SW London grammar and private year 7 entry 2024 - Continued

@ItsMeHi48 we have friends with a DD at St Catherine's (they also had, like you an offer St James Senior Girls and another one from Sutton High). They are really happy there - small school and strong community and pastoral care. The extra-curricular offer, particularly on sports, is quite good too.

My DD does have offers from St James Senior Girls in West Ken/Ken Olympia and St Catherine’s in Twickenham, so if the FHSS WL place doesn’t convert to an offer we will be choosing between those two. Any views on or experiences of either schools would be great to hear 🙏🏻

Anyone planning to decline a FHSS offer or WL place that would like to reveal that here to give me some hope would be much appreciated - I know I need to trust the process, but it’s hard!

We were offered 6 so will be declining soon but I am just waiting for final t&cs. Waitlists will move.

yelloworanges - that’s surprising. I’d definitely give them a call as we found them very transparent through the admissions process. I heard exam marks & extra curricular did play a significant part in the offers process so they might share more info. Are you happy with the school generally for your older child?

DS is on the waiting list for KGS (from a general interview 😅) and has an older sibling there already. Any ideas about whether there’s a way to gauge if he’s likely to eventually be given an offer? Do they let you know about quartiles etc?

City girls did exploding offers 2 years ago but it went down so badly and also I think breached some sort of indie school association code so they scrapped that.

@TBNT thank you xx congrats on the 1st choice scholarship

Not frequently, but some schools have mis-calculated in the past and significantly over-offered. The most recent notable case was Surbiton a couple of years ago, they ended up having to put in place extra forms and there were quite a few parents not that pleased (given the pressure on facilities, etc). Other schools might have got it a bit wrong but have just added one-two DC per class and did not go to WL.

There have been rumours in the past of 'exploding offers' and I seem to recall people mentioning a school (I don't remember which one) using it one year... but the backlash was such that I cannot see it happening again (so the schools just tend to err on the side of caution).

Surely schools would not want to risk having more acceptances than they can accommodate by over offering and thus in theory they would all go to waitlist to some extent. I’m just speculating of course (and being hopeful).

Generally they over offer 2-3 times for the mid tier schools, more
for bankers and less for super selective confident they are peoples first choice. It’s always a bit of an art though which is why you get bumper years and situations like IPS last year where they lost the plot a bit and only offered super academic children for whom it was a banker. They were not full in year 7.
they seem to have improved their process this year .

good luck to everyone now waiting!!

the offer ratios at all schools are far higher than you imagine when you are sitting the exams so the volume of declines has to be quite large to trigger the WL

Yes I can see this is true - but still, every little helps. If you know you will not be taking up a place then why not release it now (or at least soon). Hopefully means things will move a little faster after half term at least.

We will be declining WHS and SCHS in the next few days - just in case it helps.

@peekaboo1 , of course decline as soon as you can but most admissions depts are close for half term. Most of the movement is after the 1st March when state school places are released, the offer ratios at all schools are far higher than you imagine when you are sitting the exams so the volume of declines has to be quite large to trigger the WL.

I know 2 people at St J’s that will be giving up their space. But I don’t know how much they over offer by. The lists do move though I know 4 people who got in from the WL in my OC year.

We have also declined Epsom already and will be releasing Ibstock and Emanuel soon. KGS it is for us. Am sure waiting lists will move not too long after half term. A lot of kids sitting on 4-7 offers and will be able to narrow it down to 2 or just 1 shortly.

If it's any help we got a Caterham offer yesterday and have declined already as was our #2 and DD got a scholarship at her #1.

Hopefully you can have her spot.

When should we get in touch to release offers? Should I be doing this during this coming week or the week we go back - are the admissions offices also on half term?

Thank you for those releasing Emanuel places. We’ll be waiting with bated breath. Any ideas on numbers they’d have over offered by?

KGS for us too.. Absolutely loved it so will be accepting that & releasing Emanuel, SHS.

Thanks very thoughtful @Summerma
We are down to final 2 and will release the rest too.

Emanuel is an interesting one this year, at our school they’ve only offered the super academic and none we know are accepting. So suspect the waiting list will move but many those kids have also got Alleyns and other schools that are traditionally harder than Emanuel so won’t accept that either. No idea if this is similar at other schools but I wonder if they’ve overcooked it. Or maybe I’m just bitter 🤪

We've just released both of those so I think WL will move going forward.

We have released St John’s, and will be releasing KGS Monday and likely releasing Emanuel in a week max as DS has decided on Hampton (silently a bit gutted as Emanuel is my favourite but it’s got to be where DS really wants). Trying to be very quick with decisions to help those with waitlists (appreciate there are over offers but doing all we can). Thanks for all the support all

Agree with @ncsurrey22 , it changes from year to year. Last year Epsom had had an upsetting event but they had their highest ever acceptance rate. It's a very desirable school and with a new head starting in Sept they will again expect a high level of acceptance.

Best to let both schools know how keen you are and will pay the deposit immediately if offered a space and stay tight until 5th March.

@Laulau26 it changes from year to year as sometimes a school will overoffer too much one year and then they'll be conservative the next and it often bounces back and forth till they get it right. I know at least 3 ppl who are turning their Epsom places down but I am sure they over offer 2-3x so they don't always go to WL. I am sure they'll have a better idea after the offer holders events are finished, best to call schools end of Feb and again early March. to find out. I'll be surprised if they don't go to WL this year.

Congrats to all with good news! Does anyone have a rough idea about WL movements in schools like St. John’s and Epsom?
hope everyone can relax a little bit over half term!