on a grammer place but I feel that pass or fail they are more suited to the secondary anyway.

If you put an upper school first and they pass you won't get offered a GS. Therefore if you put a GS second after an upper school it is a wasted choice. The usual advice is put them in the order you genuinely want to. There us a myths sticky above which addresses some of these issues.

See the 'myths and legends' section - the HT is misleading you.

If your child is taking the 11+ and you want a GS you must put this first.

If your child does not qualify then any GS preferences are ignored totally.

e.g
scenario one
GS1
GS2
US1
US2
Child qualifies and you are near enough GS1 then you get a place, if not then are you near enough GS2? If not and you are a Bucks resident you will get the nearest GS that CAN offer you a place (unless you have said you don't want this to happen)

scenario 2
GS1
GS2
US1
US2
Child does not qualify and not selection appeal is done - your preferences then become
US1
US2 because the GS are ignored

On that basis everybody will put GS as 1st and 2nd choice regardless of childs ability or actual preference.
There will then be an over subscription of 3rd choice for the US.

So once all the places are allocated to the US (in catchments, siblings, other criteria) is it possible that BCC then allocate based upon the preference order so the kid who puts down US as a 1st choice is picked above the kid who has the US as 3rd choice but failed to qualify for GS? Just a thought.

The US choices are treated equally - have you seen the PPT explanation? It might help.
https://schoolsweb.buckscc.gov.uk/schoo ... /index.asp" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Schools don't know where you have put them - a list of names goes to each school you are qualified for and the school says who is gets places according to their criteria - then the LA picks the highest preference Upper school which can offer him/her a place. This is then repeated untill all pupils have 'best match to order of choice' places.

bikeman wrote: is it possible that BCC then allocate based upon the preference order so the kid who puts down US as a 1st choice is picked above the kid who has the US as 3rd choice but failed to qualify for GS? Just a thought.

That would breach the admissions code, specifically paragraph 2.16(b) on p.31, and be immediate grounds for legal challenge, which wouldn't get as far as a courtroom before the council backed down.

[quote="xyzzy]That would breach the admissions code, specifically paragraph 2.16(b) on p.31, [/quote]

Thanks, it's quite clear on this.