Is anyone else waiting to hear what primary school their child has got into?

[HobKnob]

I'm biting my nails off here!

Doris and Mollie - I'm Bathnes. There's nothing to say a time, but my friend is in the same area and has been through it twice and says that it's up immediately after midnight. I'll be gutted if it's not!

Got my first choice. Very pleased. Although I was quite confident becasue ds1 is already there.
Have just heard today that they are going to have a bulge class. I appreciate that many people want places, and it is a baby boom year, but I think it will upset the whole dynamics of the school. Every year, Yr1, Y2, Y3, Y4, Y5, Y6, has 2 classes.
So now they will have 3. How will they do this. Build a portacabin and get a teacher to teach them , all the way through school? You can't hire another teacher for all the years, 7 more teachers. How is this going to work?
Not best pleased.
But never mind. Atleast we are in !!

Historically they have taken 15 in reception then taught joint Y1/2, Y3/4 and Y5/6 so 15 in R and then 30 everywhere else.

Last year it was 22 in YR so they created a new class this year I believe, so they have 1/2, 2/3, 3/4, 5/6.

Now it looks like DD's yeargroup will go through unsplit, which is a shame as I'd have liked her to have the older ones to stretch her (she's not quite 4 and reads, is beginning to write, types, adds, tells the time... Now, I know she'll probably plateau, but I'd have liked her to have the possibility of working with the older ones...)

The school itself is still one of the smallest around, and that's the real reason we chose it - that and the size/levelness of the site.

Oblomov - It's not 7 more teachers. A bulge year normally works its way all the way through school before they repeat.

So one more teacher. This year is 3 classes in reception, 2 everywhere else. Next year it's 2 in reception, 3 in year one, etc, etc. It does mean that the teachers tend to move age group more frequently than might be normal though, as it wouldn't work to have one teacher follow the bulge all the way up the school.

Galena - My mum is a primary teacher and she reckons the 'working with the older ones' is massively overstated. She says that any benefit is cancelled out by having such an ability spread (bottom of one year to top of next) to cater for in activity planning and all the adjustments for each group, etc. She reckons a good teacher can easily stretch a child just as much in a single age year. If that helps at all.

Kungfu - I am going to take a chance on the Bristol outcomes being on the website after midnight. We had to apply for schools in a different county as we are likely to be moving, so our chances of getting any of our choices is near to zero. So I'll be up drinking for sure!

Excellent. We can console one another drunkenly or can-can merrily together.

Finally received my offer letter this morning, we got offered our first choice which I was quite surprised about!

Galena - we moved my (very bright, scholarship winning child) out of a school with mixed year classes. It just didn't work as there was too much of a spread of abilities, as Amanda says. A good school, with good teachers, whether state or private, will stretch the bright children and challenge them according to their needs.

Those of you waiting up till after midnight for the result- has your LA actually told you it will be on at that time? Ours is supposed to be tomorrow but apparently not till 9am ( a friend told me). Is there a likelihood it will be earlier?

kungfu secondary admissions were up a bit after midnight I think - or at least the emails went out then or in the early hours (it was there waiting for me when I woke up that morning).

Ok, That's not so bad then :) A smaller than average school, but a 1-age-group class (unless they decide to have 2 Y1/2 classes I guess...)

Jenai - you went to sleep?!

[admires Jenai's balls of steel]

oblomov I have to say your comment has annoyed me a bit.

You have got your first choice yet you are 'not best pleased' as your school is taking an extra class, enabling other children to go to a local school rather than having to potentially travel miles to a school where there happen to be spare places, meaning the children have no local friends and a hellish commute? I have a friend going through this at the moment and find your attitude very selfish.

LittlePickleHead, I think everyone would want their child to be educated in the best possible environment, wouldn't they? It's widely acknowledged that smaller classes benefit children. I expect oblomov is simply saying what any parent in the school may think. It doesn't mean she's begrudging any child their place there

tunnocks not Wilts here, but apparently our council also send letters tomorrow. No email option, and I only know the letters go out tomorrow because I contacted them to ask. They don't publish the date online!!

Loughs - a bulge class means an extra class, it doesn't mean larger class sizes. I'm not sure that having 2 forms instead of 1 for one year group is going to have any detrimental effect on any of the children.

I understand that she may be annoyed about the 'school dynamic' from the secure position of her child having a place, but its very different from being in a position where a couple of metres can mean getting your first choice school, or none of your 6 choices at all. It is pretty stressful and I think that's a very mean comment. She got her first choice, that is very lucky on a day when many parents face a summer of uncertainty and worry about where their child is going to be schooled.

Lougle not loughs, sorry!

I know kungfu

I don't think ds's secondary is ever over subscribed so I wasn't worried. Also this lot of Y7s is a small cohort apparently.

LittlePickleHead, yes, I'm aware of that. It does mean an extra 30 people in the school hall, an extra 30 people trying to use the ICT suite, an extra 30 people in the lunch queue and the playground.... It does change things.

DD2 goes to a 426 pupil primary school. PAN 60. Fitting the children in for a whole school assembly is a military operation - the classes come in to the hall in a specific order, file in different directions, some across the hall, some down the length of the hall. One child was sick a few weeks ago, and literally had to pick their way through the rows as he was trying to hold the vomit in.

A bulge year creates its own problems later. Two years after my friends daughter started in a bulge class they had more siblings apply than places. Was awful and no room for another bulge.

I wanted DD to get into a naice school. She got one which Requires Improvement

I'm not at all surprised by the 100+ waiting list. We are in the next borough and would guarantee that the nearest schools to us have waiting lists of 200 or more. You needed to be 240m and 270m respectively from each to get offered a place and one of those is 4 form entry! And I know that people apply from much much further away as the other schools nearby are deemed not good enough. I have heard that if you're willinLondon is crazy.