Secondary school place allocation - 1 March

Got the email before 8 and I've been trying to log on ever since to find out! Just keeps timing out.

30 mins to go for us. Tense!

I’m in Kent and apparently they don’t send out emails until after 4pm. I’m trying to remember how it was for my DS (but he’s in Y12 now). Im still checking emails and portal now though (just in case!). Feel sick. I’m praying we get 1st choice. I’ll be ok with second choice. For primary, she got 4th choice and initially I was gutted (my son was at a different primary school so it was a logistical nightmare), but she’s thrived at that school and absolutely loves it.

First choice is half a mile down the road from us. And DS can walk DD to school and back which would be great.

good luck everyone x

Feeling envious of those of you in the areas who know already! We won't find out until 'the afternoon' apparently.

We got first choice. It isn’t the best school in the country, but it’s the best school locally, so I’m pleased.

<eyes wine, checks time>

It's going to be a loooooog few hours!

Posting this on here too as I see there's two offer threads going.

Good luck everyone getting offers today. I was here the other year and we did not get our first or second choice (not unexpectedly, they were long shots based on distance criteria). We didn't really have grounds for appeal so just sat on the waiting list and eventually got an offer for our first choice in late August. I had some friends who got offers in the first couple of weeks of term as well. This was in London where there is definitely decent movement on the waiting list.

You do have to accept the offer they give you, even if you don't intend to take it up. We couldn't be told where we were on the waiting list until a bit after the deadline for offers and the initial waiting list moves. It was April before we knew. Started at 29 which sounded hopeless. Bounced up and down the waiting list all summer until eventually getting the place. It is agonising but we're very glad we held out.

@Rekka no I'm panicking 😂😂

Your borough might have catchments, but most of London is by distance.

Though I do know that one school not far from here uses a lottery, and another a named feeder school system.
The only ones I can think of with catchments (usually called priority admissions areas) are a couple of primary schools.

Most important message for today is that, if you don't get a school you like, no matter how much you hate it do not reject it
Wait a bit, calm down, think about your option and if considering an appeal think about starting a thread here asking for advice

Anecdotally... due to house moves I've done in year admissions a few times in different parts of the country. DD2 in current yr6... always easy to get a place. DD1 in current Yr8... its been appeals, no school place for 2 months at one point, a bulge class in one school... All our friends had similar issues with that year group, none with this year group.
As I said anecdotally, but this session to be a smaller cohort.

That "come down a bit" from 2012 would help significantly for this cohort.

Hope yours can get in where they want to go!

No email yet but couldn’t wait so checked portal and it was on there. Thank goodness! Top choice offered even though it’s not catchment, a massive relief and year 6 DD gone off t

Thanks @Rekka. Although I'm kind of assuming the birth rate didn't collapse in 2013, rather just came down a bit from 2012. don't correct me I'm catastrophising

Fair point. Thank you.

Yes, but this cohort starts from birthday September 2012. So you would be more looking at 2013 birth rate.

@WingSlutz @Helenjohanna

I know outcomes won't be released till this evening where I am but I'm still frantically refreshing my inbox every 10 seconds 😁. Also I can't see where on the portal I should look. It says go to My School Admissions but I can't see that page - does it only appear once the outcome is announced?

>none of our choices nor catchment.

Uuu... sorry.. Where is that if I may ask?

This definitely does happen - DS is at a grammar and quite a few turned down their places - the child decided they wanted to go to school with their friends instead; parents realised in the harsh light of day that the commute was ridiculous; family was moving away. There was also a bit of attrition in the first term with children realising it wasn’t really for them (commute, pace of learning).

I googled it and 2012 had a very high birth rate.

Depressing article in the times today saying many children will miss out on their first choice. If I remember correctly there was a baby boom when DS was born (Jan 2013) so that adds up. God I think I might vomit

Good luck everyone.

We're Surrey so won't be until this evening.

I can remember my constant refreshing on the primary day and it definitely came up while I was still at work. Wondering if today will be the same.

I applied for two secondaries because I had nothing to lose, but we are now feeling that we'll stick with our "extended secondary". All the same, I'm eager to see what my son's been allocated. We're Central Beds and I've been checking the portal, but I don't think it updates. The middle school part just shows my preferences and not what we were allocated. I can't remember now what happened at the time - whether I had an email only.

no email here but checked the portal when I randomly woke about an hour ago and very lucky to have got our first choice and wheee almost all DS’s pals are going.

sending good luck vibes to all

Thank you I've emailed, have also asked for an appeal pack but I am not clear on the grounds. Hopefully when the email notification comes through it will explain how as the council website doesn't mention wait lists at all, and finding an email address was a challenge! I am gutted and dreading having to break the news.