SW London Private and Grammar - applying for year 7 in 2023 (part V)

VickiMent, my son has just left for the CFC offer holder event too with his dad. Have a lovely time.

FX for all of us waiting for Epsom. Incredible that they have found it within themselves to go through with results day considering what they are going through.

I can’t focus on anything else now!!

When my DD didn’t get any firm offers a few years ago but a couple of waitlists I was incredibly stressed out. A few days after the state school results I got a call from one of the WL schools asking me if they went into their waitlist would I take the offer (we were number 2 I think). I thought it was interesting as they were sounding me out ahead of time. They weren’t committing at that stage though. The next day later they rang again and made the offer. I promptly burst into tears in my office! So much stress. But those with no offers and only WL, keep the faith as things do tend to work out.

I emailed as soon as we received the waitlist to thank them and say the school was our top choice, how much we loved it and felt it was the right fit for ds etc. and we would accept the offer and pay the deposit immediately should we be lucky enough to get an offer. This was during covid so lots of people applied without seeing schools in person so I also mentioned we had visited twice.

Then the week before the state schools came out, I think the Wednesday/Thursday before, I emailed again just to say the school was still our top choice. In the letter they had said they offer on waitlist from a date 5 days after state results but we got a phone call the evening of the state schools results coming out offering a place. Good luck 🤞🏻

@Asham @VickiMent @Pigeon25 I’m positively beside myself refreshing my email.

good luck to you all and let us know. X

@nottoolong did you have good news?

We are just about to head to an offer holder session. I don't want to find out while I am there.

For the other school there was just over an hour between me hearing those emails were out to me getting it...so there is hope.

I am constantly checking too.

I had convinced myself that we wouldn’t be receiving them today so have had to suddenly process that we are. Hopefully it’s just a case of sending them out in alphabetical order.

@Pigeon25 @Asham also nothing here. I can't stop checking though.

Exactly what I was thinking Pigeon25. Easy for the mind to go into overdrive! Deep breaths!

Nothing for us either…. Wonder if that’s a good or bad thing 🤦‍♀️

maybe check you junk mail box as our email from Epsom landed in junk mail box.

@Sass22 did you ask where your DD was on the WL? how much they over offer and and if based on last year movement she was likely to have a place?

@Sass22 Great you've called already. Yes, follow up next week, and then maybe a weekly call to befriend the admissions staff!

Thank you for your responses @LondonMum20222 @Jibberty yes I rang yesterday they said that they would add it to my DD profile that I called. Ok I will send a couple of emails during the half term. Need to be patient

Fingers crossed for everyone waiting for Epsom then!! give us some good news
@Gumps I have looked it up thanks seems that PHS is on there as well though

We haven’t recieved anything from Epsom yet.

Epsom results are out now.

I would call them (I think you're on the PHS WL?) this week and thank them for the email/letter/update and impress upon them that PHS is your top choice and that should a place become available you would take it immediately. I would then follow up with an email over half term. They really are very good at communicating, so if it's the school you want, it's important to let them know, especially if you're WL already.

@Sass22 I would call today (if you haven't already) per everyone's previous advice, and let them know it's your first choice.

Hi all, well done for all the fab offers. I just wanted to ask again regarding WL when do you start calling and emailing them is it after the deadline of acceptance as I don’t want to be a nuisance in such a busy time for them.

Congratulations to all those that got offers and fingers crossed to all those still waiting.
Does anyone know of any appeal made to private schools post results? Also do the schools usually provide any feedback on the DC performance after rejection?
My DC did not progressed to LU interview and they said will be able to provide feedback, via phone, in march. Not interested in their feedback, three months later, but just wondering if the schools where we actually got in interview usually provide feedback if you ask.

@gumps thanks for the reply what is the HMC group please?
As PHS and WHS are both GDST, I was thinking they might be inclined to post close to each other.

Sadly I doubt it. All the schools left to offer seem to be the ones in the HMC trinity group and have an agreement that the results are posted Thursday and emailed Friday.

Does anyone know if WHS might send the email earlier than Friday, just looking at the key dates sheet in open apply and it says by Friday 10th

Re the debate on holding on to offers / letting them go, someone a few iterations ago of this thread earlier (apologies - I can't remember who) made some really good points that are worth reiterating for those who've recently joined the thread.

They made the point that visiting schools for offer holders' events is completely different from going to open days - you're in the driving seat, you can ask questions, and they now want you rather than the other way round. Sometimes that change in dynamic changes the way you see a school. Sure, it might not make you choose your 6th choice school, but it may change your views about your top 3.

Secondly (and I thought this point was excellent) much as we all hope our DCs settle happily into their chosen senior schools, sometimes it just doesn't pan out that way, and on the off-chance that you might be calling one of your rejected schools one day to ask about occasional places, it's useful for you to have seen it at an offer holders' day, and it's useful for you not to have rejected it out of hand the first time around.

Obviously the message isn't "hold onto 6 or 8 schools, even those you'd never actually want to send your child to." But there are legitimate reasons why people might want to see 3 or 4 schools at offer holders's days before deciding, and given how hard the DCs will have worked to get that far, it feels fair that if that's what they want to do before making a decision, they shouldn't be judged or criticised for it. The sense on here is that it's always an inherently selfish thing to do. But people make decisions in different ways, and if some families want to go to multiple offers days before deciding, then I think that's their prerogative.

@HerbertChops , agree with your comments. Some families over the years, hold on to multiple offers to go to holders days but they know it may be a choice between 1 or 2 schools not the 3rd, 4th, 5th etc. This could be a case of family indecision or humble bragging. Hopefully more offers not needed will be release, including those who are doing 11+ and 13+ at the same time. We release all 13+ offers and not hold till year 8 since DC is super happy at 11+ school. Though I know of families with 3 or more 13+ offers just holding on with the firm favourite in the bag.