Active discussions

Are your children’s vaccines up to date?

Set a reminder

Please or to access all these features

Talk
Primary education

Join our Primary Education forum to discuss starting school and helping your child get the most out of it.

Original poster

National Offer Day!

163 replies

Mokaloli · 12/04/2021 16:16

Only a few days left until we hear the outcome/offer for primary admissions (to reception). Anyone else finding the wait tricky?!

OP posts:
Are your children’s vaccines up to date?
Set a reminder
PinkSpring · 16/04/2021 11:05

We got our first choice Grin

CeibaTree · 16/04/2021 11:08

@CornishTiger

It amazes me that some councils deliver the results at 5pm on a Friday when no staff available to talk things through.
I think that's the whole point - they want people to calm down over the weekend before they call!
user64325 · 16/04/2021 11:19

Agree that harder to get the preferred choices release it Friday evening on purpose! It is true a lot of people will come to accept it over the weekend I guess.

I stayed up until 10 to midnight and then went to sleep. Really early for me! Then this morning I was too nervous to open the email for a good couple of hours! We got third choice (applied for three out of catchment). It is a blessing and a curse, the school I originally really wanted and couldn't find a house to buy nearby suitable, so amazing we've got a place from further away. BUT, the school run will be a hike! 1.6 miles away by foot or bike and a different school to go to en route for siblings. So I'm happy but anxious about adding more mileage to my already long school run!

BrownEyedGirl80 · 16/04/2021 11:19

We found out 2 days ago via email but also received e mail today aswell don't know why! We only put one school down so it was a risk but ds got the one we wanted

LIZS · 16/04/2021 11:24

@GoBrookeYourself

Second choice, but our first choice was really the only one we wanted, so very disappointed here! I’ve gone on the waiting list and appealed, when I called we were the first ones on the waiting list so everything crossed! No idea what to expect with processes now, this is our first time doing this.

Well done to everyone who got into their first choices/happy with the ones they got!

Do be aware that Waiting List places can go down as well as up, not first come first served. If the class is full it is an Infant Class Size appeal which will only succeed if a mistake was made in processing your application. The letter should explain why your dc was not admitted.
HavelockVetinari · 16/04/2021 11:27

I'm happy for all of you who got your first choice or are happy with the one you got. Such a relief!

I'm relieved it's not my summer- born DS getting his offer today - we got a letter recently allowing him to start Reception in Sept 2022! Hurrah!

GoBrookeYourself · 16/04/2021 11:30

Thank you- when we called the school to speak to them this morning, the secretary made it sound like it was a positive being first to call, so I just presumed; she also said the quicker the appeals form is filled out, the more likely we are to get in and that they do allow an extra child into the classes sometimes so our chances aren’t looking bad. But of course, I may have misunderstood/be mistaken.

GoBrookeYourself · 16/04/2021 11:30

Sorry that was to @LIZS, I thought I’d hit reply!

Smarties2 · 16/04/2021 11:34

Yay! First choice here too! That was a very tense wait. Congrats to all those who got the school they wanted. Good luck to all those going down the waiting list/appeal route.

myrtleWilson · 16/04/2021 12:07

@GoBrookeYourself - whilst the secretary is right that classes do take in extra children at times, within a primary setting this is likely to be outside of ICS appeals (although mistakes do happen). If you decide to appeal do make a thread on here & ask for assistance from the resident appeals experts. Have a look at @patriciaholmes thread on this topic for advice...

GoBrookeYourself · 16/04/2021 12:21

Thank you so much @myrtleWilson that was super helpful, I’ll take a look now. I had no idea this would be so stressful!

Twizbe · 16/04/2021 12:32

I'm in London so think we have to wait until later this afternoon. Suspense is killing me

PatriciaHolm · 16/04/2021 12:49

@GoBrookeYourself

Thank you- when we called the school to speak to them this morning, the secretary made it sound like it was a positive being first to call, so I just presumed; she also said the quicker the appeals form is filled out, the more likely we are to get in and that they do allow an extra child into the classes sometimes so our chances aren’t looking bad. But of course, I may have misunderstood/be mistaken.
Unfortunately, as is often the case, the secretary doesn't seem to understand the process I'm afraid.

Waiting lists are not held in order of joining, but in order of admissions criteria. If others join over the next few days who are higher in terms of admission criteria than you - they live nearer, for example - they will go above you on the waiting lists.

Equally, there is no advantage to being the first to say you want to appeal. If there are multiple appeals, the LA will do their best to hear them together. And if it is an ICS appeal (30 in a class) that will be very hard to win. Very occasionally people do of course, and very occasionally another child is admitted over the 30 by means other than appeal (by use of the Fair Access Protocol possibly, or for children of crown servants, might be examples)

eddiemairswife · 16/04/2021 12:49

I do wish school staff would stop giving 'advice' to anxious parents. You don't get a better chance the earlier the appeal form is filled in; you just need to fill it in before the last date, and then all the on-time appeals are heard together.

Whatafool123 · 16/04/2021 14:35

Aargh! Still waiting. We had to wait all day for DD's secondary place in March too, so this is the second tense wait this year (no sibling rule for us).

StandardLampski · 16/04/2021 14:59

Can I ask please - I applied via post ( and contacted to check they received it. Do we have to wait for q letter, no email?
The post has been but no letter.... no email...
Crossing fingers it come tomorrow!

PatriciaHolm · 16/04/2021 15:16

@StandardLampski normally the decision would come the same way you applied, so hopefully a letter is on its way!

twoboys2020 · 16/04/2021 16:01

Wondering if anyone knows what we should do - please help!! At the application deadline, we were living with my parents, due to a delay between our house sale and purchase. We used the address of where we were staying on the application, as advised by the local authority. In terms of our choices, our first and third choice were schools local to the house we were buying. Our second choice was the village school where we had been staying - at the point of application, it was looking very possible that the purchase was about to collapse, and we could end up living there a lot longer than anticipated.

Anyway, we moved in mid-Feb, and I updated the council with proof of our new address before the cut off for that - I have the emails to prove it, and their response.

Today we have had our offers - we got our second choice, the village school. Now, it's actually the best school in the county, so other than figuring out the logistics (it's only a 10 minute drive, so not bad), we are not too disappointed. Problem is, looking at the portal, they never updated our address. I'm nervous to accept the offer, incase they claim it to be fraudulent and withdraw it. Does anyone have any advice? Can they withdraw an offer if it is their mistake? It's not like I particualrly want to argue for him to go to our first choice school - second choice is better, we just never expected it to be a possibility.

He is currently at a private pre-prep, where we had been seriously considering keeping him and may still (making big sacrifices to pay for the private fees, but he is settled and has lovely friends who will be staying), but of the state schools we applied to, this was the very unlikely "wild card". Very confused about what to do!

SixDegrees · 16/04/2021 16:03

DC3 got into our first choice school, although I wasn’t too worried as we have a sibling link with DC1 and DC2 at the same school.

Re. waiting lists though - I was talking to another parent at the school today who’d forgotten all about applying for a place for her youngest until today.
I’m guessing her DC won’t be on any waiting list right now, but as soon as she’s put the application in, her DC’s going to be at (or very near) the top of the waiting list thanks to the sibling link. And certainly above any children without siblings at the school who had applications submitted on time.

PatriciaHolm · 16/04/2021 16:10

@twoboys2020 When you updated your address, were you explicit that you wanted it used as the application address, not just the correspondence address, and does their reply confirm that?

There are very limited reasons an admissions authority can withdraw an offer of a place, but one is administrative error.

twoboys2020 · 16/04/2021 16:18

[quote PatriciaHolm]@twoboys2020 When you updated your address, were you explicit that you wanted it used as the application address, not just the correspondence address, and does their reply confirm that?

There are very limited reasons an admissions authority can withdraw an offer of a place, but one is administrative error.[/quote]
thank you for replying! So they had written to me via post (to our temporary family address) to ask for proof of residence. I emailed them, as requested in the letter, and explained we had literally just moved in to our new property, and provided evidence of this. They replied and said they would be in touch if they required anything else. But no, I didn't explicitly say "use this for application", but it was more than implied (if that makes sense!!) I had spoken to them several times to double check that we could amend the address after submitting the application, but before the 28th Feb cut off (which we were within)

RachelSq · 16/04/2021 16:19

Surely they can’t withdraw an offer (without replacing with a higher choice) if it’s a Council error?

Unless the email advising that the address had changed could be argued to be misleading, hasn’t the parent done their duty?

twoboys2020 · 16/04/2021 16:24

@RachelSq I kind of feel the same. It's a tough one to argue, as I'm not arguing for my first choice, closer school - we're happy with the mistake. It's kind of a happy accident, that I'm nervous to draw attention to!! Confused

RachelSq · 16/04/2021 16:28

@twoboys2020 Do you know if you’d have got in choice 1 from your current address? If so then I can’t imagine the Council would have a leg to stand on.

If not, I’d be much more nervous flagging it!

twoboys2020 · 16/04/2021 16:37

@RachelSq I'm not sure - it's generally oversubscribed, we would be on the edge of previous furtherest offers, plus it's a faith school and we are not religious. Not totally unlikely, but not a dead cert.

The village school isn't always oversubscribed - it's a tiny village, with an average age of about 87, I would say. So very few children in the immediate vicinity, so most do travel (although we would be further out than typical).

If they removed the offer of the place, we'd see that as decision made for us, and keep him where he is. But it'd be nice to know we have the option over the next few days to make up our minds.