City of London Girls withdrawing offers

giardiniera=Pradaqueen?

I've read most of the thread. Not involved in any way except the system seems very harsh.

If there are only 70 places why not have a tie-break. (?crow flys distance to home or mark on exam then distance for those getting the same mark). Offer 70 places with X days to accept or refuse. If refused or no answer gets offered to next on the list. Given the popularity and small size of the school it is obvious it will fill. Each parent made offer has time to think about it - parents can be told on offer day refuse/offer/WL position. WL position updated by email day after the X day deadline.

No system is perfect and this one would favour families living close to the school. Am I missing something?

giardiniera -

LondonUSAmum - the offer holder day last year was open to everyone. Even after the list for acceptances had closed. Whilst I do understand your disappointment with the process thus far, if you are still interested I would definitely attend. And put your interest in writing if possible. I do hope you get the outcome you want.

Everydaybusy - shame on you.

SPGS is quite clear to applicants about the distance girls should live from school to be offered a place. I recall that pradaqueen was open at the time that her DD loved City which made more sense for the family's location anyway.

I would go to the school tomorrow morning. There could be a crowd of angry parents at the open day. Don't wait for the scrum.

I see your DH and the head's point but it's not like once in the school you'll have anything to do with admissions people. Yes, I get that this whole thing may say something about the school's values etc. But I wouldn't overthink that.

I am not a parent at the school btw - DD1 didn't get in but no hard feelings and I have say my experience of the admissions process couldn't have been more different than what was described here. There was a lady called Rachel I believe running it at the time and she was delightful. When I heard this story I did conclude that there must have been some change of personnel somewhere.

They were also helpful later on. My DD is interested in an activity that wasn't offered at the school she ended up in. The PE teacher at City emailed with DD's school and helped them identify a coach!! I was really impressed by that.

OVieena, I know. Our Head teacher and my DH just want to leave City behind but I have that gut feeling...guess I better go Tuesday and see what is really going on at this point. I have called and emailed the school to express our interest still. But again, zero response so that's not helpful or encouraging.

london if you still feel it is the right school for you DD maybe you need to sharpen those elbows and go to bat for her? You won't be the only parent making their case.

WhyohWine very helpful post, thank you. We loved the atmosphere and diversity of City and your post echoes what we felt would be one of the pluses of the school.

Many other interesting posts I haven't taken the time to thank or mention but overall as someone very new to this process, I'm very thankful for this forum.

While our DD's offer has exploded and we/she is happy to accept (with a tinge of wonder/regret if its the better fit for her) a place at another school I am tempted to attend the offer morning on Tuesday at least for some explanation and closure.

That is if we are welcome to attend/they are still having the event? If no offers are on the table anymore why would they have the event?

Would hate to make the trip to the school and then be told it's not being held.

I just wonder what would happen if say 10 of the 70 (if 70 was the number of places offered and taken up) were eventually not taken up (forego the £1500)....but parents did not notify the school until the last day of this term (the last day they can do so without paying a full terms fees if that is the way it works on entrance). I would assume that all the girls with original offers downgraded to wait list would have accepted places and paid fees to other schools by then ...which would leave City in a very awkward situation of filling places ...

Agree anti. I’m sure all the girls are smart and motivated. There is an odd defensiveness about this weird policy which I guess will be reviewed at some point because of the unintended consequences but we don’t need to dig out old posts and start attacking people’s motivations. everyday would you think about getting your post deleted ?

Don't we all think highly of our children? I don't agree with prada's take on the exploding offer at all but I think it's starting to get a bit too personal.

It's pretty obvious existing parents will defend the system they benefited from. None have presented a convincing argument so far though!

Well, DD was pretty horrified to discover her school was in the dailymail!

Ahh so that's where my DD's music scholarship went last year. I often wondered what they did with those in the event no one took their offer.

Kudos to whyohwhine for seemingly being the only current parent on this thread with empathy for other parents going through this and not employing a high handed "I'm alright jack" attitude.

Pradaqueen, after a search I understand why you are the fan of exploding offer. You received email that informed your DD offered a music scholarship FEW DAYS AFTER the exploding last year. The scholarships usually received same time as offers last year. I wonder CLSG must lose lot of scholarships as well because of exploding offer. You are luck enough not catching by the explosion, but....

I have a DD at the school (who is very happy there). There is one bulge year in the school (current year 10 I think) and it is the case that there simply is not room for another one. However, I agree that it would be far far better to manage this through making fewer offers and use of waiting list.

I do wonder if their difficulty in managing the numbers is linked to their withdrawal from the NLC and associated shift in their ‘catchment’. They were pretty open that part of the reason for withdrawing from the consortium was that they saw their catchment shifting east. When it was more clearly a north/central London school, I suspect they were often second choice to NLCS and SPGS and determined their offer levels on that basis. However, with the shift in the ‘catchment’ east, there is no equivalent competitor school in that area, so maybe they are finding that they are more often first choice than was historically the case. The withdrawal from the NLC is recent so it may be a case of them going through a transitition period and once this has bedded in it will become easier for them to predict their acceptance numbers again. Maybe.

The other thing I would say is that I have a DC at another London school and have friends with DC at others, and overall City has a much less moneyed feel than the others that I am familiar with. So if the result of this practice is to prejudice those families for whom the decision to go private is a borderline one financially (and I can see that it may do), I genuinely think that is not consistent with the school’s general ethos and is an unintended consequence. Not that this means that it is not a consequence of course.

It would be interesting to know if they applied this practice to girls moving up from prep (who I think still have to formally accept) and girls with sisters at the school.

Prada and chocolate-I admire your loyalty to your school and see that you both firmly believe that CLSG has found the solution to its admissions conundrums. But hasn't the school spectacularly shot itself in the foot? It will surely have to find another way next year because it just won't work. As others have said there will be a stampede, headed not just by those super keen on the school but also those willing to lose a large sum of money to buy more time.

If City is keen to attract those for whom it is genuinely a first choice, why not make offers intelligently- eg prioritise those who do well and live close, or who have a sibling at the school?

Genuine question to the poster whose child had 7 offers. Did they get offers from all schools or did they sit more than 7? Did you really feel it was necessary to sit so many to guarantee getting something? Your child is obviously very able.

I've no idea whether registrars collude but if it were me, I would. There is no need for any child to have 7 or 9 offers when some get none (see the recent post in this topic - someone inevitably ends up in this unfortunate position every year).

The trouble is that in our area of East London offers are not made by the Indy schools until a week after City notifies. So someone could be waiting to hear about a scholarship offer in addition to any state school offers. If City's your top choice I'm sure it's easy to justify the school's behaviour. If money isn't a consideration it will be as well. If you're sitting on NLCS and SPGS offers - likewise, probably. If the acceptance is a delightful surprise but a huge family decision that needs more - and I'm only talking to the standard 6 March deadline- consideration it's potentially heartbreaking. Poor show all around and I very much hope they'll rethink. In reality I believe more schools will take this approach.

By putting this one final hurdle in place, the school effectively select those families who are "in the know" and good at rules and regulations.

All a bit too survival of the fittest to me. Is that part of the ethos of the school?

I predict next year people will queue up right after the offers come out. There will be people in the queue who’ve sold it to their dds as top choice who then lose out and then the process will come to be perceived as an arbitrary hassle.

I hope so too, as without push back, these schools will continue this bad practice of bait and switch!

Great idea tefal I hope people will consider doing this.