11 Plus Exams Forum

According to the Admissions Code, if a school has a place available, and someone applies for it, they should be allocated the place (other than at grammar schools, which may keep places unfilled if there are no qualified applicants). If you were to apply, say, from two counies over for a year 3 place at a school with a PAN of 30 with only 29 on roll should get you the place. By default, your DC would fall into the 'All other applicants category. However, were there no place available at that school, you would be turned down and the LEA would not be obliged to find you a place until you had a confirmed address in their area. (Definitely how Essex CC operates).

In the scenario of a school with a spare place, if a child is offered that place would they be able to hold on to it while still going to a school in another county? Or would they have to give up their current school place in order to accept the offer of the spare place?

Hera wrote:Herts council were very clear with us that we could not apply until we had an address in Herts and were living at that address.

Were you trying to apply via Herts? In that case, you will need an address within the county.

Did you try applying via the LEA where you used to live? We applied via our old LEA and selected school in Herts with vacancy.

Hera wrote:I can only think that in your situation it was a voluntary aided faith school or the schools were so under-subscribed that they knew they could guarantee a place? But even in that scenario I am really surprised that you were offered places in advance.

The school was a normal state junior school controlled by LEA.

streathammum wrote:Interesting. I wonder what would have happened if someone else had moved into the catchment of the school you chose in the three months between you being offered the places and starting at the school - would you have lost one of the places to the person who was higher than you in the admissions criteria? Or is there a guarantee that once you've been offered an in-year place to start some months in the future it can't be taken away?

In that scenario, the children living in the catchment will have higher preference. So there is a risk.

streathammum wrote:In the scenario of a school with a spare place, if a child is offered that place would they be able to hold on to it while still going to a school in another county? Or would they have to give up their current school place in order to accept the offer of the spare place?

We did not have to give up places in old school. As long as end and start dates do not overlap, an offer in a school does not mean you have to give up place in another. We accepted the offer in November, DS continued in old school till February. Tenancy agreement was signed in January.

ToadMum wrote:According to the Admissions Code, if a school has a place available, and someone applies for it, they should be allocated the place (other than at grammar schools, which may keep places unfilled if there are no qualified applicants). If you were to apply, say, from two counies over for a year 3 place at a school with a PAN of 30 with only 29 on roll should get you the place. By default, your DC would fall into the 'All other applicants category. However, were there no place available at that school, you would be turned down and the LEA would not be obliged to find you a place until you had a confirmed address in their area. (Definitely how Essex CC operates).

This makes sense and is in line with my experience. As I said in my original post, there is no point keeping an empty space in a class and give up pupil funding when you have someone interested to join the school.

Daogroupie wrote:Which schools are you planning to apply for? DG

Girls Grammar ideally. Is Riki still a grammar ? Chorleywood potentially but is a little far from Watford.. Should be able to get in via results (hoping), but competition is high... Anything short of grammar and would be doing in justice.

Thank you all for your help in this matter.. I need to absorb, research and may get back with some more questions. Thanks again.

Parmiters and Clement Danes have non catchment places.

Parmiters just three but Clement Danes a lot more.

So you can apply to sit SW Herts outside of Hertfordshire because of those places. DG

In my LA we had to physically be in our new house, it wasn't enough to have exchanged/completed (they even asked me to 'call' them from the new house - I could have been anywhere!) I also made sure our former LA was aware as it was Feb/March and when we'd completed our CAF in October we were with that LA (even though we were in the process of moving)

Also, if you already own another property, even if it is rented out, that is deemed as your main property. This is to prevent fraud.

Ours wasn't as straightforward as the post a couple of posts ago. My advice would be to move before the CAF deadline, although owning another house in Manchester makes it more complicated.

Girls Grammar ideally. Is Riki still a grammar ?

There are no grammar schools in Herts, only partially selective comps. The Girls Grammar, if you are referring to WGGS, is no more a grammar school than Rickmansworth. They both select 25% by academic test and 10% via music.