Where are you on the waiting list for a school place?

[ukkittykat]

Hi, I was ust wondering where people are on the schols waiting list? I was told yesterday that my child was number 4 waiting for a junior place of my higher ranked preference. Does anyone know if this is a good position? It sounds good but not sure if she will get offered a place in time for september. This whole schools process is so stressful!!

Two years ago we were on the waiting list for our chose secondary. Dd1 was 1st on the list and got a place 6 days after the letters came out. I think 4th is pretty good tbh. Has your daughter got a back up place anywhere? How would you feel about starting her somewhere and moving her if a place then came up?

Hi, I have been offered another school place but tbh it really isnt the school for my daughter. She is part of an infant school where the junior school is on a shared site so majority of her school friends have been offered a place, so i definatley wouldnt have a problem moving her if she was offered a place!

Four is actually v good, ukkittykat, despite my moaning earlier :-P (hope I didn't put you off, sorry. I was moaning about the fact that we could also go down the list which seems very ludicrous) You're quite near getting a place, really. Just be prepared that you might only know a week before school starts - it happened to a good friend. She says she ended up buying 2 sets of uniform (but it was worth it, she says, as it saved on the petrol in the end!) - one for each school. (You're probably wondering where I am - we are 10. Sounds bad but my primary school teacher friend says that could still change and to sit tight before looking at properties abroad!!)

I am 3rd on first and 5th on second choice. Think there's more hope on the 5th one iykwim! Very little movement on my first choice, apparently. So gutted, moved deliberately and the catchment has shrank like never before coupled with mega siblings.

Bamboostalks - that is really disheartening if you've moved specially, isn't it. Still, a 3rd place can move to a school place.......April is too early to give up! 3rd and 5th are v gd - provided you like your 2nd choice too.

7th, 15th and 20th, have been there for a year...

The depressing thing is that when I popped into the school, there was another family family applying for a place who are nearer so I will end up moving further down. If only it was static!

We're first on the waiting list, have everything crossed to avoid appeal.

Hi southofthethames..no you havent disheartened me!! I know its like a lottery really and could go up or down and if its a week before term or after and have to buy 2 sets of uniform then so be it if it means she can continue through to our choice of juniors!! .....Bamboostalks that is really gutting moving into the area and still cant get in. That has what has happened this year with my school choice they had an intake of 30 sibling places offered!! Thats a whole class!! .....Number one on the waiting list Musey is fantastic lets hope you stay there! We are going for appeal as well,but like you lets hope it wont get to that stage as ive heard the appeals process is rather scary!! Best of luck to us all!!

Haha... I hope Musey doesn't stay there, I hope she gets a place instead :-) - as well ukkittykat, bamboo and us at our preferred schools. My word, uni Finals were much less stressful than this.

We were 3rd on the waiting list for our 1st choice school last year, I called to check before the summer holidays and we had moved to 10th! Gave up hope at that point! Best of luck to you, it is a stressful time.

We are 6th on the waiting list and the lady at the education offices said not to hold my breath at getting dd in before xmas !

I was 10th, then was 1st for a whole year except for a couple of weeks - when two places came up and went to other people. I am now 3rd - DD is in Y2. My friend was 8th and got a place. 4th is definitely in with a chance but you should have a fallback plan.

Thanks everyone for their accounts - speakercorner, I have never read a sentence where my hopes shot up and fell to the ground within the same sentence!! Really feel for you. Imagine waiting at number one for a year. I wish you and DD all the best and hopefully where she has been is a happy experience for her.
I really find this practice of bumping people further down the list once they are on it highly distasteful now! No other waiting list for anything in the world does this - apart from maybe organ transplants, but of course in those situations, nobody particularly likes the idea of being high priority, if you know what I mean (high=dying).....

Sorry, south! We have been really really unlucky and generally speaking I have been furious bored my DH senseless coped really well! The waiting has been hideous, and we have more-or-less decided to stick with where we are. She will probably be offered a place for Y3 as the class size goes up, but I put down her current school for DD2 after much anguish sensible weighing up of the odds.

I would not have chosen the school but dd has been really happy. Sometimes I think she has ended up in the right place for her - except for the social side because it is out of our community, which is tricky.

Hope it works out well for you and your DC.

we're 5th on the waiting list for our first preference, and 1st for our second, and have been told we will be getting an offer for our second preference, which is a huge relief. Still going to be holding out for our first preference though, have heard that 2 have declined, and know that one person above me has gone private, so that should make us 2nd.. Good luck everyone..

speakercorner - we're in a similiar position - dd has been languishing on the waiting list for almost a year now - we've been up and down it like yoyos - currently no.2 and still hoping for a place. And we have to apply for place for dd2 for sept 2012...
Southofthethames - I know what you mean waiting lists are hugely frustrating and its difficult not to take personally but the way I see it is there has to be a system and this is as fair as it could be - after all we have in turn bumped people down the list..

One thing to bear in mind is that the LEA does not offer a place if you are already in a school until the end of term. Whereas if a family moves into the area and the child has no school place, they get offered it straight away.

So theoretically a place could come up when your child was number one on the list halfway through a term - admissions wouldn't tell you because it was halfway through a term - and then another family could move in closer to the school and take the place before you even knew about it.

That is what happens in my LEA anyway - I was outraged when I realised. Consequently I rang every week and had my friends in the preferred school tipping me off about any possible spaces. I would have challenged the withholding of the place if one had come up.

Much sympathy to everyone - it is really awful to draw the short straw.

speakercorner - didn't know that about the LEA, but of course that makes sense. Thanks for the tip.

Personally I would not want to bump anybody down a list - that is why I personally don't feel one needs to be on more than 3 waiting lists unless you didn't even get a single school. Most people really only want one or at most 2 schools, unless you have no offered place at all.

I just think that for families who need to prepare and budget, it's fairer that if they are number one or two they stay there rather than getting bumped down to three or even worse. I think if you move into an area halfway through the year/applications process, it is fair to be started at wherever there is a place - even if that is 5 miles away from home. I would expect the same if I were in that position. Why should a long time resident who has applied in good time be the one to travel that 5 miles instead? That is where I feel the system is definitely not as fair as it could be, and makes a mockery of people who take the trouble to apply in time for the January deadline.