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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:
boyblue · 27/02/2022 10:47

Manchester went live on line at midnight with my DC primary. I didn't look with secondary as knew we'd get first choice as almost on doorstep. Emails go out early morning. Manchester

Sweetbabydust1989 · 27/02/2022 09:58

@SwayingInTime ours here in the south east are roughly 4pm I have seen other places being able to log on at midnight.

Sweetbabydust1989 · 27/02/2022 09:57

@boyblue thanks lovely very stressful month so much going on just hope he gets his place and one of those schools kinda want the first one as it has a sen part attached too it so would be beneficial for my youngest.

Ionacat · 27/02/2022 09:20

The timing is different. Hampshire where I am send the emails just after midnight, over the border in Surrey they get them at 5pm with the rest of London. Rest seems to vary as to over night or first thing in the morning.

We’ve got two schools where I am and will be happy to go to either, I’d prefer her to get our closest and first choice (non-catchment bizarrely because of the shape of the town and placement of the schools.) But second choice is amazing and she’d also be happy there. (It would be a shock if we didn’t get our first choice, lowish birth rate year here and everyone where I am has got their first choice of secondary traditionally but there’s always a first time!)

ChildOfFriday · 27/02/2022 09:17

@SwayingInTime

Will timing of release of allocations be different everywhere do we think?
From reading this thread in previous years, I think that it does differ by area. In some you can log onto the portal at midnight and see your allocation, some are later in the day and some (including London I think) don't release them until 5pm.
SwayingInTime · 27/02/2022 09:14

Will timing of release of allocations be different everywhere do we think?

boyblue · 27/02/2022 00:08

@Sweetbabydust1989 hand hold. I've been there as have all my mates. We got 1st choice as on our doorstep but even mates who didn't have ended up perfectly ok with what they got.

Sweetbabydust1989 · 26/02/2022 23:44

Hey joining in here I am a complete wreck!!! Dreading Tuesday so scared on what my son might get!! Why do they make this wait unbearable 😩

boyblue · 26/02/2022 22:39

@SwayingInTime I totally agree. Ridiculous system. Socially divisive. Massive tutoring industry favouring those who can afford 1-2 years of exam tutoring. Massively inflates SATs scores for Trafford school, funded by parents.
But that's a whole different thread

SwayingInTime · 26/02/2022 18:33

@greyinganddecaying

I think they should bin grammar schools and focus on all children getting a decent education on a level playing field, but that will never happen!

I also saw on the website that it says all (eg) Sale children who pass the 11+ will get a place at Sale Grammar, then I guess other places are filled by children from elsewhere in Trafford. I noticed when I last looked at admission criteria that most grammar schools offer places to nearest first (I believe the exception with ABGS which offered the on the basis of 11+ results (best first).

They should definitely bin the grammar schools, I agree.
boyblue · 26/02/2022 18:19

@SwayingInTime

Eh? They are definitely full. And every year a few Trafford children who have 'passed' don't get a place.
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.
greyinganddecaying · 26/02/2022 18:14

I think they should bin grammar schools and focus on all children getting a decent education on a level playing field, but that will never happen!

I also saw on the website that it says all (eg) Sale children who pass the 11+ will get a place at Sale Grammar, then I guess other places are filled by children from elsewhere in Trafford. I noticed when I last looked at admission criteria that most grammar schools offer places to nearest first (I believe the exception with ABGS which offered the on the basis of 11+ results (best first).

SwayingInTime · 26/02/2022 18:04

Eh? They are definitely full. And every year a few Trafford children who have 'passed' don't get a place.

boyblue · 26/02/2022 17:23

The Trafford web site says the grammars are not over subscribed.
The answer lies right there. Lower the score threshold by a couple of marks. Fill the grammars. Stop even more of an advantage re class sizes in grammars. Allie more PP kids in. Don't take so many out of area.
That would relieve the pressure on all the high schools. @ToxicGirl @greyinganddecaying
Then there would be no shortage

LightBulbous · 26/02/2022 16:58

@DrHildegardeLanstrom

But I keep hearing of such movement over summer holidays on waiting lists?
@DrHildegardeLanstrom in my school we rarely offer places from the waitlist. We always end up slightly over pan due to a few successful appeals (not many mind). Then not many ever give up the place and because we have to fall below pan before we offer to waitlist, it’s not common.

So it very much depends on area by area and school by school case.

Waitinggame22 · 26/02/2022 15:48

Anxiously waiting to see what DS is allocated. No grammar schools in our area in the East. DS and our preferred school was over subscribed last year , 2nd choice would be OK it's very large and few possible none of Ds friends would go there. 2 local schools not good but put the better one as banker. I know everyone wants the best for their child but it seems such an unfair system if you don't meet priority criteria such as siblings.

Original poster
ToxicGirl · 26/02/2022 15:47

@EducatingArti

Have any of the Trafford people got any experience of Urmston GS. Do you think there is a bulge there too. Are they likely to be able to offer places to all their "catchment" postcode applicants?
Just to add, all the children from my elder DC's year that passed the entrance exam were offered a grammar place
OP posts:
Original poster
ToxicGirl · 26/02/2022 15:45

@EducatingArti

Have any of the Trafford people got any experience of Urmston GS. Do you think there is a bulge there too. Are they likely to be able to offer places to all their "catchment" postcode applicants?
In my experience the Trafford grammars will be ok. If your DC has got the required score and lives within catchment then I'm sure they will get a place.

I think the pressure will be on the high schools. Very few of the new arrivals will have sat the entrance exams because they won't have been here in time to register and sit the exam, so reckon that is where the pressure will be. Plus the grammars had money to expand recently. The info we had from the council when we applied certainly said that AGSG, AGSB & SG weren't oversubscribed in terms of local children.

OP posts:
EducatingArti · 26/02/2022 14:39

Have any of the Trafford people got any experience of Urmston GS. Do you think there is a bulge there too. Are they likely to be able to offer places to all their "catchment" postcode applicants?

Echobelly · 26/02/2022 14:10

I would add, I was suprised how much movement there was in the places before the start of Y7 and even during it - I know quite a few people whose kids got into a higher choice, either within a few weeks of offer day or else within the first term or two of Y7.

Echobelly · 26/02/2022 14:08

Don't be too discouraged if 1st choice seems unlikely.... I thought there was no way oldest would get into top choice; we'd applied for 2 good but further-away schools that had music-related places and had those as back-up which gave us the courage to give 1st choice a chance.

I was totally gobsmacked when we got it. Did not for one minute imagine we would but we did.

Waiting to hear if DS gets in on Tuesday, which should be a shoo-in as they do prioritise siblings. We felt it was right place for him as although for very different reasons from eldest - he has ADHD and finds learning tricky, though he is bright, but it's a small school with good pastoral care and we think it will be good for him.

greyinganddecaying · 26/02/2022 13:48

I think we will end up accepting what we're offered, then go on waiting lists if it's not one of our choices.

But at some point (probably mid-summer holidays) we'll need to bite the bullet & buy uniform & get used to the idea.

boyblue · 26/02/2022 13:39

@FavouriteGame spot on in my experience. There is movement but you can move down as well as up a waiting list. You need to know where you are on it in the first place. If you are no36 you will need a plan B etc

ufucoffee · 26/02/2022 13:17

But I'm posting from somewhere that doesn't have grammar schools and not many children go private so maybe there is more waiting list movement in place that do.

ufucoffee · 26/02/2022 13:10

@DrHildegardeLanstrom

But I keep hearing of such movement over summer holidays on waiting lists?
It depends. If a school is very very oversubscribed there is unlikely to be movement unless a family moves. There may be pupils who get a place because of a mistake made by the LA and this takes the school over their number. But then, if anyone leaves, the place isn't filled from the waiting list until the school gets back down to its PAN.