You might already know which local elementary school you want, you might not know. You might just start looking for or you might be on the verge of making a choice. Wherever you are, it’s important to make sure you have all the knowledge you want to make the right decision.

So, how do you choose and criteria what local elementary school is used to make decisions about who offers the place?

1. Decision makers – local elementary schools themselves do not decide who did it and did not come to their school. This decision was taken at the level of local authority, so that the school would not have an influence in their intake to try to attract local children through open days and parental meetings.

2. Religion – Many local elementary schools are denominations. That is, they follow faith, usually because they are next to the church or in the church parish. As a result, this local elementary school will use faith as an important part of the entry requirements – usually actually the number one item in the list for the faith school is the acceptance of the faith. So, if you have a Catholic school at your doorstep and you want your child to go there, then it’s likely they want your child to be baptized into Catholic faith.

3. Locality – maybe it seems clear, but the local elementary school wants local children. Furthermore, in the agenda for the decision to make local authority is the address of their home. If two children are competing to the same school place with identical backgrounds, then people who live in the school catchment area will get that place before which is not. It is important for local elementary schools because they are concentrated in residential areas to serve the needs of the community, unlike less concentrated secondary schools and serve a wider community when children are much older and have the ability to travel there independently.

4. Brother’s brother – Elementary school, as a community center where they exist, will always support family members than non-family members. So, if a applicant has an older brother or female in school, they are more likely to be accepted at school than applicants without sisters at school. This does not mean that children without brothers or sisters will not enter your chosen school, but need to be considered in smaller communities where elementary school is often quite small.

So, which elementary school you consider for your child, is always important to remember the possibility they are accepted to go there will be influenced by many factors, not just whether it’s on the road from your home. It’s always worth talking to school first and getting some input about how their choice criteria work. Each school will have a list of criteria that you can see to help you make the right choice.