Ibstock Place acceptance date

[richmondven12]

Ibstock place acceptance date is 1/3 way earlier than any other schools - so if you were waiting for a place elsewhere would you have to loose your deposit?

[MrsGuyOfGisbo]

You could contact them and ask? Do you have gto pay the deposit on acceptance? If so, sounds like you will lost it if you bale out, but then presumably they need to move on to their waiting list if you don't take it up.What is your preferred school? You could contact your preferred, explain that you really prefer them and ask if you could have a heads-up.

[richmondven12]

She is on WL at PHS and LEH plus waiting for state options, both of which will notgive any indication on where and how likely she is to get a place. It just seems odd that IBS set their date so early. The registrar at IPS is not the most helpful....Have anyone in previous years had the same experience?

[MrsGuyOfGisbo]

For safety's sake sounds like the best thing to do is pay the deposit and just think about it as amortising over the length of her schooling in the event you lose it.

[AnotherNewt]

Yes, read the terms carefully - when do you need to give notice you are not taking up the place to make sure you do not also become liable for the first terms fees.

Losing the deposit is I'm afraid the price of hedging.

[jeanne16]

It is a well known tactic of some schools as they do quite well out of lost deposits. Has always put me off certain schools but it sounds as if you won't have much choice.

[MrsGuyOfGisbo]

But if the people can willy nilly change their minds without cost the school can be left with a deficit - can't just magic up additional pupils if people are hedging their bets - their own waiting list will have gone elsewhere.
You pay a deposit to secure the place - if you don't really want it, then don't accept the place that maybe someone else really does want, but not having made the first cut will instead reluctantly accept the PH etc place that they are offered but would prefer IPS...!

[Thisdoesnotgeteasier]

But this is not about people changing their minds "willy nilly." The other private schools in the area have later acceptance dates - after the state school allocation is announced. That is a reasonable approach. It typically allows parents a few days to consider the state school they have been allocated before making a decision.

Yes - it's reasonable that if someone accepts a private school place and pays the deposit but subsequently changes their mind because they get a later offer from elsewhere. However in this specific case the school is essentially forcing the hand of parents too early.

[MrsGuyOfGisbo]

Then gracefully turn down the place so someone on the WL who is really keen can take it, rather than being your reluctant other choice.
It matters to schools that the kids and parents there really want to be - particularly in the smaller schools.
Smaller schools also suffer disproportionately to large ones if people back out and expect their deposit back. Id St Paul's lose one or two, there will be people queuing round the block to take the place, or if they weren't would make a smaller dent. So unsurprising a small school needs to make that judgement, for the sake of the quality of staffing and facilities for those already there, and those keen to join.

[MrsGuyOfGisbo]

And if you are using any school as a backup in case you don mot get into a specific state school - hardly indicates a keenness to be there! Local state schools are vastly different places to the local indies.

[Thisdoesnotgeteasier]

Ibstock is not a small school and in any case it's not going to have a problem filling all its places - it has a competitive entrance process.

The OP's approach is not unreasonable. Many parents/pupils are in the same place - just because they prefer another school doesn't mean they aren't keen. Places at many of the SW London schools are heavily over subscribed and waitlists are the norm. It would make it easier for parents who are expected to put down large sums of money if all the schools had similar deadlines.

The OP is in a tough quandary as she(?) may have to take a chance on placing a deposit that she may lose if one of the more preferred school comes through but, if it doesn't, and she takes the advice to walk away from the IP offer she may not have great options for DD.

[AnotherNewt]

There's two weeks until the deadline, and there might be news about likelihood of the other schools using their waiting list.

Is your DC at a prep? Try asking head or a teacher with responsibility for transfer what the other schools are saying. Sometimes they know early that their level of acceptances is higher than typical and that it's highly unlikely they'll need to use the WL at all.

BTW, it's not a hugely anomalous private school deadline here - they are pretty much all in early March. And they're not infinitely extendable/flexible, because schools want people to make their choice so enrolments can be finalised.

The only buggeration factor is that the pan-London state school offers system usually once starts spitting out emails at 5pm, so deadline on offers day doesn't work for those considering both sectors.

[richmondven12]

Thank you all for comments. mybissue with it is that most other private schools have their acceptance date 5 or 6 of marxmch allowing the state allocations filter down the lists. IPS acceptance date is forcing our hand too early, I just wondered whether that is what they normally do or is it a new strategy this year? Perhaps they did not over offer as much with the hope of being able to make a second round of offers once the people who def would prefer another school?

[amidawsh]

personally i think it is outrageous of Ibstock to do this.
My earliest private offer deadline is 5th March. The latest is 16th March.

It is only fair to ask parents to make a decision when they have all the facts.

Maybe they want definite numbers so when all the panic phone calls come after people don't get their state school of choice, they know if they have spaces or not?

[Peanutbutterrules]

Sounds like a money making machine to me. Forcing parents hand early on and ensuring that anyone who chooses state over Ibstock pays a deposit. Not a great attitude to parents.

[Thisdoesnotgeteasier]

Do you have a good sense of what state school you are going to get and how that ranks in your mind versus IP?

[richmondven12]

Waldergrave and TGS (highly unlikely).

We have another offer. From a very well regarded girls school but we are unsure about it as our daughter is not terribly sporty, whichbseems to be the USP of that school.

[amidawsh]

In your situation, now that you have an offer and nothing to lose, I would tell them you can't let them know until 2nd March. See what they say.

I did that with a prep school - it was a back up. They weren't happy but they said ok. I'm sure I wasn't the first or the last to do that. It may be different with secondary but worth a shot?

[Thisdoesnotgeteasier]

You are in a pretty strong position to do as amidawash says. Waldegrave is a great state option - we are heavily leaning that way over private at the moment.

[coldandold]

So you have two independent offers and are waiting for state offers. Surely you can at least release one of the independent offers now?

It is much tougher for the less in demand schools to manage their admissions - everyone applying to them has probably applied for another 3-5 they prefer.

It's not unheard of for Ibstock to have places available very late in the game so I can see why they'd want to encourage early decisions.

Pick the independent you like best and pay the deposit. If you then get a state you are happy with focus on the fees you aren't paying rather than the deposit lost.

[richmondven12]

I know it is quite frustrating we 2 indpnt offers and 2 waitlist spaces, we would also consider state school if the right schools comes along. In reality this is all about optionality - had IPS not have an acceptance date that is so early in the game I would let the other offer go, but in this situation if we find out that we have a chance to get into either of the other two WL places we would probably hold on to it but if there is no chance that we might just accept IPS - i am not terribly keen on loosing £3000. I know it is unfair to those on WL, at the same time I personally know 5/6 children that have offers to the two schools we are waiting for plus everything you read on MN so I feel that there might be a chance . It is a rotten system, but we certainly don't feel like being righteous when the result might be the loss of a hefty deposit or my child being left with a school that is not right for her.

[AnotherNewt]

Well, if the other school, you have an offer from doesn't feel like the right one, relinquish it now.

Yes, you might still stand to lose an Ibstock deposit if something better comes up after acceptance deadline, but it really does sound as if the other school is not what you really want. Sometimes you just have to swallow hard, when the price tag for getting the school you want is quite so obvious.

[Alwaysfrank]

Back in the day we had a Putney High offer that had a deadline of the day before the state allocation day - we asked for 24 hours extension and got it. We accepted the offer the following day (hand delivered) and a whole three months later, we were offered our first choice school from the waiting list. We lost the PHS deposit and were lucky it didn't cost us the first term's fees. I'm afraid it sucks but it goes with the territory- private schooling is an expensive business and in the scheme of things, a lost deposit is negligible. It is not only IPS who don't always consider the state deadline.

For what it's worth I am also an IPS parent and out of the several schools we know well it is the one that has most exceeded expectations- you could do far worse than send your child to Ibstock.

Good luck with whatever you decide, and I do sympathise. We only had to play the waiting list game once, thankfully but it wasn't much fun.

[AnotherNewt]

Now that deadline days have pretty much all been and gone, I was wondering how it all worked out.

[richmondven12]

Thanks for Asking AnotherNewt, we ended up going with Surbiton High - when we went to the open day my DD really fell in love with it and somehow preferred it to IPS. I heard the LEH list did move but not for us and haven't heard back from PHS either - so was great that she liked SHS so much.

[AnotherNewt]

Glad it all worked out for you in the end!

And I hope Surbiton lives up to your expectations.