Mutually swapping allocated school places?

[Charliefred]

My daughter and her friend have been given each others peferred choice of school and I am wondering if anyone has successfully arrange a mutual swap of allocated places.

[AMumInScotland]

I can't imagine they'd let you - if you turn down a place, there's no guarantee she's top of the waiting list for it, and vice versa. The place has been offered to one specific child, that doesn't mean it "belongs" to them to do what they want with.

[seeker]

No. Surely not. Imagine if you were the top of the waiting list at on of the schools and heard that this had happened.

[MrsGuyOfGisbourne]

ACn see this could be a screenplay tho', with each child turning up @ the preferred school under the other's name, and then after a suitable time delay 'changing their name by deed poll' to their own

[hocuspontas]

Are you in an area where the places are allocated by lottery? If so, you could try it! Otherwise - what mum said.

[Charliefred]

In response to the waiting list situation, the places have already been allocated so swapping shouldn't change anyone's position on the list? Good point though I hadn't looked at it from that perpective.

[Charliefred]

No we don't live in a lottery area, we have 2 selective schools and 1 new academy.

[admission]

This would not be allowed to happen under normal circumstances because the whole point is that if a school place becomes available it goes to the next pupil based on the admission criteria order.

There is obviously one circumstance when this could occur and that is if the two pupils were both first on the list for the other school, but that is very unlikely to be the case.

[stillfeel18inside]

OP - no, I don't think you can, but doesn't this just highlight how ridiculous the whole system is!

[prh47bridge]

Stillfeel... - No, I don't think this highlights how ridiculous the system is. If your child was first on the waiting list for a school, how would you feel if the child who was twentieth on the list managed to get in because they arranged to swap allocated places with someone else?

[lou031205]

I wonder how much the place would fetch on Ebay?

[stillfeel18inside]

prh47bridge - I didn't mean that it was ridiculous that you couldn't swap places! Just that there is a problem with the system when two schools manage to offer a place to someone who doesn't want it and two people who do want the places don't get them. The theory of parental choice is rubbish - schools do the choosing.

[prh47bridge]

Ah, I see what you mean.

I must admit I assumed that the OP and her friend got their second or third choices. Reading it again, I see the OP doesn't actually say that.

There is absolutely no way a child who hasn't requested a particular school should be admitted ahead of a child who has. If that has happened a clear mistake has been made and the OP and her friend should be complaining long and loud to the LA.

However, it is quite possible for this situation to arise where parent A puts school X as first choice and school Y as second choice whilst parent B puts school Y as first choice and school X as second choice. Depending on the admission criteria you may find that parent A's child gets a place at school Y and parent B's child gets a place at school X.

It used to be the case that many schools would give priority to those children who named it as their first choice. That led to problems for parents. Imagine you really wanted to get your child into school A with school B as your second choice, both schools being very popular. Under the old system if you missed out on school A there was a good chance you would miss out on school B as well - you'd only made it your second choice and it was already full with children who'd made it their first choice. For that reason admission authorities now have to use the "equal preference" system, which means whether you make a school your first choice or your last choice makes no difference to your chances of getting a place at that school. Your order of preference does still count, though - if the allocation process shows that you get into your first and third choice schools, say, you would only be offered the place at your first choice school.

I think the main problem with the current system is that there is no provision for popular schools to expand. Not all would be able to do so due to limitations on their site, but many could add more classrooms and accept more pupils if they were allowed to do so. That might leave the less popular schools half empty, but in my view it is up to them to sort their problems out.

[NorbertDentressangle]

lol at lou

[cumfyxtine]

Strikes me there is nothing to be lost by asking? but I expect they will say no

Presumably each lives closer to their 2nd preference school?