Is it worth applying for more than one school?

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stardoman
Posts: 1
Joined: Wed Sep 24, 2008 6:38 pm

Is it worth applying for more than one school?

Post by stardoman »

I know that my son will not get in our first choice of school and I fully expect to appeal. There is at least 1 other school that I would not mind him going to. However, that one is oversubscribed too.

Is it worth applying to more than 1 school, or should I just put the 1 school that we want him to go to?

Thanks, Mandy.
mitasol
Posts: 2756
Joined: Wed Feb 27, 2008 9:59 am

Post by mitasol »

Applying for only one school will not increase your chance of getting in. Use all your options - otherwise you could end up anywhere.
capers123
Posts: 1865
Joined: Sun May 13, 2007 9:03 pm
Location: Gloucestershire

Re: Is it worth applying for more than one school?

Post by capers123 »

stardoman wrote:I know that my son will not get in our first choice of school and I fully expect to appeal. There is at least 1 other school that I would not mind him going to. However, that one is oversubscribed too.

Is it worth applying to more than 1 school, or should I just put the 1 school that we want him to go to?

Thanks, Mandy.
NOOOO!

If you put only 1 school down, and don't get that then you will go to the absolute bottom of the pile for allocation. You may well find your child given a place at a school the other side of your county.

Use all your options. Put at least one school down that is a realistic option even if it's the lowest entry on your list.

For instance, we'll be putting down our Catchment School as 3rd choice. It's undersubscribed so if all else fails, at least DD will have a place within walking distance.

In our county, if you put a grammar as your first choice, but your child doesn't get offered a place there, then your second choice automatically becomes your first choice. Likewise if you put two grammars, and don't get then, the third choice becomes your de-facto first choice.

We do get people in Gloucestershire who only put down one choice in the mistaken belief that the admissions authority will HAVE to give them that school. That's not how it works, and there are children allocated schools 40 miles from home because of that. Unfortunately they might be 130 on the list, with 120 children nearer to the school allocated places, so they get given the nearest school with a vacancy once everyone elses preferences have been taken into account!

Your LEA may well have advisors on Secondary School Entry. Ours are mentioned in the 2009 Secondary School Entry booklet handed out at the start of term.

Don't forget that when you've been allocated a place, even if it's your lowest preference, you can appeal for the schools further up the list secure in the knowledge that at least you have a school place for September!
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perplexed
Posts: 490
Joined: Wed Jan 02, 2008 1:18 pm
Location: kent

Post by perplexed »

Stardoman, when you receive the admissions booklet from your LEA, take the time to read it properly from cover to cover more than once. Any questions that you have about it, seek advice from the Admissions section at your Local Education Authority. Do not automatically believe advice from headteachers, teachers or other parents. They are all frequently WRONG.

And to agree with all the others above, it would most likely be the most hideous error ever to just put one school down on your form. The only situation in which you would ever do this is if the school you are applying to will DEFINITELY be undersubscribed (and how could you be sure, and if it was would it be such a good school to choose)

Good luck.
cindy
Posts: 269
Joined: Mon Mar 05, 2007 7:27 pm
Location: somewhere in kent

Post by cindy »

some great advice given above.

I would like to add that once you have appealed to all three of your choices I know you can then appeal to any other.

After all, if you are going to do the written appeal, why not go on and submit it to others.

The more goals you create the more likly to score..

Cindyx
capers123
Posts: 1865
Joined: Sun May 13, 2007 9:03 pm
Location: Gloucestershire

Post by capers123 »

If you take Cindy's advice, it is a good idea to submit all the appeals at the same time. That way, they will each be heard in the main block of appeals for each school.

If you wait until after the third one has been heard before submitting another appeal, then there is much less chance of winning the later one - any 'spare' capacity may well have been used up during the main round of appeals, so the prejudice against the exisiting pupils at the school would be much higher.
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Etienne
Posts: 8978
Joined: Mon Dec 12, 2005 6:26 pm

Post by Etienne »

Can only endorse the comments above.

Put down your least worst options, otherwise you might be allocated the worst possible option!
Etienne
Bougalou
Posts: 435
Joined: Sat Mar 08, 2008 12:23 am

Post by Bougalou »

Please also remember that these are not choices, just statements of preference. We were allocated the fourth "choice" school last year, and I know of other parents who didn't include it on their list but were still allocated it. In our area there is no choice at all.
twellsmum
Posts: 349
Joined: Wed Jul 16, 2008 2:16 pm
Location: Tunbridge Wells, Kent

Post by twellsmum »

We are in West Kent, living within a mile of TWGGS which once sisters are allocated, then takes purely on distance from school. Every single girl from my daughter's primary school who wanted to go to TWGGS (and passed) was given a place last year (all 25 of them).

I was just going to put TWGGS on the form. There are two other girls' grammars in the next town (about four miles away) but one is a superselective (ToGS) which she doesn't have enough points for and the other one is fine but is a bus ride away. I don't want her to have a bus journey when she can walk to TWGGS in about ten minutes. Her teacher said to put the other girls' grammars on teh form but really I don't see the point! If she was allocated to either ToGS or Weald or indeed any other secondary school in the county then I would appeal for TWGGS anyway! Has anyone in this part of Kent just put down one school and got that school or should I do as the teacher says?
capers123
Posts: 1865
Joined: Sun May 13, 2007 9:03 pm
Location: Gloucestershire

Post by capers123 »

twellsmum wrote:We are in West Kent, living within a mile of TWGGS which once sisters are allocated, then takes purely on distance from school. Every single girl from my daughter's primary school who wanted to go to TWGGS (and passed) was given a place last year (all 25 of them).

I was just going to put TWGGS on the form. There are two other girls' grammars in the next town (about four miles away) but one is a superselective (ToGS) which she doesn't have enough points for and the other one is fine but is a bus ride away. I don't want her to have a bus journey when she can walk to TWGGS in about ten minutes. Her teacher said to put the other girls' grammars on teh form but really I don't see the point! If she was allocated to either ToGS or Weald or indeed any other secondary school in the county then I would appeal for TWGGS anyway! Has anyone in this part of Kent just put down one school and got that school or should I do as the teacher says?
It is possible that every child allocated a place in this years intake for TWGGS has an elder sister already in the school, and equally those at Weald could have no siblings . Unlikely, but possible.

The teachers recommendation is correct. Hedge your bets and put at least Weald on the form as second place (with TWGGS as first). Better still, put down a least-worst fall-back option down as last place. Otherwise, if both TWGGS & Weald were full, you could find your daughter in school in Maidstone, Rochester or Dover - again unlikely, but in Gloucestershire we're had children allocated schools 30+ miles away (and no bus or train route) when they didn't use up their choices!

If your daughter passed for TWGGS, then putting it first should more-or-less guarantee entry.
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