Parents' Experiences of the Process of Choosing a Secondary School

over parents who live within the catchment area but have not formally expressed a
preference for that school.
2.5 The Code of Practice points out that there is some discretion over how places are
allocated when parents are asked to express more than one preference and a school
is oversubscribed. Priority can be given to the parents’ order of ranking but this is
not a statutory requirement. How this is interpreted by different LEAs is the source
of some of the variation in practice that exists concerning admissions.
2.6 Where a parent has been asked or chooses to express more than one preference for a
secondary school, how those preferences are used by admission authorities to
allocate school places is the subject of differing opinions. In general terms this
concerns whether the preferences a parent expresses should be considered in a rank
order or treated as if they are equal. The implications of this can be very important
for parents. If preferences are dealt with in the strict order of priority as expressed
by parents it may mean that a parent who is unsuccessful in obtaining a place at
their first preference school is unable to obtain a place at their second preference
school even if the school is nearby where the parent lives. Some LEAs avoid this
problem by ensuring that if a parent does not obtain a place at their first preference
school, a place is available at the local school as long as they have put it as their
second choice (see 4.1 below).
2.7 Those LEAs where preferences are regarded as if they are equal are able to manage
the system more easily and co-ordinate offers of school places. They can ensure
that offers are made at the same time to all parents. With these kinds of arrangement
LEAs are also able to take into account the travel consequences for parents and
travel costs for the LEA when allocating places. However, this can mean that,
where the LEAs have asked parents to rank their preferences in order they do not
invariably give a parent who has named a school first preference priority over
another parent who has named it second or lower.
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