Highgate School

Hi Masu1, have you got the offer from Highgate at the end?

I know 5 kids turning down Highgate in favour of city.

Do you not have a state option?
Did you really only apply to one school? It's lovely Highgate, but hardly unique.

Where is your child going? Is he/she at north bridge now? Will have to think about my younger son now but I will need somewhere more gentle I think. You never know though, children change.

I thought it was great too, but I was overruled by the rest of my family. It felt v buzzy.

Coffee, I will ask somebody else who was there. Indeed it was a bit of a panic when they said that they already had 70 acceptances. Who knows? It is a great school, hope my child will be happy. The children seem "normal" (not super cool or super nerdy or super confident) which is what I was looking for. And some teachers are very inspiring (they did some experiments with the chemistry teacher). So, all good.

Your information is more up to date than mine though I still think an 80% acceptance rate would be incredibly high (higher than Westminster etc). I'd have thought the exploding offers would mean they could over offer by more. Ideally, all schools want to offer the correct amount not to go to the waiting list, I'd have thought.

Do think Highgate are vg at whipping parents up into a bit of a frenzy and selling themselves. Last year at the offers morning there was a lot of 'you've got to hand over your deposit this v minute or you'll lose your place' implied. A bit like when estate agents have an open house.

Maybe I misheard it but I really think they said that at the open day today. There were more girls than boys (for what is worth). They said that they are confident they will get all the places filled early. So it is unlikely for masu' child to have a place and she needs to have a plan B. At 7+, I know of two children on the waiting list last year who did not get a place although I think one boy was called from the wl (from annemount).

I spoke to quite a few parents today and none of the children had applied to grammar school. I guess if you have the money you just prefer a private education, with smaller classes and better facilities.

Really? They must have offered more than 100 for 70 places, surely? Last year I personally knew 5 boys who turned them down, which by this reckoning is about a third of all male refuseniks. I don't know v many boys who even tried!

At the open day they said they over offered by between two or three times. This was a while back, but all children do at least three schools and many are waiting on state options etc.

Where did you hear that?

FYI I think they have already had 70 acceptances out of the 80 places. They offered to around 100 children. So your chances are not fantastic op. Do you have another option? You have never answered the question which has been asked several times.

They will have an order of priority on the waiting list at the headmaster's discretion that they will not share with you. Even if you call every day, this won't help as he may not be top of the waiting list. Sadly we missed out on a waiting list place for DS at 7+ this year, and whatever people were or were not saying on Mumsnet was of absolutely no consequence to his waiting list position. I would hope for the best but plan for the worst.

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I know someone who is turning down there Highgate offer, but it's for 13+ and I'm sure they've done it by now. good luck!

I have heard from a friend who went today to the offer morning that they are already almost half way to filling the places. ( this may be spin though!)
It may be wise to have a plan B as they may not get to reserve?
I think there is another offer morning this week as well.
The deadline is the 7th march so I am not sure if they can go to reserve until everyone has given their answer. This is why you have not heard as the offers only came out 4 days ago so many people will not have decided.

Of course hopefully there is still a chance that they will not fill all their places from the offers and then they will definitely go to wait list. It is a matter of when and being patient I guess.

Hope this helps

And yes lhrmum, I agree re exploding offers, especially since the other schools don't do it.

But who's going to talk about it? It's not some conspiracy of silence - it's just people making their own minds up without feeling the need to share on a message board. And even if someone comes on here and says 'we're turning an offer down', it means nothing without knowing how many places there are and how many were offered and what every single family plans on doing.

Masu1, best of luck, We are waiting on a wait list for our top choice also and it is killing me! I hope it turns out very well for you.

Am I alone here?? I find the idea of exploding offers really troubling. I think it says something really unpleasant about the school. To be so cavalier about a decision facing a 10-11 year old child! wow. I don't think that is an environment I would choose for my ds. I'd say look out for the red flags before you jump in there.

Gosh no idea, we've no waiting list experience. I think it said on the bumph they sent with the exam dates or the interview letter that you had to accept quick or risk the place. Last year, that is, no idea this year.

Last year, Highgate did things differently to the other North London boys' schools in that they didn't give you the March 2 deadline (or whatever it was, the day after the state secondary allocations) to accept the place offered. They said they were giving firm places on a first-come first-served basis to those that had offers and if you left it to the deadline, then there may not be a place left. This is very different to the other (and I'd argue more honourable) schools that allowed you the full time to mull over what can seem like a huge decision. With the other schools, if you accepted the offer on the last day of the deadline, they were still obliged to give you the place.

If they're doing the same again this year, then I think it's unlikely they'll go to waiting list, sorry OP. They can afford to over-offer by more than the schools that risk having to add on an extra class if more accept offers than they were anticipating.

Don't know if I've explained that very well, but it might be worth asking. Someone referred to the Highgate system as 'exploding offers'.