State waiting list...

Ah thanks! DD is on a waiting list that usually moves very fast, but this year there's been little movement. Our local comp's waiting list, on the other hand, has moved more than usual.

Perhaps parents are still holding on to both state and indie options and planning to make a last minute decision. Or perhaps it's true that those who would normally have gone private are not doing it this year because of finances, although I've seen people saying the opposite.

Either way, it's very stressful for those of us who want to know for sure where their child is going in September!

If a full school has an appeal allowed, then yes, they have to increase class sizes. If it is an ICS appeal, then that child becomes "an excepted child" and does not count for the purposes of class size - as in, the class can go over 30 because of this child and could be 31.

It would mean than no-else would be admitted from the waiting list into the class until 2 left and it went back down to 29 though.

I have been wondering how oversubscribed schools handle appeals - do they keep some places unfilled to allow for successful appeals? Or do they simply increase the class size if they have a successful appeal?

Surrey. Appeals are still very much ongoing, delayed this year by sorting out how they were going to be done remotely.

Oh that's good to know. Can I ask which area you are in please? I'd assumed all appeals would have already been heard and decided by now tbh!

Appeals are only just being heard where I am (I sit on panels) so there will definitely be some movement around here over the next few weeks as successful appeals shake things up.

End of the first term? So December 2020? That's much later than I thought 😯

Yes that's my issue at the moment! We've got her booked in for a uniform fitting on the 29th, as it needs to be ordered by 1st August. Think that may have to be my deadline, but who knows if other parents think the same and suddenly the WL starts to move again 🧐

We had movement up until October half term..... and that was in a usual year... athough the peak was done by the end of the first couple of weeks of term...as kids just didnt turn up...and that takes a litle while to filter through as they have to check that they have gone somewhere else rather than just nt knowing date/ill whatever...(w.london massively oversubscribed school)
Potentially this year there will be less movement as has been harder to 'move'
I think its hard depending on your second choice to go past Mid August... for your child if nothing else as they need to be in a good mindset to start Senior school with especially at the moment so maybe give yourselves a mental deadline and then if you do get a plce later then decide depending on how things go at 2nd choice....

I believe it's until the beginning of the new academic year - certainly they are still active over the summer hols.

Does anyone know when the LEA disband the current waiting lists for Sep 2020?

My experience last year was we were 8th on the waiting list on national offer day & the list did not move an inch, so we never got a place. We lost our appeal as well. However, as we didn’t have a place at all, I was put on the waiting list for Wimbledon College and I think we went in at number 15 the first week in June. It took 2 weeks to get offered a place. However, in the mean time another school had offered my son a place that offered similar facilities & results, but was much closer to us. We took that in the end. The result was that my son settled at his secondary very quickly (even though we had doubts he would fit in) & now feels fortunate not to have been given the original school he thought he so desperately wanted. The whole process was so stressful, but things turned out well on the end. Good luck

I received emails this morning offering DS a place at our preferred school. So relieved

Oh Confused, your situation sounds much worse than ours. I’m just thinking about schools as it is a nice distraction from all the other stuff!
DD is in single figures but it’s a complicated list so that doesn’t mean much. The school she has been allocated may be better for her anyway. But yes I’m with you on all the music, sport, sibling places leaving not much for the rest! Good luck!

I hope you get your place SpongeBob. Where are you on the list?

I have been warning all my friends with DC in Year 4 (DS2'S year) about how stressful this all is & to specialise now if they can. We have a few grammars nearby but the closest one to us is super-competitive & regularly comes in the top 3-5 schools in the country on various lists. Then a few of the state schools offer places first to DC that do well in their music/sport/language tests. That doesn't leave many schools for 'average' DC, once sibling places are taken into account. Our catchment school is awful, very bad reputation & Ofsted for last few years & also historically. Once DS1 is in a decent school we'll be fine as DS2 has an EHCP so we can choose for him & DS3 can just go where the others go (or try for another if showing strengths).

I know what you mean. We have had a lovely letter about induction. I’m not so worried about filling it in for the school she’s been allocated. I’m more worried that it means we are missing out on the induction stage for the school we are waiting for.

That is what I am hoping but don't want to count my chickens before they hatch! I have received an email from the senior school he is due to start at asking for details & talking about (online) induction which is making me nervous. I feel like filling it in would be admitting defeat

I bet the infant school had a much smaller PAN than the secondary so fewer children to leave to free up space.

Third is great @confused! I bet you get there.

DS1 is up to 3rd now, I can't bear it He remained 1st on the waiting list for Infant School for a whole year, so I really don't want to get too excited

I have also been thinking about this, rather nervously. Ds1 is 5th on the waiting list for our preferred school, but I don't know if that's good or bad! We're in Essex.

We moved a few places up the list around the same time as the independents required fees but have stuck there since. I think the virus and resulting economic uncertainty has scuppered our chances of a place. Any other year the list would have moved in the tens but this year it’s small single digits. There are a few waiting lists for the school and some of them have grown considerably. I’m assuming some at least are children who would have gone private at any other time. I fluctuate between being annoyed at the unfairness of it all and then thinking with what is happening none of it matters. Mostly I think it will be fine but the movement or lack of it is interesting.

We got offered a place at one of the two grammar schools we'd put down on our CAF around a month ago. Turned it down as the commute was not doable (had planned to move house before Covid started). Still waiting for a place at a more local comp to come up! The other grammar school we have moved up 3 places in 6 weeks 😳