My DD has qualified for Bucks 11+, but we live in Berkshire. Now, there is a local comprehensive which is also outstanding but oversubscribed. I have 4 spaces in CAF, and looking at historical data, I am not very sure if the order of preference will diminish the chances of getting in oversubscribed local comprehensive.

If I look at 2017 historical data of https://www.elevenplusexams.co.uk/schoo ... n-profiles , she can get a place in a Grammar (14 miles straight line from home). But, the 2018 data has changed this significantly.

What should I do? Put the local comp as the 2nd choice or the grammar as 2nd?

I am not considering moving home for school.

Always put the schools in your true order of preference. If you do not meet the criteria for your first choice, your second choice will be considered as if it was your first and so on.

If you put the local comp as your first choice and you meet the criteria for that, you will be offered a place there as that is the school you listed as your to preference.

If you put the Grammar first and you do not meet the criteria for there, your second choice (in this case the comp) will he looked at as if it was your first - and, if you meet the criteria you will be offered a place there.

It is called the equal preference system.

If you cannot be offered a place at the schools listed in place 1 or 2 your 3rd choice will be looked at as if it was your 1st and so on. It is important you have at least 1 school on your CAF you are guaranteed a place at otherwise, you may be offered any school that has a space if you do not meet the criteria for any of the schools you listed.

Here is an up to date version of the allocation distances.
You might be better posting this is the Buckinghamshire section. I suspect you are talking about Wycombe High School as this is the only one which would have covered the 14 mile distance in 2017. To be honest, I think this was a bit of anomaly (others such as Sally-Anne will know more if you get this post moved), and I would expect the 2019 allocations to be more in line with 2018, or smaller distances. You also need to consider the journey - that part of Wycombe is a bit of a nightmare in the morning, and it's not a journey I would want to do for 7 years.
In my view, if you are prepared for the journey & don't mind possibly wasting a space on the CAF (for example if you would be happy with one of the other 3) then there is no harm in putting it down. Others may consider it a complete waste of choice.
My apologies if it isn't Wycombe High School (I can't think it would be one of the Aylesbury schools from Berkshire, but my geography isn't great) - it would probably help if you said which school & people could give you better advice.

Thank you so much for your quick responses.

Thank you kenyancowgirl, for putting to rest my worry/doubt on equal preference system.

Thank you, scary mum. Yes, you are right, it was Wycombe High School Grammar I was referreing to. So now I need to weigh my worry against wasting one preference against available options.

Fair point, I will move this thread to Bucks forum.

You won’t be able to move it - a mod has to do that for you - I will ask them to do that.

To kenyancowgirl:

As a parent worrying about their first primary>secondary move and just having had our daughter's Kendrick results right on the wire (107.46), I just wanted to say thanks for the explanation of the equal preference system - it saves much angst, as it means we can still put Kendrick on the CAF (as that's where she'd really like to go even if the chances are utterly minuscule) and be assured that if she doesn't get accepted into Kendrick then her 2nd choice (Holt) will not suffer just because it was 2nd choice (we have got a 3rd choice but not a good 4th, so "wasting" a selection isn't really an issue for us).

So rather than trying to second-guess whether it matters whether or not we put Kendrick on the form at all and whether it matters that the 2nd choice is second and not first, we can follow your guidance and just put what she really would like and feel confident about it.

I wish this was explained a bit more clearly up front to parents; if it is we'd missed it!

Thanks ever so much!

Jon.