Can you help me understand how the waiting list (for a reception place) works?

[shroedingersdodo]

I know it probably is a daft question, but I can't get my head round this. I applied for a reception place for DS in 3 schools. He didn't get a place in any of them. I asked for him to be included in further 3 schools' waiting lists. I was told I would be told his position in the lists after they (Admissions Office) had dealt with late applications.

Have now been told the position of DS on the waiting lists of the 3 schools in the original application. And told that I will know the position in the other 3 waiting lists "in due course" will be informed.

(Are you still following?)

Re the first 3 schools: at what point in the whole process was the list compiled? As far as I know, the steps are:

1 - People apply for schools in January
2 - In April, the school sends offers of places to, say, 30 children
3 - Until 1 May, they accept these offers - or not.
4 - If any of the offers is not accepted, new places are made available and, I suppose, new offers are send.

And at some point, late applications are considered (when?).

I spoke with 2 schools, and they told me they don't have any information about how many of the original offers were accepted. Both schools told me they received a list of names of children who were offered places, and that was all so far.

I'm very frustrated with the lack of transparency of the whole process. I understand there are more anxious parents (like me) than places in good schools, but if I could at least know where I stand, the whole thing would be so much easier!

What I would like to know is: the position of DS in the waiting list is before offers were accepted/refused at all? / before late applications were considered? After all that?

Sorry, I'm aware this is a confusing post, but I would appreciate some clarification.

Thanks!

No idea if it varies, but ds got a place in our catchment school, we didn't want him to go there and had no childcare
Put him on waiting list for 2 schools got offered a place 3 weeks into YR. Bit their hands off moved him. Best thing I have ever done

I am not an expert, hopefully one will be along soon. I understood that the waiting list place will be after original offers accepted or declined. Late applications are processed as they arrive. The waiting list is run in the same way as the original allocation of places so if someone else applies late who is in this same category but lives closer than you they will go ahead of you on the waiting list.

It should be at the point applications were in, so he could have been say number 45 of ALL the kids who listed that school, however five kids above him were able to be offered places at schools higher up their preferences, so those five came off the list and he went up to 40 on offers day. Offers are then posted to the top 30, of which 5 decline so he again moves up five places to 35 a few weeks later. Unfortunately a month after that someone with quads moved next door and was added to the waiting list which shifted your kid back down to 39th. That's how it should work anyway.

Thanks for responding so fast!

If the position in the list refers to the current situation, why the f... they didn't tell me his position on the lists of the other 3 schools? (the ones I asked to include him in April?). The Admissions Office said the position in the lists of "late preferences" would be told later.

I suppose at this point they have a consolidated - current - waiting list for each of the schools????

Or is there something they are not telling me?

Tiggy, thanks for that. I have been in contact with them by email, so everything is on writing, and they have confirmed that he is on the lists of the other schools.

One of these schools told me they received, say, 29 names of children who were offered reception places - which means they had, in April, one free place (assuming all children accepted the place).

So, I guess either DS should have been offered a place by now or or at least he should be in one of the first places of the waiting list. But Admissions won't tell me his position in the list.

It's impossible to speak to anyone in Admissions, as all calls are answered by the "council customer service" - who then book a call back - they have up to up to 10 days to get in contact - and then they send me an email!

Do you think the position in the lists that they gave me is the current one (I mean, after offers weren't accepted and late applications were considered)?

One of these schools told me they received, say, 29 names of children who were offered reception places

If they have a waiting list that could mean the offer for the 30th child hasn't been accepted yet. The LA cannot simply remove that offer. They have to write to the parents again giving them a new deadline for accepting the offer before it is removed.

Do you think the position in the lists that they gave me is the current one

Any position they give you is almost certainly the current one. But, as tiggytape says, tomorrow you could have moved up or down the list.

The waiting list maintains the same admission criteria as the initial admission round. So, for example if there are out if catchment siblings on the writing list, a child who moves into catchment will go straight to the top of the list. I don't know about other LAs, but ours puts children on the waiting list for all schools they had as a preference higher than the one they were allocated - so if they get allocated preference 3, they will go on the waiting list for 1 and 2. They remain on the list until a place becomes available. So once reception year starts, if a place becomes free, the LA calls the first person on the list and they have x days to respond and so on. What I tend to see is that if places become available mid year, families with no connection to our school don't move their children once they are settled in other schools (even if we were preference 1). Places generally go to out of catchment siblings or children with a prior connection to the school (cousins, step family, childminder etc).

Thanks a lot for your help, but I'd like to quote something from an email from the Admissions Office:

(this is a paragraph from the email in which they informed DS's position on the waiting lists of the 3 schools we applied for originally, in January)

I'm quoting one of the emails I got from the Admissions Office:

"Your waiting list positions are listed below. I am only able to provide your waiting list positions for your original preferences as we are still processing late applications and late preference requests. (...) We will process your late preferences and write to you with your outcome in due course."

That's why I'm confused.

What does it mean??

It means they have a pile of late applicants to go on the waiting lists for the 3 additional schools you've asked for. Until they have processed them they don't know what the waiting list looks like. They need to figure out which, if any, of the late applicants fall into one of the priority criteria. Once they've done that they will know your position on the waiting list.

My concern would be what happens if a place becomes available now. They should award it to whoever would have been at the head of the waiting list today if all applications had been processed. If they do something else that is a problem.

Presumably you are one in a big pile of late applications to those three schools and they have to go through all those, in order of the date they were received, matching up with the date any offered places were declined so they can work out who was in first place on the date at which a vacancy became available.

Phr47 and titchy, it means that the process is more complicated than I thought! And the lack of transparency makes me wary that they may make some mistake. But guess there's not much I can do...

Thanks! Now I'll try to forget about this whole thing until they come back with some news. (ha! I wish!)