Kent Yr 7 admission : second round allocation and waiting list

[expatinmys]

DS has had an offer from his 3rd choice school on the 1st March , which is a very good school.

On the second round of allocations on 24th April, DS now has had an offer from his 2nd choice school, which is a super selective school. The admission email from the 2nd choice school states that if we were to turn down the school, our application will be withdrawn.

We then got in touch with our 1st choice school and DS is number 5 on the wait list on governors’ places.

DS can’t make a decision at the moment as he seems to be keen on all 3 schools and also wants to see which school his friends are going to.

A few questions if anyone can shed some light:

Is it possible to turn down the 2nd choice school but not get our application withdrawn and stay on the waiting list until the start of the school term in September?
How does it work if we were to turn down the school but still want to keep the option open?

Does anyone know what would be the chances of getting an offer of a place if DS is at number 5 on the waiting list for a governors place (there are 14 governors places in total) and it is a very popular super selective school in Kent.

Thanks in advance.

You can stay on the waiting list fir the 1st choice even if you accept 2nd choice. But I don't think you can stay on the list for 2nd choice if you turn it down now.

If you like school 2 more than school 3, take school 2’s offer and stay on the waiting list for school 1.

Exactly.

Take on board fully yourself, and impress upon your DS, that when you sat down and considered which schools to name as preferences on your CAF, and in which order, there was a reason for this. So you told the LA that you really wanted a place at the school where he is currently number 5 on the waiting list, but if you couldn't have that, you would like a place at the school at which a place has just been offered, but if that wasn't possible, you would like a place at the school which was actually offered on March 3rd and so on.

So now the question is, has anything changed in the way that you view the schools? Assuming for now that your first preference school won't have a place to offer by September (or possibly at all), would you and he prefer him to be at the original third preference school or the original second preference (that is, is the latter still more desirable than the former, or has your personal ranking changed)? If the newly offered school still has the edge, then accept the offer. If you and your DS are genuinely happy with the current offer, then stick with that and let the next person on the waiting list for your original second preference have the place there - their current offer may be less suitable for them than yours is for you.

Leave our, 'I want to see where my friends are going'. If nothing else, friendships change once pupils move to secondary school; they survive or they don't- both he and his current friends will be mixing with loads of new people and the chance that he will retain any kind of exclusive relationship with current friends is remote. He can keep up with 'home friends' out of school (although be prepared for them to drift apart with time anyway).

I agree, you need to make a decision whether you would rather school 2 instead of school 3 and act accordingly. This won't take you off the waiting list for school 1. You can't really decline school 2 and stay on the list. You would essentially be offered every space that came up based on being number 1. You could probably ask to go back on the waiting list later on if you declined now and changed you mind, but obviously no guarantee of a place.

As much as friends matter, I would try to focus on the best school for your DS, as friendships often change.

Be aware too that just as your DS is on waiting lists so too many be his friends so they could end up not at school 3