kenyancowgirl wrote:
Just to add that the common Application Form (CAF) is, of course, not a form of “choice” but an expression of preference.
Nobody is guaranteed a school of their choice but are allowed to express their preferences. It is semantics of course in some situations/areas but an important distinction in others
Following on (not at all a hobby horse of mine, of course

)...
The 'choice' you do have is which schools you do - or don't- name as your preferences. You do not need to name every grammar school you got your DC to sit for, just because they got a reasonable score, if the result is that you have no school at all on your list that is actually as near to a certainty as can be. Similarly, don't include a school that you don't want at all (unless as a 'least worst option' final preference). By all means, express frustration that you got School D and not School A, when last year's application patterns would have got you a place at School A - but getting School D is not in itself the result of a ridiculous, malicious act on the part of the local authority, who only see that you have asked for a place there and are wondering why you are just not a little bit more grateful that they didn't have to go down as far as your School E, F, or that school three buses away that has the smallest PAN in the area and is never popular enough ever even to get to that and so is the 'nearest undersubscribed school' for everyone within a 20 mile radius

'.