mitasol wrote:
Do keep in mind that popular non-selective schools can be heavily oversubscribed. So unless the schools is a dead cert you may still need to add your local catchment school. Sorry if that appears patronisingly obvious but the fact you get offered a choice is often an illusion.
Which is why, of course, what one has is the right to
express a preference, not make a choice. The admissions authority must comply, but not if there are legal reasons not to. So state schools must have and publish an admissions policy which complies with the relevant legislation, and must use only that to rank applicants. (I know I'm teaching Granny to suck eggs, here,
mitasol, but just doing my 'public information film' bit here and highlighting one of the nuggets of wisdom that get missed by those who just go straight to the 'list schools and press Submit' bit of the admissions process

).