Unable to programatically check a checkbox in jQuery

I have been trying to mark a set of checkboxes as checked using jQuery. I cannot seem to work out why.

Javascript:

function getProjects(course){

console.log("getProjects");
var data = {
  "fn" : "pLoad",
  "course" : course,
  "ajax" : "true"
};
$.ajax({
  type: "GET",
  url: SERVICE_URL, //Relative or absolute path to response.php file
  data: data,
  contentType: "application/json",
  success: function(response) {
    console.log("Recieved Projects!");
    console.log(response);
    var i, list = "";
        for (i = 0; i < response.length; i++) {
            var cid = "#" + response[i].name[0];
            console.log("setting checked: " + cid);
            console.log($(cid).length);
            $(cid).attr("checked");
        }
  }
});

}

HTML:

<td id="blockC" style="width:25%">
                <a href="#" id="expand" data-role="button" data-iconpos="notext" data-icon="arrow-l">Expand</a>
                <hr />

                <label for="core">Core</label>
                <input id="core" type="checkbox" value ="Core">

                <label for="adultScotland"> Adults(Scotland)</label>
                <input id="adultScotland" type="checkbox" value ="adultScotland">

                <label for="adultEngland">Adults(England)</label>
                <input id="adultEngland" type="checkbox" value ="adultsEngland">

                <label for="cFScotland"> Children and Families(Scotland)</label>
                <input id="cFScotland" type="checkbox" value ="cFScotland">

                <label for="cFEngland">Children and Families(England)</label>
                <input id="cFEngland" type="checkbox" value ="cFEngland">

                <label for="epilepsy"> Epilepsy</label>
                <input id="epilepsy" type="checkbox" value ="epilepsy">

                <label for="noCare">Non Care</label>
                <input id="noCare" type="checkbox" value ="noCare">

                <br />
                <hr />
                <br />
                    <form style="width:100%">
                    <input id="name" type="text" placeholder="Name" style="width:100%"/>
                    <input id="link" type="text" placeholder="Link" style="width:100%"/>
                    <a id="save" href="#" data-role="button">Save</a>
                    <a id="delete" href="#" data-role="button">Delete</a>
                    </form>
                </td>

From the Logs I can confirm that cid is using a valid ID every time the script runs. The goal here is that when I click on a 'course' the script will check each checkbox for the projects that the course belongs to.

The log tells me that the server is returning the correct projects.

I haven't got a clue why this isn't working. Any help would be appreciated. :)

EDIT

this is the log: