how do schools waiting lists work?

[millsa]

Can someone please explain to me how the primary schools waiting lists work? If I put School X as my 1st choice although we don't live close to the school, and I don't get a place, will I be put on a waiting list of School X anyway? Or do I have to request it? And can I expect to get a place at all, ever, if we don't live near the School X?

How does one move up the list? on the first come first served? will I be pushed down the list if someone moves near the school later and gets on the list too? And is it common to wait a year or two or even longer? errr.... sorry if I am asking obvious questions but I have no idea (as you can tell)

thanks!

[Fuschia]

Between offers being made and term

Starting you are automatically on the waiting list for all your choices snd if you reach the top, an offer will be made.

After term starts, you need to ask to go on the waiting list because they start a different type of one

Admission is always by criteria - usually distance

But once term starts, if a child leaves, the child in line for that Space might live quite a while away ... As many families don't switch once school has started

If someone moves in though who

Lives closer than you, they leapfrog over you I am afraid

[Coach Beth]

Criteria is based on distance. Therefore you can find yourself going up and down the list as people who move into the area and live closer to the school will move ahead of you.

You could stay on a waiting list as long as you like but as Fushia points out as the children (and parents) settle into a school they are less likely to accept a waiting list place as the year goes on. This means if you are really unhappy with a school or really wanting to get your child in to a specfic school your chances will go up as people above you are less likely to take up a place when offered one.

[Sanne Panne]

So if you put your nearest school first and your preferred (and by distance clearly "wishful thinking") school second (just because you don't trust the algorithm 100%) and you're offered a place at your nearest school and accept it... can you still go on the waiting list for the second school? I thought you could only go on the waiting list for schools that are higher on your list than the school that offered you a space.

We're happy with our list now but I'm now curious for the sake of theory...

[Coach Beth]

You automatically go on the waiting lists of schools higher up the list and stay on those waiting lists even after you accept a place. I'm not sure whether you automatically go on the list for schools lower down the list - I don't think you do. However, I do know that you can definately ring up and get put on the waiting list for any schoolin Southwark after the offers of school places have been made - even if it is a school that wasn't on your orginial list at all.

[Renata Hamvas]

To confirm what people have said above. When you receive an offer of a school, it will be the highest one on your list that is able to offer you a place. You will go on the waiting list for schools that were higher on your list automatically but not lower. If you change your mind and want a school lower on your list (or another school altogether). You can contact the admissions department and ask to go on the wating list for that school. After 31st of August when the school year starts, you will need to apply to be on the waiting list for a school, as it now will be an in-year admission. Sometimes schools send out letters to parents who were on the orignial waiting list to see if they want to be the list or not. Anyone being added to a waiting list goes into their rank order in relation to their rating in relation to the admissions crtieria of the school. This means that you can zigzag up and down waiting lists (eg if you are 12th, a place comes up, the first 10 people turn it down, no 11 takes it then you jump up to 1st on the list. If then a family gets a place for an older sibling (or forgot to tick the sibling box on the form), the younger one jumps up to the top and also, 5 people move into the area closer to the school than you, then you drop to 7th etc).

Renata