decision on 1st March? Anyone want to sit and sweat it out with me?

Boooo my eldest are in yr 3 ....

I think historically it's the last of three low-birth rate years in a row (this year's Year 6, current Year 7 and current Year 8) before the huge upturn in the birth rate...

Technically speaking the 'fun' with secondary school admissions has yet to come .....

I asked our admissions office at the council, back when DS1 was starting primary, and confirmed it with them when I was doing the Secondary application for him.

Might be worth ringing yours?

How do you find out what yr birth rate is for the year?

One week to go. Hopefully we will know before he goes to school in the morning!

Ha ha thanks tiggytape We have everything crossed she gets her first choice GS but we are relying on the distance criteria after LAC, medical needs and then siblings so it could go any way just like to be prepared and ready for any eventuality x

Quick question, if DD doesn't get her first/second preference does she auomatically go on the waiting list of these or do we have to contact the school and add her name?

Just wish the 1st would hurry up so we know one way or another. This is my first going to secondary (can you tell lol) didn't realise the waiting would be so stressful!

Thanks so much tiggytape, really really helpful so thank you very much for that. Yes appreciate the special circumstances don't have the same weight as her academic ability. She was out by what would have equated to maybe a couple of questions and is strong level 5a at school
( doing the level 6 extension papers in May) doing very at school, high spelling/reading ages, YG&T. She also passed 3 other GS exams and had an indie offer (due to finances have had to decline) Was 'expected' to pass, have strong support from head and class teacher who shall be writing supporting letters and I do have documented 'medical' evidence and a SC form was handed in on the day. Of course hindsight is a wonderful thing and I did question whether I should have taken her, and postponed exam, she begged (almost) to be taken on the day she's one of those that 'enjoys' in her own way tests/exams and so I trusted her judgment. Hey ho, I like a challenge and so although I know is the longest of long shots want closure really if that makes sense.

Thanks again for explaining the waiting list thing, lets hope I have just one appeal in my hands :) Keep practising how to word our reasons for appeal letter, have heard both keeping it short and to the point the best, and yet others also say make it as lengthy and 'wordy' as possible as you may not get the time on the day to explain your reasons.

Good luck everyone else waiting!

Feeling quite calm, before the storm perhaps ;) Quick question we shall (most probably) be appealing at one GS as DD missed out by a very small margin and had I believe mitigating circumstances. Anyway she shall of course go on waiting lists for the GS's she passed but just wondered IF she is very fortunate and gets a place from say her '3rd preference' GS waiting list after March 1st, would that then mean it cancels out all her other waiting list places at her '1st' and '2nd' preference GS? Am guessing she shall get allocated the comprehensive and then go on waiting list for the 3 GS's. Is probably VERY unlikely but wondering if she accepted a '3rd choice' waiting list place, could we still hold on for a GS higher up our preference list and hope she may get a place further down the line? I suppose knowing where she is on the waiting list/s help to see what probability of her getting a place is. She passed 3 GS exams, but due to ooc criteria/over subscription not feeling to confident she'll be allocated one.

As for the appeal, mostly because I don't want any 'what ifs' in the future. Is a school appeals are very rarely upheld but have to at least go for it. Then again I could of course be appealing at the GS's she passed at anyway! Oh the joys!!

I seem to remember DC's Head last year swearing blind she didn't know the schools allocation but we knew she was lying! It think it's a tad unfair that the Heads get to know before parents and children -what's that all about Tiggytape?

ChippyMinton, I seem to recall last year that it was on the strike of 5.00 pm that the allocated school details were available online on the Pan-London site. And yes the official emails didn't arrive until some time later...(a matter of hours methinks).

Tiggytape, yes, part of pan london. Does that mean that the emails are sent then or that I could log in then and no earlier? Not that it matters in the great scheme of things!

Nice try Bati, but I seem to remember getting the impression that all the allocations are not really entirely sorted until Offers Day or close to it (seem to recall seeing some type of timetable to that effect).

Last week i was getting completely stressed over remembering my log in details, so I thought I would do a trail run, only to find that our allocations office have completly removed the on line applications bit from their website
This got me thinking about if they had completly sorted all the kids allocations out and attached it to the on line applications so they have had to remove everyones log on bit so no one finds out early.
In the end I ended up phoning them to find out what happens if I cant remember my passport, would i only have 3 attempts and be blocked ( also secretly hoping they would accidently let slip which school my dd has got)
There response was unlimited attempts and there is a thing you can follow if you have forgotten your log on details and they will email them to you.
There wasnt any hint of allocated school

Gah. I was determined not to join this thread but observe you lot getting angsty whilst chanelling calm thoughts. But Threebeeonegee has made me panic and I'm now searching for my login, which I swore I'd saved on my phone but is not there! I'll be back to join in when I've found it.

As 1st March is a Friday, it's going to be odd in terms of the DC finding out where their schoolmates are going, depending on what time the results come out. Last year I remember all the Yr 6s bouncing around comparing notes the next morning. Anyone know what time Surrey results will be available?

He's going to get his third choice isn't he? I can just see it now. Opening the email saying, oh that's what our 3rd choice was!

For those of you that need to log in, do you remember your username and password? We haven't used ours since October.

I am hoping ds1 gets a place at the all boys school. The alternative is the new build school, created by the amalgamation of two failing schools. If he get allocated the new school its not the end of the world, but i would far prefer him to attend a school with a proven track record. The new schools results gave actually dropped again this year.

I actually can't remember what my third choice was

I'm getting nervous now.

1st choice is a Catholic faith school 5 minutes walk from our house. Although Ds2 is catholic, he doesn't attend one of their feeder schools, which is their main criteria. Hopefully he will get in on the next criterion which is Catholic children not attending a feeder school. This goes by distance to the school, so we are pretty close.

2nd choice is also a catholic faith school. Ds2 attends one of their feeder schools but the criteria for this school is to live in the parish, not attend the feeder school. Ds1 attends this school and I'm confident ds2 will be offered a place here but it is two bus rides and about an hours journey away.

Ds2 couldn't give a flying fart where he goes as long as I let him join Facebook to keep in touch with his friends