Morning, sorry if I sound daft. If my son does pass his eleven plus do I just write down the school I want him to go to on the normal school admissions paper or is there a different form to fill in??? Or is it don’t through the school??? Sorry for sounding stupid

Have a good read of your local authority's website / booklet on the subject of the secondary school application process. You apply for all state schools (with a very few exceptions) via the Common Application Form (CAF) of your home authority, even if some of the schools are in a different area.

List the schools in your true order of preference. Especially do not put your catchment school above one which you would prefer your DC to attend because someone told you that 'you will lose your catchment place if you don't put it first'. You won't. Whatever order you list schools in, if you qualify for more than one, whichever one you listed higher up on the form will be one you get.

On the other hand, if none of the schools you list are able to offer your DC a place, your LA will allocate a place at the nearest school to your home address which is able to. This may not be your catchment school and may in fact be miles away and as undesired by you as it is by enough other folk as to leave it with spare places on allocation day. So remember to put a 'sure bet' school as your last preference, even if it is your 'least worst' preference.

Oh, and please remember that you are expressing preferences, not making choices (there is a legal difference ).

Good luck to your DS for results day .

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Outside of a dog, a book is a man's best friend. Inside of a dog it's too dark to read.Groucho Marx

Some schools require a supplementary application form as well as listing them on the CAF. Do check the schools you are interested in,

Good point. I think our local authority includes a reminder in a message on the online CAF if you select a school which does (or at least it did, last time we made and application), but not all do. Which of course catches out those who don't think it necessary to read schools' admissions policies before naming them as a preference .

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Outside of a dog, a book is a man's best friend. Inside of a dog it's too dark to read.Groucho Marx