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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:
ChildOfFriday · 26/02/2022 11:54

@DrHildegardeLanstrom

But I keep hearing of such movement over summer holidays on waiting lists?
What do you mean by 'such movement'? It is likely that there will be some movement, yes, from after offers day and into and including the summer holidays, as children move away/go private/a cascade effect from them being offered another school they prefer from the waiting list, but it is impossible to judge how much there will be. As a pp said, there are not spaces kept back, and places have to be declined for a child on the waiting list to be offered a place. It is an incredibly risky strategy to rely on waiting for the list to move, as unfortunately it may never move enough for you to be offered a place.

Posters on MN tend to really know their stuff with regards to school admissions, with some very knowledgeable experts, and you can get some excellent advice on the best next steps to take on here. If you are not offered a place at the school you want and decide to put in an appeal, posters here will be able to advise you on how best to put this together.

FavouriteGame · 26/02/2022 11:54

We’ll stay on waiting lists if we don’t get our first choice, but if we don’t quickly get a place after the first flurry once acceptance/rejections come in I don’t think we’ll get anywhere. I have some hope that some parents who want grammars and miss out will go private instead and free up their places at our non grammar. But I know people who’ve been on the waiting list well into September and never got anywhere.

I also know people who have been given schools not even on their list and actually ended up really happy with the school. Which I hope might give some people comfort. I think you never really know if a school is right until your child is there. A favourite school might end up not meeting expectations, a disliked school could be much better than you think.

Hasselhoffsheadband · 26/02/2022 11:42

This is one of my bugbears about lots of new houses/flats being built. Lots of schools (primary & secondary) are fit to burst, but there seems to be no consideration of that, or plan to increase school size/places to accommodate the children whose families move to the area

This is also a major issue with special needs schools as well. There are some new schools, primary and secondary, being built in certain areas near me where there is a lot of housing going up. But absolutely no consideration at all that a proportion of children moving into this new housing will have additional needs and will need specialist education.

Whatwouldscullydo · 26/02/2022 11:37

Also being number 1 is no garuntee.

If their are 3 or 4 " excepted pupils" in the class. I believe multiples can take a class over 30. As can anyone who won an appeal.

If the class ends up as one of say 34 as a result of appeals etc then you will have to wait until 5 kids leave in order for there to be a space.

DrHildegardeLanstrom · 26/02/2022 11:36

But yes perfectly willing to home Ed in the short term

DrHildegardeLanstrom · 26/02/2022 11:35

But I keep hearing of such movement over summer holidays on waiting lists?

ufucoffee · 26/02/2022 11:31

Just a comment on waiting lists. In my experience some parents don't seem to realise that for a place to become available a pupil who has a place has to refuse the place. There is a myth we hear ever year that schools keep emergency places so they can take extra pupils. Not true.

ufucoffee · 26/02/2022 11:27

@DrHildegardeLanstrom

I have decided if DS doesn't get into our first choice (closest) school then I will just wait it out on the waiting list. I will accept what we are offered but won't be sending him.
You may never ever get a place from the waiting list. Even if you're near the top. What will you do then?
LightBulbous · 26/02/2022 11:24

@DrHildegardeLanstrom

I have decided if DS doesn't get into our first choice (closest) school then I will just wait it out on the waiting list. I will accept what we are offered but won't be sending him.
@DrHildegardeLanstrom what will happen if you never get a place off the waitlist? Will you home Ed or send private?
boyblue · 26/02/2022 10:55

@DrHildegardeLanstrom what will you do tho

DrHildegardeLanstrom · 26/02/2022 10:07

I have decided if DS doesn't get into our first choice (closest) school then I will just wait it out on the waiting list. I will accept what we are offered but won't be sending him.

Whatwouldscullydo · 26/02/2022 10:05

This is one of my bugbears about lots of new houses/flats being built. Lots of schools (primary & secondary) are fit to burst, but there seems to be no consideration of that, or plan to increase school size/places to accommodate the children whose families move to the area

I'm in an area where there are so many new houses being built too. And the only school that's been built was inaccessible to many of rhe locals due to it being a faith school.

Fuck knows what this year will be like I genuinely fear not making any local.school at all

greyinganddecaying · 26/02/2022 10:02

This is one of my bugbears about lots of new houses/flats being built. Lots of schools (primary & secondary) are fit to burst, but there seems to be no consideration of that, or plan to increase school size/places to accommodate the children whose families move to the area.

If I'd realised the school system was like this I don't think I'd have moved to Trafford (back when I was child-free and my main criteria were distance from a tram stop and the city centre!).

boyblue · 26/02/2022 08:57

Gosh hoping everything in Trafford sorts itself out. I'm not aware of the same issue in Manchester. A lot of primaries have spaces and massively so in the early years. Last years secondary admissions in Manchester were broadly in line with previous years factoring in the new schools that have opened in the area. (2 close together). Manchester families wanting Trafford schools might get a shock!

SwayingInTime · 26/02/2022 08:48

Makes sense, glad it’s my youngest doing it. Hope there are plans in place for expansion where needed.

Original poster
ToxicGirl · 26/02/2022 08:15

The stories are generally about pressure on primary school places but they say it's largely in the upper primary school age groups.

There's been so much movement into the southern parts of Trafford over the last 12 months (the articles say 800 families applied for in year or late primary school places between May and Sept last year!). I think the fact that so many Hong Kong families have moved to Trafford will put real pressure on secondary places over the next couple of years. My DD's already full class had 3 students from Hong Kong join this September. All these extra children are applying for places at the same secondary schools and nobody has heard anything about plans for bulge classes.

Just seems rubbish that I'm probably going to have to bus DD to an out of catchment school in another town when some years we'd be in catchment for 3 local schools!

OP posts:
SwayingInTime · 26/02/2022 07:43

Accidentally replied twice to the same thread, oh dear, mumsnetting in the middle of the night!

SwayingInTime · 26/02/2022 07:42

They tried to shut it years ago and a local campaign prevented it (possibly?). It feels slightly like it’s kept open so there’s always an in year place somewhere for applicants (I have experience of one of my children being offered it having needed a year 9 place). It means you have to appeal if you want an in year place regardless of where you live in the county. Just a theory!

I can only fine stories about the current pressure on primary places in the area at the moment but am also wishing away the days between now and Tuesday. I think I might find out later as am just over the county border.

boyblue · 25/02/2022 22:20

I'd never ever heard of Lostock despite not being that far away,
And why is it so tiny at less than 300 kids in while school (the size of Yr7 intake at other schools)

greyinganddecaying · 25/02/2022 21:42

@bluecitygirl

Lostock is being run by a head from Stretford high and is not as bad as its rep. The whole ethos of the school has changed and the behaviour policy. I had two children in the same year and one went to Lostock and one to a local Grammar and they did equally as well achieving high gcses. Hope that puts your mind at rest. My son currently goes and is exceeding in all areas.

The smaller classes and good pastoral care make a big difference. I would never recommend the Grammar my child went to.

That's good to know, thank you.

SwayingInTime · 25/02/2022 20:33

Trafford applicant here too….I can only find info in the local press about demand for primary places rather than secondary. Have no idea where DD will be allocated but now think we put the schools in the wrong order so will go on a few waiting lists regardless I think.

bluecitygirl · 25/02/2022 19:51

Lostock is being run by a head from Stretford high and is not as bad as its rep. The whole ethos of the school has changed and the behaviour policy. I had two children in the same year and one went to Lostock and one to a local Grammar and they did equally as well achieving high gcses. Hope that puts your mind at rest. My son currently goes and is exceeding in all areas.

The smaller classes and good pastoral care make a big difference. I would never recommend the Grammar my child went to.

bluecitygirl · 25/02/2022 19:44

GM borough with grammars here and yes this is a boom year intake. I have gone for the smallest secondary school so hopefully won't need to worry as it is really under subscribed due to rep. Have a child there already and they are doing as well as their sister did a a local grammar so not stressing to much now.

CoffeeRunner · 25/02/2022 19:38

Yep. We actually live in catchment for DD's preferred school but it is hugely oversubscribed & hundreds of extra homes have been built in catchment in the last year alone.

Her best friend will get a place as has two older siblings there already & siblings have priority over catchment.

The second choice school is still good but DD will be heartbroken to get it.

Whatwouldscullydo · 25/02/2022 19:36

Can I join.

Waiting on my dd2s allocation.

"Choices" are all shit ..I'm really hoping we get our first choice but they have been over ambitious with their catchment so I can't see it happening..I'm.kimda wishing I'd put my last preference second now. But nothing I can do about it now except waiting lists etc after the 1st March.