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

[HobKnob]

I'm biting my nails off here!

Anyone in West Sussex know what time we are supposed to find out. Applied online so expecting email today sometime. Have a job interview this morning and could do without chewing my nails all the way through it!

A friend of mine who got her second choice got a letter from the Council with all the details about distances, where she would be on the waiting list were she to continue to try and get a place at her first choice school, etc etc. That is Kingston Council. It seems some are better than others.
It is awful that you have not been given any info Letsgetreal

Thanks all - we are Hammersmith and Fulham so it seems not all London councils are the same.

It may be my paranoia but I just feel that when someone doesnt tell you something the are supposed to then the have a motive for not telling you.......

According to the Standard last night H&F is the worst London borough for oversubscribed schools, children getting the first choice, children getting one of their top 3 etc so I wonder whether this explains the lack of detail we've received.

Our letter was like that. Just said "the 60 places were allocated to children higher in the preference criteria" or something. I think it's so it's an easy mail merge for the letters personally - lazy, rather than necessarily devious. The good news though is that, after the initial confusion on the first day (when I obviously got a know-nothing temp who waffled about data protection), they released the information to me on request within 24 hours.

They don't give places on waiting lists though because my area don't automatically add you. So until people have done the first round of responses they don't know how many people are, say, perfectly happy with their second choice and not joining the waiting list. Seems sensible to me. It means when I find out, it should be a genuine number, not just a stab in the dark.

MOSagain - I'm West Sussex too and desperate to find out. Should be fine because DD already at the school but worried in case there's been a major cock-up.

With DD we got the email at 9.06am (that was 2 years ago) so I'm hoping we'll find out any minute....

Good luck with your interview!

Good luck to all of you finding out today.

letsgetreal they should tell you if you ask.

Got our first choice. We're in Bristol. Phew.

See, I think there should be standard rules about the 'after-admissions' process.

My rules would be:

All LAs should do as Hampshire do, automatically putting children on waiting lists for any school with a higher preference than the school the child was allocated.

All LAs should do as Hertfordshire do, publishing the initial statistics of outcomes within 24 hours of offers being made.

All LAs must inform parents of:

The last category that was admitted
What distance was last admitted
What measurement was used
What place on the waiting list they are at
How many children were admitted due to 'shuffling' prior to the start of term the previous year for each school they are on the waiting list.

That would save so many parents phoning and emailing the admissions departments.

I agree, Lougle.

Well done Doris!

lougle I agree that would be ideal.

Bristol here, just got the email. Got second choice - which is actually not bad, a perfectly reasonable school with almost as much in its favour as choice #1 so could just accept - but I need to have a think about whether to hold out for first choice post-shuffling or just go with the allocated school.

Well done Doris!

Oops, here did that second post ome from?

Oh for goodness sake.

Where. Come.

Didn't get any of our choices. Allocated an under subscribed school near to our current address which doesn't help us as we are moving to another county to look after my ill parents but haven't got an address there yet as we can't buy a house without knowing where ds will be going to school!

BrienneOfTarth accept! Then decide whether to go on waiting list (worth doing, and may cause no hassle if you get offered palace quickly), and maybe whether to appeal (unless you believe they have made a mistake you have little chance of winning).

Accepting in no way harms your chance of getting palace at your preferred school! If you reject the school you are offered the LA no-longer has to find you a place at all.

Lougle - I agree with all of that, except the automatic waiting lists. I actually quite like what our authority does for that.

You have to respond to accept any offers and say whether you want to be reconsidered and join the waiting list. If you want to be reconsidered, it is essentially one big reallocation process. If you get bumped up, your previous offer is withdrawn and reallocated in the same round. That means no one is ever holding two offers (i.e. the lower choice and the one they've now got into) and speeds up as many people as possible getting new offers as soon as possible. It also means you have to pro-actively think about whether to be reconsidered - I know a few people who got second choice and who have decided to stick with it, but who would probably not have actively opted out of a waiting list. So that means that those who desperately want those schools are more likely to hear quickly.

Also, technically we got our third choice, but our second we are not bothered about being waitlisted for. So someone who really wants that school will get a realistic idea as soon as possible of what their chances are.

Oh mollie, that's rubbish. Get onto them asap and find out about waiting lists.

Oh Mollie. Poor you. Could you look and see whether you could rent in your new county right on the doorstep of a school you would like? Then you would be right at the top of the waiting list and likely to get a place by September. You could then focus your buying search on a radius around that school? Would that work?

Slowly prising the approriate data from people - it seems we are number 75 on the waiting list for our nearest school (though they do have both religious and non-religious places).

Last accepted place 300 yards from the school - they must be piling the kids 4 deep to have a catchment that small! I guess thats London for you.....

What was your distance Letsgetreal?

We are about 800 yards - we are actually a lot closer because you can walk through a park directly to the school but they explicitly excluded that in their criteria so they measure if you walk all the way around the park on the roads.

I think they lost an appeal couple of years ago on distance because of the 'park route'.

Oh, so they do closest walking route? I have to admit, I think straight line distances are fairer. I know they can throw up funny results (our allocated school is twice as far by walking route as it is by straight line), but at least there is no ambiguity and everyone knows where they stand.