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Original poster

National Offer Day - 1st March. Anybody else anxious?

286 replies

ToxicGirl · 23/02/2022 15:22

I feel like a woman on the edge. Am unbelievably anxious about 1st March. Made my peace a long time ago with the fact DD won't get a place at our nearest secondary (within easy walking distance) because it's so oversubscribed. All her friends and most other children from her school will go there. We live a tiny bit further away and just won't get in, particularly as I understand it's a big birth year.

Would be happy with either our 2nd or 3rd choice schools. They're further away and not as popular but we'd have got a place at them in previous years as we're in catchment and just within the distance they usually offer.

However our LA has warned of unprecedented pressure on school places this year and said that the schools are likely to be significantly oversubscribed. I'm worried that we now won't get a place at the schools that would previously have been 'bankers'. Our other preferences are too far away. We won't get a place at them. Just put them down because there was nowhere else.

There are a couple of hugely undersubscribed and really poorly performing schools in neighbouring towns within the borough. From everything I've read and from looking at Y6 leavers destination info from previous years, I'm absolutely convinced we'll be allocated one of them. They're the schools people get allocated when they only put one choice down and don't get it.

I'm so anxious about it. Can't think about anything else and am driving DH mad. Am managing to hide it from DD but know she'll fall apart on Tuesday. She's prepared to go to school without her friends but not to a completely unknown school in another area.

It's going to be a long few days...

OP posts:
TeenPlusCat · 01/03/2022 07:26

Public Service Announcement

Accept the offered school.
Then think about appealing if you want to.
You gain nothing by turning down your offered school (unless of course you accept a place at an independent.)

TwoMountains · 01/03/2022 07:22

Still waiting here.

No email yet, and the parent portal link seems to have vanished from the council website, so I can’t log in and check 😬

spacehardware · 01/03/2022 07:17

Got first choice - not surprised as it's a new school and I think a lot of people avoid the unknown. It's having an amazing new building constructed right by our house though, so I'm very excited for my daughter. She's transferring out of private system at her own insistence so she doesn't know anyone at local primaries currently.

septemberismyfavouritemonth · 01/03/2022 07:02

Today is the day! We have to wait until late afternoon though so it will be a long day! I just want to know now! Any of our choices will be good but can't stop thinking we may get none of them!!! Good luck every one

Aroundtheworldin80moves · 01/03/2022 07:00

Thankfully got a place at the only school we applied for. Hope her friends got in too.

Good luck everyone.

Whatwouldscullydo · 01/03/2022 06:39

Sorry for those who got bad news today . Not a nice thing to wake up to. There are some amazingly smart helpful and kind admissions experts on here to do start a thread for help on appeals etc

RaspberryStar88 · 01/03/2022 05:28

Hi I’m new here, just got our offer for secondary school, 3rd choice 😔 going to appeal 2nd choice, on the grounds of mental health reasons. My son has high functioning anxiety which his primary school are very aware of (and hopefully will give me supporting letters) although he’s not diagnosed. The school we want has a better SEND than the offered school. Also most of his friends have been offered places at the school we want. Can anyone help me with what to do regarding an appeal please?

HappyAsASandboy · 01/03/2022 01:58

We've been offered a random school that we didn't apply to. It's not so far away, and I think will be fine, but I feel really deflated about spending time looking round six schools and carefully ranking them, to be given a random. We only had an outside chance of our first two choices, but thought we'd get our third choice. If we didn't get the third choice I thought we'd get our undersubscribed catchment school, but seemingly not. Maybe it's not undersubscribed this year.

Going to be a complicated conversation with the DC in the morning Sad

Ratsindahouse · 01/03/2022 01:38

I hadn’t received an email but just logged in to the portal and got 1st choice - so relieved!! Good luck all

cantseeforlooking · 01/03/2022 01:17

We got second choice , which is all good as her siblings go there already and is next door (literally) to home.

First choice was a long shot anyway as her entrance test score was borderline ,

She will be ok once she gets over the initial disappointment and remembers she can stay in bed until the last minute most mornings Grin

peacypops · 01/03/2022 00:59

First choice for us in Trafford. Expected it though as sibling at school. Good luck to everyone still waiting to hear - hope it is good news.

CakesOfVersailles · 01/03/2022 00:57

Glad you got one of your preferences @ToxicGirl !

boyblue · 01/03/2022 00:28

@ToxicGirl @greyinganddecaying
Be really upbeat. Remind them it's a fab chance to make new mates and try new things. Great news,

boyblue · 01/03/2022 00:19

[quote Africa2go]**@boyblue* Every year DC in my area 6 miles away and not in Trafford get places in all of the except ABS. (Urmston but too far for people to put down). They run the school bus service for them all*

Thats probably because the catchment area for the schools (except AGSB) is more than 6 miles - AGGS is 8 miles from the school, for Loreto and St Ambrose the catchments are massive. AGSB has a very small catchment. So those schools are not under-subscribed as you say, they just take pupils from a wider catchment.[/quote]
I only quote the Trafford LA web site

Original poster
ToxicGirl · 01/03/2022 00:16

Relieved here. Didn't get our first choice but got one of our preferences. DD will be a bit disappointed but I'm happy enough. We all liked the school. Don't think any of her good school friends will be going there but she'll know a couple of girls from her hobbies that are definitely going.

OP posts:
greyinganddecaying · 01/03/2022 00:09

We have our second choice. I think I'm ok with that. DS may be disappointed but we'll have a chat about the options tomorrow.

Dontlickthetrolley · 01/03/2022 00:07

I can go to bed happy now! Good Luck everyone else.

Eggsley · 01/03/2022 00:03

We got our second choice which is the one with the dreadful reputation. Pretty disappointed to be honest but at least it's the local school.

Good luck to everyone else!

user1461609321 · 01/03/2022 00:02

Bump

Interviewdisaster · 28/02/2022 23:01

We’re in London so will be hanging on all day 😬
I’m actually feeling quite relaxed. I have a feeling we’ll get our 3rd choice tomorrow, and go on the waiting list for 1 and 2. The upside of London is there’s lots of movement so we might get lucky. 3rd choice is nearby comp with excellent facilities but a stinking reputation. We actually quite liked it when we looked around, but if we settled for it it would feel like a leap of faith (DS has ASD and I worry about bullying). Fingers crossed for everyone!

CakesOfVersailles · 28/02/2022 22:46

Fingers crossed for everyone waiting on allocations.

Eggsley · 28/02/2022 22:32

Good luck everyone. I've been ok all day but am a bundle of nerves now.

We are in an area with no grammar schools and very few private. The good secondaries are massively oversubscribed and the not so good are also oversubscribed.

We're out of catchment for our first choice but they do give a percentage of places on random allocations AND they are taking a bulge year this year so there will be about 60 places available for out of catchment pupils. I have got everything crossed.

Second choice is the local comp, dreadful reputation but quite small and I think DS would be ok there. It's in the next village so he'd be going to school with most of his friends I think.

Third choice is the next nearest school, oversubscribed and no chance of getting in but had to put a third choice.

We didn't get our first choice at primary age for DS1, despite it being the only school in the village we live in. I appealed and lost and the whole experience was awful. I did have some amazing advice from some very knowledgable posters on here though, so if anyone plans to appeal I would definitely suggest asking for help on here.

We can log in from midnight to see allocations, and they send emails out mid-morning I think. Only I can't find the page to login as the local authority has changed and split into two and all the previous websites direct you to the new ones Confused

MumGoneMild · 28/02/2022 22:15

No idea what time we get the offer here but I’m a bundle of nerves
There’s two schools to pick from both are and equal distance and both are crap but one we took to court when it massively endangered my elder disabled son so I’m absolutely hoping it’s not that one 😅

BluesCluesToo · 28/02/2022 22:09

Good luck everyone 🤞

BernadetteRostankowskiWolowitz · 28/02/2022 22:03

Good luck everyone - come on to have a read through in preparation for this time next year. Sounds so stressful!