Do schools keep waiting lists, and how do they work?

Do schools keep waiting lists, and how do they work?

Ralph Lucas (Editor, The Good Schools Guide) gives expert video advice on: What kind of admissions criteria might a school apply?; How do schools choose which children to accept?; We don't live in the catchment area of a perfect school, can we still apply? and more...

Yes, all schools keep waiting lists. When you're looking at the school you would really like to go to but is clearly going to be hard to get into, then put it there on your preferences and you'll get on the waiting list. Say you're number 85, on some primary schools that's a mile and a half away and you never had a hope that you'll get into, but 2 or 3 years later, pupils may have moved on. Particularly if you're in an area where people move a lot, like Upton. They will get down to you and then you will suddenly get a letter saying "Do you want to check the place up?" So it's worth hanging on for waiting lists. They all have them, and particularly where you very much put a school as your first preference, you stay on that waiting list, and you keep having hope of getting into it.