Time to submit the CAF. Does the order matter?

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Curious__George
Posts: 32
Joined: Wed Oct 22, 2014 2:28 pm

Time to submit the CAF. Does the order matter?

Post by Curious__George »

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Last edited by Curious__George on Fri Oct 31, 2014 11:48 pm, edited 1 time in total.
kittymum
Posts: 925
Joined: Thu Dec 11, 2008 10:42 pm

Re: Time to submit the CAF. Does the order matter?

Post by kittymum »

Yes because you will be offered the highest preference for which you qualify (whether that be by score or distance) - you must put your schools in the order you rank them. If you put for instance Kendricks 4th on your CAF you will be offered it only if you cannot be offered a place at the 3 schools above it. Your LA is not trying to trick anybody, nor are they mind readers, they assume the schools are listed in their order of preference. Every year people fail to do this and so miss out on their preferred options.
ToadMum
Posts: 11946
Joined: Wed Jan 18, 2012 12:41 pm
Location: Essex

Re: Time to submit the CAF. Does the order matter?

Post by ToadMum »

Schools must rank all applicants according to the school's published admissions criteria, without reference to where any applicant ranked the school on their CAF; in fact they are not permitted by law to have this information.

However, each applicant's ranked list is used by their LA to decide which school of those on the applicant's list that says it can offer them a place to allocate them. He the applicant can only be offered a place at one school, they will be allocated a place there, but if at more than one, they will be allocated a place at the school which they ranked furthest up on their CAF.

So it cannot make any difference to the school where you ranked them, but it could make a lot of difference to the applicant...
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stevew61
Posts: 1786
Joined: Fri Nov 17, 2006 9:54 pm
Location: caversham

Re: Time to submit the CAF. Does the order matter?

Post by stevew61 »

The complaint concerned an
application for a place in September 2008. The Ombudsman completed the
investigation in December 2008.
The CAF system has moved on since then.
Curious__George
Posts: 32
Joined: Wed Oct 22, 2014 2:28 pm

Re: Time to submit the CAF. Does the order matter?

Post by Curious__George »

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Last edited by Curious__George on Fri Oct 31, 2014 11:49 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Curious__George
Posts: 32
Joined: Wed Oct 22, 2014 2:28 pm

Re: Time to submit the CAF. Does the order matter?

Post by Curious__George »

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Last edited by Curious__George on Fri Oct 31, 2014 11:50 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Tinkers
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Location: Reading

Re: Time to submit the CAF. Does the order matter?

Post by Tinkers »

Jill will get A, but could go on the waiting list for B after allocations (depending on admissions in her area).

Jane highlights why you should always put the schools down in your order of preference. She will get her first choice on the CAF. If she found out she could have got a place then she could also ask to go in the waiting list.

As it stands you can only have one offer. If you got offers from all schools on your CAF, then to ensure schools don't go over PAN, they wouldn't be able to offer more than the PAN as they cannot predict who will accept.

As it stands I think the system works as long as parents know to list the schools in their genuine order of preference.
mad?
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Joined: Thu May 01, 2008 6:27 pm
Location: london

Re: Time to submit the CAF. Does the order matter?

Post by mad? »

Sorry I posted a long reply but it has disappeared. In short, what Tinkers said.
mad?
Sally-Anne
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Location: Buckinghamshire

Re: Time to submit the CAF. Does the order matter?

Post by Sally-Anne »

Curious__George wrote:In my view, a student should be offered admission by all schools he or she is eligible for. Once an offer for a school is accepted, then at student should be released from other schools. This will ensure that merit always wins and the choice is always with the student. It cannot be that hard to manage this process, given that the LA and schools have 6 months from the time offers are made in March.
That is completely unworkable, and chaotic on so many levels I can't even begin to describe them!

The choice is with the student - they have to make up their minds by 31st October 2014 for September 2015 admission. If there is uncertainty about whether a child's score/distance from the school will qualify them, they can take a risk on ranking that school first.

Provided there is an acceptable school that is certain to be offered somewhere further down the list, the other 5 preferences can be risks of any sort.

What you are proposing is simply "licence to dither a bit longer".
stevew61
Posts: 1786
Joined: Fri Nov 17, 2006 9:54 pm
Location: caversham

Re: Time to submit the CAF. Does the order matter?

Post by stevew61 »

Curious__George wrote:
stevew61 wrote:
The complaint concerned an
application for a place in September 2008. The Ombudsman completed the
investigation in December 2008.
The CAF system has moved on since then.
In what way? Could you explain please?
Findings
The Admissions Code states that admission authorities for all maintained
schools must not operate first preference first admission arrangements. In other
words they must not consider applicants who have put the school first before
any others. All applicants should be considered at the same time regardless of
preference. For this reason the Ombudsman decided that the pupil should have
been offered a place at Herschel Grammar School and an offer has now been
made. The Consortium Grammar Schools have agreed to change the way
places are offered for the 2009 intake and not operate first preference first. All
applicants will now be considered, not just those who place the school first on
the application form.
Please rank your schools in order of your real preference, every year on the forum in March we get a few sorry tales of parents who mess it up.
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