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

Thanks. I know last years for GC but Kingston sent out the cut off distances with offer letters, was just wondering if Richmond did. I'll give them a call tomorrow re waiting lists :)

It used to be 12 o'clock lunchtime that they sent the e-mails in Herts. They've obviously changed it to 5pm because the admissions office was deluged.
Guess it allows time for the dust to settle.

That's definitely not automatic in my LA. You have to send a form back to the LA asking if you want to be reconsidered by any or all higher preference schools (which takes place after acceptances or rejections have been received by early April) and then have to apply to each school if academy or the LA if community school to go on their waiting lists after start of April. For my DS1 I happily accepted the 3rd choice school and declined to be reconsidered or go on waiting lists as the others were long shots and I wanted an end to the uncertainty.

No idea what your local policy may be, but safest not to assume anything.

Quintessence just replying here in case anyone can correct me, but my assumption is that unless you ask to be removed from the waiting list you are automatically on it, for any application which was HIGHER PREFERENCE in your original list for Pan London. I would check with your local admissions team and G though. It is not like a private school where you can register a special interest; I think any free spaces which come up for waiting list have to be allocated in a formal way in turn to each deanery. They advise you to accept the place you might not want, but you are STILL on a waiting list for your preferred school. The letter from your local authority should make this clear.

I am ringing up our first choice tomorrow to check we are automatically on waiting list, just in case, so I need to find this out too!

1st Time on mumsnet ,so please be apologies in advance.
Last year,I applied for 2 schools Graveney in Wandsworth and Dunraven in Lambeth.I did not get in, those were the only 2 choices i put down.I was then allocated St Gabes in Lambeth which i rejected and then the local authority tried to allocate me Stockwell which when i phoned the school to reject the offer had no record of dd,so i asked for it in writing.I appealed to both Dunraven and Graveney schools and won the appeal for Dunraven.I also did a very very late application (JUNE) for Chestnut Grove and she got in,as i pointed out that i was aware that all the specialist Art places had not been filled but the next day i got a letter saying i had won the Dunraven appeal.At my appeal I also stated that I was aware of the FAIR ACCESS RULE /LAW.Its complicated and risky and works better for secondary school places than primary.

I dont think there is a point appealing for us, the school we got is a Faith school, was our third choice, and there were nearly 700 applications for our second choice, where we are nr 41 on the waiting list, and 5 miles away from....
Glad it worked out for you, Julezboo! Good luck with the move....

we now have 4 years to sell our crap house and move nearer to schools!

Quint - Is it worth Appealing? We found out just before xmas we didnt get our first (and only) choice for DS and he was number 36 on the waiting list (we are out of catchment!) but we appealed and he was offered a place in Feb :) x

For information this is what is known about preferences cabnet.richmond.gov.uk/documents/s24966/Appendix%20A.pdf As you can see Greycourt was not oversubscribed on first preference but was popular further down the preferences which suggests it will have had a catchment this year.

Snowball Not yet but I am sure you will find it will be on the New Schools For Richmond thread as soon as any information is known. RISC are aiming to compile as much information as possible on how the allocations have panned out as part of their new aim to hold the Council accountable for it's forecasts. It looks as though for instance Twickenham Academy has filled up on allocations as nearby parents who didn't get their preferences were offered the more distant St RR. Are you involved in this round or thinking ahead, if the latter LBRUT will have accurate allocation maps nearer the time (this rounds allocation maps were of course not accurate since they were based on a round dictated by links).

For those of you in Richmond - I don't suppose any of you know what the cut off distance was for GreyCourt?

Hey (been lurking, ready for next year - yikes)

This thread has made it into the Sunday Times!!!

There was an article on secondary school places and writer said she just had to read the thread on about it on mumsnet

so who is she

Pure My tongue was firmly in cheek Actually it's my geraniums I am worried about, and the mothers in their 4 by 4s, if the road outside St James's at morning drop off is the shape of things to come for our surrounding roads

Copthall, argh, I cannot express myself. The kids at ds' school are complaining about this sort of behavior, which is why they are likely to refrain from it, I meant.

I am at the other end of the secondary angst, one in 6th, one in uni but the initial angst enough to trigger an interest in improving the situation for those that follow.... and also a local interest in RR, as Sara Palin would say "of course I take an interest, I can see it from my house"

Have you got the secondary school angst or taking an interest because of RR?

Chippy Sounds like my torn off wing mirror is your gain, glad it worked out for you.

There's no way that could happen because of the equal preference system.
But the pressure on RC places must have been taken off a little because of the new school.

Do you think many of the Richmond Catholic applicants have been given "no" from the popular out of borough secondaries, such as G, CVMS and the O, on the basis of us now having an in-borough Catholic secondary? (I am out of borough btw)

copthall - I should think that shift of 67 to RR has made just enough difference to give us a shot at StM. We are not in LBH or LBRuT, but live in one of the deanery that get a small % of places. Residents of the LBRuT parts of the deanery usually get those places, as they are nearer to the school than the Surrey parts.

copthall Many of littlequints friends live near RPA, and know what a nuisance rubbish dropping teens, who scratch the sides of cars and rip side mirrors off as they go along, is, so hopefully they will behave.

Chippy Pure Has St RR really changed the admissions patterns for other Catholic Schools that much? Only 67 families made it first preference, and that includes out of borough applicants. At least 4 non Catholic families have been offered it even though they didn't include it in their preferences so it is clearly undersubscribed. Surely if Richmond Catholic families were continuing to make the out of borough schools like G and St Ms first preference, as presumably around 150 must have done then they would have the same chances of success as previous years, and the patterns wouldn't change that much. The Diocese wouldn't have a mechanism to implement you asked for it, you got it, so now go there! or do they?

I am sure you can detect why I am especially interested

Quint, sorry it hasn't worked out for you in the first round. What's your experience of the RR effect? From my perspective (out past the other side of LBRuT), it has changed the usual admission pattern hugely, and we have been offered StM. This is the first time in many years, afaik, that offers have extended out so far in our direction.

Fingers crossed for you.