Petunia wrote:
Thanks for your reply.
I have read a lot of posts in the Devon section, but I'm still unsure exactly what a 'yes' means. I know it's not a guarantee of a place, but how many 'yes' letters are sent out in relation to the number of places available? We've got to move house in the next couple of months, so (if we get a 'yes') I'm trying to work out whether we can assume we should move into the Torquay area.
We are in a very similar situation where we live. DS qualified for a place in one of the schools for which he passed the exam, but it is not a guarantee of a place. All it means is that we are allowed to put that school on our CAF form and as long as his score is high enough, we will get in. The school didn't disclose anyone's scores which means we have no clue at what position he ranked. The same 'congratulations, you are now eligible to apply' letter went out to over 700 children who passed the exam while the school takes fewer than 200. I know the number is reliable, as it came in an official email from one of the consortium schools. Another popular school in our area typically passes 2-3x as many children as places available.
The number of candidates who are told they are eligible depends on how many other schools there are in the area. If there are a lot of competing schools, more children get an 'eligibility' status, as the assumption is that most of them will sit exams for multiple schools and there may be a significant number of those who are eligible for 2, 3 or more schools. By the time people have decided on their first choices, the number of children interested in each individual school becomes much lower than the number of children with the 'eligible for a place' status. You can't second-guess what everyone else will decide, so the best thing you can do is list the school on the CAF form in the order of your true preference and hope you will get it.
Unless you know how well your child has passed the exam, you can't assume anything about which school you will get, so if you need to move before the allocation of places, it's probably safest to move somewhere from where it will be possible to get not only to your 1st choice of school, but also 2dn and 3rd... Good luck!