Anyone else stuck in waiting list limbo?

Just been offered a place! We are so pleased. Enough time to do all the prep for it and get uniform so no angst about whether to accept or not.

I found the admissions booklet and you are right, it's the current Y7 list that closes. So now we just continue waiting and see what happens.

It is the time of year that that message tends to get a bit garbled wrt which year 7 everyone is talking about (though often even more so when the schools are still in and their own websites have messages about waiting lists being dissolved, outside of the main round admissions blurb)😀

Oh maybe that is what they meant then. I did think it sounded weird to be honest as what I'd thought was that they passed the list to the school. I will double check, thank you!

Are you sure that they realised you were asking about main round (starting year 7 in September) admissions? Waiting lists for main round must be maintained, in oversubscription criteria order, until December 31st, whether by the LEA or by the school itself in the case of academies. So it is common for the LEA to maintain lists on behalf of the schools in their area until the end of August, then to hand the lists to the individual schools to maintain in accordance with the Admissions Code. Schools can choose to move to a CI list / require a new application from 1st January, but can't decide to do this before December 31st.

(assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1001050/School_admissions_code_2021.pdf para 2.15)

Applications for current year 7 would normally have to be renewed once the cohort becomes year 8 in September, however.

No call here and we've gone the wrong way on the list again. I did check with the admissions people if they work over August and they do. But they close the list at the end of the month so if we want to be on the list at the start of term I need to do an in year application. I'm glad I checked in with them as I didn't realise that!

@MadBonkers I am in france, so haven’t checked my waitlist number recently, but we are still waiting! I have a uniform appointment booked on the 10th august, so we are likely to go with allocated school if we haven’t heard by then. 😫

That’s great news Bella, congratulations to you and your DC!

So hard to predict these things. The sensible part of my brain realises DS is bright and will be fine wherever he goes. Allocated school is outstanding and I like it. In lots of ways it’s the better choice, the main plus is, it’s closer to home so journey time is about 15 mins as opposed to 40 and friends are more likely to be local. But the grammar school offers a particular subject I know he’s really keen on and had we gone down the tutor route, like his friends, then he’d have sailed through the tests. Then I come back to my sensible head again and it tells me, it’ll all be ok in the end!

I’ve realised that if he doesn’t get offered a place before 31st December this year then he would need to resit some tests if a place came up. Hopefully by then DS will be settled and happy in his new school so we’d probably not bother.

Cold hope next week’s the week you get the call. We’ll be keeping everything crossed for you.

waiting any news for your DD? Are you still in second?

Thank you @ColdHappyBap we are very happy!
I genuinely had all but given up. When I 1st enquired daughters position on the wait list she was number 6 so I thought there could be a chance because on the other schools lists she was 60 and up!
So no movement 1st few weeks then she had gone to 10 which killed a bit of my hope for a place. 2 weeks later she had gone to 12 so we were moving in the wrong direction and I had to be realistic over our chance to get a place. I was gutted as her allocated school really was horrendous and to send her there would have been extremely detrimental in my opinion but how could she just not go to school! We had to start thinking about the fact that she would have to start there and just make the most of it until a place did finally become available. By now I was thinking she would probably have to do maybe a year at the allocated school before a place came up at 1st choice.
Anyway from nowhere I received the email that due to waiting list movement they could now offer us a place!!
So my message to all of you still waiting is you just cant call it so dont give up hope! There is light at the end of the waiting list tunnel!
My best wishes to you all good luck!

Honestly we dropped about 10 places at one point @waiting2022 and I couldn't figure out who these people were. We live in London, people are meant to leave for secondary!

After all the flurry of movement just before the end of term nothing has happened this week. Not a sausage. I've emailed the admissions team at the council as I'm not actually sure they are around in August. Although our primary Head said they were.

@ColdHappyBap this kept happening to us too. We were 6th at one stage and then the next time I checked we were 9th. So frustrating!

The frustrating thing for me is we ended up going back down the waiting list. I don't know who joined it, but if we hadn't there could have been a place absolutely ages ago.

waiting2022 the lack of movement this year is frustrating, isn’t it? My DS would also be in by now if this was last year!
If you’re in 2nd place on the waiting list she stands a very good chance of getting through I’d have thought. The lists do seem to move a couple of places before or on the first day of term. Ideally you’d like to receive a place with enough time to buy the uniform and enjoy the first day of term.

ColdHappyBap there’s bound to be some movement before September even if it’s only one or two places so try to distract yourself as much as possible (easier said than done!). I’m glad we’re away for a couple of weeks as I know that will help to keep me from thinking about waiting lists 24/7.
what kind of a school is it? Grammar, Comp?? How many forms/pupils per year? It sounds like there’s been lots of movement already and you’re in the waiting list position we all want! Sit tight, I’m sure you’ll be receiving that phone call soon.

My initial excitement about being so high on the waiting list has evaporated. I’m now convinced it isn’t going to move again and we will remain the ones who didn’t make it.

Regarding those that have accepted a place at a private school and possibly not declined their state school place, a friend was in this situation, and on 1st March declined the state school place on the LA website.

A couple of weeks later she was called up by the state school as she had not completed the registration form, and she informed the school that she had declined the place and her DC would be going to a different school.

Imagine her surprise when, a couple of days after the state school transition day, she received another phone call from the state school, asking why her DC had not attended the transition day.

It's not always the fault of the parents...

My DD is 2nd on the waiting list for a north london grammar and the list hasn’t moved for over 3 weeks now, so we too aren’t sure it will move enough spaces now. Last year my DD would most certainly have got a place my now.

I am in Essex, and we could log on, and see where we were on the wait list.

@MadBonkers it's hard being close to the top isn't it? I've ordered uniform too, although I'm holding off on the PE kit just in case. I've spent all today checking emails and hoping but silence. We are similarly fine with the school we have (although I have a bit of nervousness about some things) but the preferred school has some added benefits that would be really good to have.

Our local authority has an online waiting list checker we can use for their schools. But the academies and faith schools run their own lists so you have to email the school directly.

Do you log onto local authority or direct to school?

New to this thread. My DS is 5th (started out at 19th) on the waiting list for a grammar school in North London.
The waiting list has moved excruciatingly slowly and not nearly as far down the rankings as previous years. We have given up hope and are going to buy the new uniform for his allocated school this week. Frustrating to be so close, I keep thinking if only he’d answered another question, if only the list had moved a few more places on allocation day and second round of offers day but it’s all out of our hands. We’re actually reasonably happy with the allocated school, there’s just a few thing’s that the grammar beats it on in our opinion.
Well done to those that have received good news and good luck to those still waiting.

To be honest, I think it's probably cock up rather than conspiricy.

The movers are probably up to their armpits in other stuff and the ones with the Indie places just forgot - they got those places in early Feb so by the time the state allocation comes along in March, their brains are no longer in 'school choice mode'.

As a Year 6 teacher I always ask parents if they've released their 'extra' places and I'm always surprised by the amount who haven't got round to it.

Do you think the second group (if they even wasted a moment's thought on the subject) regarded themselves as having exhibited good business sense - keeping all their options open for as long as possible - rather than displaying one of the bad habits that their DC would risk picking up from those nasty common kids they would be forced to meet at the state school?

Some positive news for the waiting - 2 of our Year 6 parents got messages during our Leavers’ Assembly on Friday to say that they’d got places at their waiting list school!

Apparently there were loads of no shows at the school’s Induction Day, so they hit the phones and discovered lots of kids who’d moved or accepted Indie places and hadn’t bothered to formally turn down their state place.

Much rejoicing!