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

[HobKnob]

I'm biting my nails off here!

[Letsgetreal]

Oddly we are technically quite close to a good school straight across the Thames in Putney as they use 'as the crow flies' - we would just have to swim to school every day as driving there over Putney bridge would be a nightmare!

[MOSagain]

Yay, we are in in West Sussex

[Molliemouse]

Thanks Kungfu and AmandaPATMC. Turns out they are not the helpful kind of LEA! Won't release admission data (application numbers relative to available places etc.) unless you write to them requesting it. Also, waiting lists only established in 4 weeks time so no way of knowing what chance we've got until then. And can't provide any info about schools that may have places (at this stage any school in the area might be better than none!) until that same date in May.

[duchesse]

We got our "first choice"- hurrah! But we only applied for one of the two on offer to us, so they could either offer us a place or not. Although when applying once before for another child, we were offered a place at a school we hadn't applied to, turned that down and were offered a place at the school we originally wanted.

[eastegg]

We got results here in south London on my birthday which was 17th. Disappointing. We would have got our first choice comfortably last year, missed that by a short distance. Second choice we never thought we had a chance with, actually friends just slightly closer got in but again we're not quite close enough. Got 4th choice.

We're staying positive but what a crap birthday evening that was.

Then again looking at some of the threads on MN we're the lucky ones.

[sanam2010]

Letsgetreal, are you talking about All Saints by any chance? Catchment for open places has always been around 300m so that should not be a surprise?

A friend of mine is in the exact same situation as you (6th choice in H&F) though incredible she's 200m from a school which last year took kids up to 1km! We have no idea what happened yet.

These statistics might give you some idea - record applications this year
www.lbhf.gov.uk/Directory/News/All-time_high_for_primary_applications.asp

Which school did you get? I actually think a lot of the less popular community primaries in H&F are quite good, they're just unpopular among middle class bc they draw a lot of immigrant kids, but many of them are good schools with very nice teachers!

[kungfupannda]

Mollie - could you push out of Bristol as far as Banes or north Somerset or Gloucestershire? Might get more help from councils.

Any scope for parents moving as well as you, to meet somewhere near better school selections?

[Molliemouse]

Kungfu - we are moving to a county 150 miles away, hence the zero chance. We have definitely fallen prey to the record applications as I picked schools that were all well under subscribed last year deliberately knowing that we wouldn't get in on distance.

As to parents moving, would be a nice idea but they have gone past the point sadly, hence our last minute decision in Jan to move to them. They were due to come our way.

Bristol includes admission data in their letters according to the email, but since the county we are moving to doesn't I assume we won't get that info in our letter.

[kungfupannda]

I thought you were moving To Bristol!

[zadie78]

Mollie - I'd second what AmandaPayne says - rent near a school you like, and call the local council as soon as you've got a rental agreement in place (which might be before you move there) and you should be very high on the waiting list, and hopefully in by September.... Failing that, I for one would forgive you for using your parents' address. Which might be your true address anyway for short while, after you sell and before you find your own property?

[Primafacie]

We found out yesterday that our nearest school now has a catchment of 105 metre! Obviously we didn't get in. Only 9 places went to non-siblings. The waiting list has 418 children on it.

Do I win an award for smallest catchment and longest waiting list?

[BettyandDon]

Primaface - thats shocking. I'm sure the Daily Fail would make a headline of it for sure. Whereabouts are you roughly ?

[Molliemouse]

zadie78, AmandaP and kungfu, thanks for your suggestions. Just looked into the rental situation and because my first choice school is rural there is nothing available within 5miles! There are a few houses to buy which we have been looking at, but obviously too risky now.

I think my parents' address would be legitimate now. I wouldn't have done it before as that would not be fair on the people who already live there. However, we will have to move in with my parents if we can't get a house as their health won't wait for the waiting list!

[Zoidberg]

We got 2nd choice, which is a good school and it was a tough decision in the first place, but had fallen for 1st choice in the end. Waiting list based on the numbers given today is 23 and we're quite far away.

At the mo am planing to contact the school in a few weeks about what they think our chances are of getting to the top of the list, based on their past experience. We're quite far away but this is the first year they've been oversubscribed.

I wish the council just said, this is the school, without any spectre of choice, as we'd have been happy enough with it.

[Molliemouse]

tiggy - don't worry, I am Miss do-the-right thing! I would never try and gain an unfair advantage or attempt to beat the system. We applied to decent but previously undersubscribed schools knowing that we would be at the very bottom of the list but hoping to get in through lack of applications.

We have to move to the area, so will be selling our house but it all takes time.

Anyway, I am going to see what the waiting lists are like, keep calm, implement a step-by-step plan and hope that by September ds is in somewhere. Thanks again to all who have offered support and suggestions.

[Molliemouse]

Oh, just realised my first post re my parents' address was ambiguous. I meant would be legitimate if we moved there. I wouldn't use it until we had genuinely moved there and changed council tax, electoral roll, benefit etc. to there. That is why I used our correct current address in the original application despite it being 150 miles away and will continue to use it for the waiting lists unless/until it changes.

[Molliemouse]

Great, thanks Tiggy - will do.

[XBenedict]

Waiting for the postman!

[aufaniae]

We got our first choice, yay!

Good luck to everyone still waiting, and for those who didn't get in, I hope a workable solution presents itself and that this isn't too stressful in the meantime.

Thanks for the congrats for baby girl :)

[kungfupannda]

Great week for you, Aufaniae.

Is anyone going to be hearing next week, or is there a big wait until May for everyone else?