Manage Preference Reasons
When applying for a school place (either online or on a paper form), applicants can express one or more reasons (with supporting information where appropriate), to explain why they would prefer their child to go to a particular school. These reasons must be validated and quantified and are used in conjunction with additional information from the LA to rank students as part of the offer process.
Applicant / LA Reasons
As well as being edited manually, Applicant Reasons can also be populated via the ADT import process. LA Reasons are not populated in this way.
LA reasons are validated preference reasons that are used by the Make Offers process to rank students at their preferred bases. These reasons can either be entered manually or copied from the applicant reasons.
LA Only panel
The LA Only panel shows additional information from the LA.
Copy Applicant Reasons
The Copy Applicant Reasons function copies most of the entries in the Applicant Reasons section of Preference Reasons into the LA Reasons section for the selected receivers. All applicant reasons that have an entry are copied except for:
- Catchment
- Feeder Link
- Special Reasons 1, 2 and 3 (and their Weighting)
- Memos
The band details displayed in the Band Details section vary depending on whether the selected application is for a school in the Home Local Authority (including an Other Admissions Authority within the Home Authority). If the application is for an HLA school, then ASL band details are displayed. If the application has been received from a Local Authority that is not the Home Authority, then ALT band details are displayed.
You can use the Application Details | Preference Reasons | Band Details section to assign individual students to bands within the schools they have applied to. You can also use Assign Students to Band in Bases | Receivers | Preferences to add band applications to student records either individually or in bulk.
You cannot edit Band Details information once the Make Offers routine has been run.
Edit a Student's Band Details
You cannot edit Band Details information once the Make Offers routine has been run.
Edit Bands for Home Local Authority Applications (ASL Band Details)
If the Admissions Authority for the application is an Other Admission Authority (OAA) within the Home Authority (i.e. the school is their own admission authority), the Band Details fields are completed when the ASL file is imported. If the OAA is not using the ASL XML file, or if you need to edit these details prior to the offer being processed, these fields can also be completed manually.
Application Preference Catchments and Distances
The Calculate Catchments & Distances function enables you to calculate the distance from a child’s address to a particular preference, thereby confirming whether the child’s address lies within the school’s catchment area.
Once calculated, distances and in-catchments can be viewed using the View Preferences On Map function.
The View Preferences On Map hyperlink is only enabled if Use GIS is selected for the transfer group.
View Distance Calculation Errors and Status Messages
Errors and status messages that were generated during individual preference calculation can be viewed via the Distance Calculation Error/Status log.