How confident are you of getting your first choice in March?

[pooodle]

Goes out to those who have applied for a school place of course!

Not a chance for first choice apparently but I put it anyway just in case.

Not sure about second choice - same situation as Theodoresmummy - we are out of their catchment area but it is undersubscribed usually.

Reasonably. The DTs have an older sibling who will be going into Y6. Next year I may bite my nails but hopefully DD2 will go to the same school as DD1.

We're in Bedfordshire - and it's a primary place (don't know when secondary places get allocated).

we find out on the 31st March along with everyone else.
If we don't get into the nearest school it will cause me major problems as it is only a 20 minute walk and i don't drvie and the 2nd choice would be a lot longer walk.
We will appeal if we don't get our 1st choice and my dh is majorly confident all will be fine so I hope he's right.
Someone on our street didn't get her son into Y1 because it was full - but she moved here in the middle of the school year so I hope all will be well.

I asked at our first choice school and they said that we're unlikely to not get in so i'm not too worried. But then my outlook is that I always hope for the best and just worry if a problem comes up. Not much point worrying now as there's nothing you can do. I know it's hard as it's such an important thing.

But my dd is only just about to start primary school I think i'll be more worried when it comes to secondary. Although that's a long way off Am hoping she can go to a Grammar school if they're still about when she goes.

what have people told their child by the way?
We walk past our first choice school most days and I've been telling ds that that will hopefully be his school but unsure if that is a good idea or not.

100% - We live next door and DS1 already goes there.

We find out this week actually so no waiting for us.

Nothing much yet as we don't go past the school really. DD also won't start til Jan 09 if she gets the first choice place (as they do 2 intakes) so once I know i'll have 9 months to talk to her about it!

We drive past ours. Ds has started saying that 'it be my new school' - I try and calm it down and say maybe !!!!

can't stand all these primaries knowing and Me not
Ours don't tell till Feb 28th.
Didn't bother me until last week, when I saw a thread saying that Herts already knew !!!!!!!!!!!!!

We haven't made a big thing about it. I occassionally mention that she might be going to that school if we drive past. She's wise beyond her years so is pretty understanding about these things. She has spotted the large two storey playhouse in the playground and that made her eyes light up.

If I were her and didn't get in I'd be kicking and screaming but I think she'll just take it in her stride and probably be glad to go anywhere just to get a break from DD2 and the new baby who will be here by then

Oblomov

Do you live in Surrey? Ours is 28th Feb too.

Had email confirmation on Friday and Letter arrived yesterday - we got our first choice but he's a sibling so guessed we'd be OK. I've heard they're dropping that rule next year so that siblings don't get preference .

Last year not one of my friends got 1st choice and some got 3rd choice, but this year is apparently a smaller birth year in my area and so far all I've spoken too have got their first coice

ours is end of march for nursery places and end of april for school.

Waiting to find out about nursery for ds2. am reasonably confident, he has speech problems which that, for nursery applications at least, he has extra needs (not special needs but extra needs)

They have told us from past experience we should get in on distance (we live 1/3 of a mile away, and last years furthest was just over 1/2mile) They are hugely oversubscribed, last year 600+ applications for 180 places, although not sure what percentage of those were first choices.
We find out on 4th March.

130 applications for 60 places here (primary), 30ish (I've heard 34) are a dead cert for siblings. That's 130 who have the school down at all, so some will get into their higher choices and not be a factor. There are about 60 keen enough to have actually had names down with the school. However, we ARE about 300 yards from the school, so we should be safe. Allocations out on 1st April.

Secondary, all those years in the futre, will be another matter - equidistant between two oversubscribed secondaries, not particuarly close to either. And not much sign of DD being grammar school material yet.

cece OP has 90 1st choice applicants for 30 places in September!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! In September 2009 we've done a quick playground reckie and think around 17 of the 30 places will be taken by siblings alone!

I was talking about secondary as dd1 is in year 6, JH is now oversubscribed although I think this is in part because S (the catholic secondary in C) has changed their admissions priority so it is catholic siblings, then catholics, then non-catholic siblings basically they are desperate to have the majority of students being catholic which is fair enough IMO but that means there is no secondary school to serve C!!!!!

What did you put down for yours - is in R & Y3 this september for them? I know TG is oversubscribed for reception in September!

Cargirl,

Oh dear it is not looking good for us then

I put TG and NHJ as our first choice but they are not our nearest.

I put OP as our third choice as it is quite a long way for me to drive to get there but had no other nearer options that I liked. WB is my second choice.

I have an awful feeling we will be given our nearest one..... and I don't even know where it is! It is in completely a different direction and I know no one who goes there. The distance rules changed and it has badly affected us ...

Can't believe that about JH as well

In my playground they are all fretting about FB secondary and whether they will get in there!

I'm not too confident about getting my 1st choice as we're out of catchment. My guess is that we've got a 50% chance of getting in. I am fairly sure we'd get our 2nd choice as it has a history of being undersubscribed. I've got to wait until the end of March which feels like rather a long time right now.

Oh cece I did think of you when I heard about the oversubscription - have you looked at SC at all, it will be a primary from September and I doubt it will be oversubscribed with OP also being primary from September????? DD1 is at SC and I've been really really happy with it. It's not too much further from you then OP either (or possibly nearer assuming you drive down NW Road)

It'll be a disaster if we don't as our first choice is the only one that is remotely wheelchair adapted. The catchment school (secondary for dd) has lots of stairs, no lift and is going to be a building site for the next few years. Not to be mentioned that they've been taken over by a Christian sect who have no idea what the curriculum's going to be- at least what they told us at Parents evening!
But it's the stairs that really clinch it. We'll just keep appealing.

Our applications don't have to be in until Feb 1st for Primary

Really worried. Put dd's preferred option school a as second choice as I really wasn't that impressed, now worried she's not going to deal well with going to school b. All her little friends have put school a, why oh why did I think school b was better. She's going to hate it.

Cargirl

I really want NHJ and TG as that will mean DD can stay with her friends from the infants and DS can stay with his nursery friends.

DD has already been to two schools due to a house move so feel really sorry for her having to make yet another set of friends. It just seems so unfair that they don't automatically go from the infants to the juniors.

Will just have to wait and see what happens I suppose - wait till Feb 29th when the letters plop through the door... then I will be stressed!