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Original poster

Anyone else nervously awaiting primary school offer day

221 replies

ThatsGoingToHurt · 14/03/2022 18:33

Is anyone else nervously awaiting primary school offer day? My nearest school we are not in catchment for. Unfortunately, the catchment boundary is my back and side fence due to a wiggly catchment boundary.

The school we are in catchment for is 5 mins further walk away but doesn’t have a great reputation. I feel like my life is on hold until 19th April as I hope my DD gets into my preferred school. I’ve applied for DS to go to the nursery next to the school I would like to go to as I don’t want to be doing two different pick ups and drop offs in completely different locations each day!

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maltesers99 · 14/03/2022 20:58

Yes! Dreading it but also want it to be here so I can deal with it... not happy about my catchment school but unsure if I will get into my preferred choice...not sure what I will do if I am not happy about it!

AreWeNearlyHairnet · 14/03/2022 21:01

Me too! We're out of catchment for our preferred school by 5 houses but I'm hopeful we'll get in as it's a low birth year and based on previous years we would have got in. Our catchment school is nice, but I prefer the other. Fingers crossed for you all.

Original poster
ThatsGoingToHurt · 14/03/2022 21:34

Last year my preferred school was just barely oversubscribed. Everyone who applied on time got in and the one late application was refused. Everyone’s saying DD will be OK but I’m hoping there isn’t many 4 year olds in my area. For my second choice I’ve just found out the very good head is leaving who has really improved the school and they are not replacing for the moment so I’m a bit Confused about that!

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RealRaymondReddington · 15/03/2022 16:02

Yes we are! I am nervous but also excited. I'm hoping we may squeeze into our nearest school as we could walk to it, which would be ideal. Would be happy enough with second too. For me I'm mainly nervous that none of the nearest will have spaces and we'll end up with somewhere random and far away. Last year all who put as first got into the nearest school on distance. The year before they didn't get past sibling entries so even those living opposite the school didn't get a place.

ItsSnowJokes · 15/03/2022 16:06

@ThatsGoingToHurt

Last year my preferred school was just barely oversubscribed. Everyone who applied on time got in and the one late application was refused. Everyone’s saying DD will be OK but I’m hoping there isn’t many 4 year olds in my area. For my second choice I’ve just found out the very good head is leaving who has really improved the school and they are not replacing for the moment so I’m a bit Confused about that!
Last year was a really low birth year. I only found this out recently when we changed our daughters school. She is now in the dream school that we never ever thought we would get a place for!
Schoolchoicemission · 15/03/2022 16:16

In a similar boat here. We don’t have catchments where we are (in London), it’s just done on distance. First choice school is a 15 min walk away across a park but they don’t take the park into account when measuring (so annoying!!) and by road it’s much further which makes it really borderline. DD would have got in 4 out of the last 6 years all the same so fingers tightly crossed.

It is a low birth year but lots of young families near us so we could buck the trend. I have a younger child too so very conscious that the outcome on 19 April will affect our family for the next 10 years!

berksandbeyond · 17/03/2022 16:12

Yes! Really hoping for our first choice although lucky enough that both Village schools are good so really will likely be ok either way 😅
I didn’t know 2018 was a low birth year!

Original poster
ThatsGoingToHurt · 05/04/2022 12:18

It’s two week today we find out isnt it? Still waiting to find out about DS nursery place (next door my prefered school). I’m hoping on the 19th that everything will fall into place.

Fingers crossed for everyone!

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AreWeNearlyHairnet · 06/04/2022 23:02

Yep, the 19th. Seems ages away still!
I don't know exactly when we find out, I have a feeling I'm going to be hitting refresh on my email inbox a lot that day! Grin

thejadedone · 07/04/2022 08:50

I am counting down the days. We are within catchment and when we looked around the school we were told that we would "very likely" get a placed based on where we lived. It is also a low birth year so I am not as anxious I would have been had it not been. That said, ours is a 60 intake. I'd also be happy with our 2nd choice and to a point also our 3rd.

I have been told the system crashes due to people logging in, but I am guessing we will get emails?

Original poster
ThatsGoingToHurt · 07/04/2022 18:09

I’m not on London or Surrey so I’m planning to try to log on at 00:01!

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Schoolchoicemission · 08/04/2022 11:11

I’m basically counting down the days as well. Find it pretty stressful! We are so borderline on distance that it could really go either way. Hope we can check at midnight!

Charmatt · 08/04/2022 11:17

It is a low birth rate year but there has been significant immigration from Hong Kong since September/October to some parts of the country from families escaping the erosion of human rights there and qualifying for a BNO visa. This may have an impact on some areas for places.

OnceuponaRainbow18 · 08/04/2022 11:20

What do people mean by catchment? I though it was just closest to school the way the eagle flies or whatever that saying is?

LittleBearPad · 08/04/2022 11:22

@Schoolchoicemission

I’m basically counting down the days as well. Find it pretty stressful! We are so borderline on distance that it could really go either way. Hope we can check at midnight!
Our email came through at 5pm or so. Don’t stress if it’s not there at midnight.
meditrina · 08/04/2022 11:30

@OnceuponaRainbow18

What do people mean by catchment? I though it was just closest to school the way the eagle flies or whatever that saying is?
Catchment is a term with soecifuc meaning - it's a princess roy admissions area, do the entry criteria wouid typically be

LA/SEN
Siblings in catchment, by distance
Other catchment, by distance.
Other siblings, by distance
All others, by distance.

Not all schools have catchments - for example neatly all of London doesn't, so it's all by distance. It's worth seeing if you live within the admissions footprint for recent years (sometimes, confusingly and unhelpfully called 'effective catchment') but that changes all the time, unlike an actual catchment which is lines on a published map.

Only in Scotland are you guaranteed a place at your catchment school

meditrina · 08/04/2022 11:34

One important bit of advice

No matter how anomalous your unexpected allocation might be, or how much you hate what you are offered, DO NOT REJECT IT!!!

Breath deeply, and start a thread here asking for advice.

If you reject the place the LA has no obligation to find you another, so unless you can genuinely HE or have a private school offer lined up, you risk being without a school in September.

Accepting the place makes no difference whatsoever to appeals or tomwaiting lists for every other school you'd prefer

RachelSq · 08/04/2022 12:18

I feel for you all going through this this year, as we did last year. For us, the online Portal updated at 9am, letter received at 11am and email at 4pm.

Last year a lot of parents I know had to deal with the disappointment of not getting their first choice (or even any of their 3 choices!). I know it’s hard to believe, but they were gutted at the time but all love their allocated schools and have removed themselves from waitlists (other than a sibling group, who are now on each other’s school waiting lists, where they would be happy to move either child to the other school if a space was available).

Original poster
ThatsGoingToHurt · 08/04/2022 12:35

Fingers crossed I will be fine. It the closest school but the catchment boundary is my side and back fence! My preferred school is a 2.5 form intake so if DD doesn’t get a place that there will be some movement on the waitlist.

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Schoolchoicemission · 08/04/2022 13:21

Yes, we’re in London so there is no catchment as such but the borough publishes the “last allocated distance”, ie the furthest you could live to have got a place that year, so you can look back and see how you’d have fared in previous years. A complicating factor in our case is that the borough uses its own weird way of calculating the distance so you can’t even rely on Google maps. Think we have about a 50:50 chance of getting our first choice based on the last 6 years hence the eager anticipation!

Thanks for info on when the offer came through!

Budgieee · 14/04/2022 10:29

I applied a few days after the 15th January 😥 when do late applications receive offers? On the 19th or not?

BrutusMcDogface · 14/04/2022 10:32

Holding my breath for my fourth to get into the same out of catchment school as my other three went to/are at. If it doesn’t happen, it will make our lives extremely difficult.

Good luck to all of you!!

BrutusMcDogface · 14/04/2022 10:35

The offers for my others came through at midnight on the online portal! 👍

NickBWilliarms · 14/04/2022 10:42

Also impatiently waiting. And also 5 houses away from being in the catchment for our preferred school which has a protected catchment. Put it as #2 anyway. Would be OK with 1st choice. Hoping to get 1 of the 3 choices. Just can't wait to know now! Next authority to us are still saying 16th april but our authority has been 19th from the get go.

NickBWilliarms · 14/04/2022 10:44

I applied a few days after the 15th January 😥 when do late applications receive offers? On the 19th or not?

My authority says you'll receive your offer after the 19th, but doesn't state when you'll find out. So sorry for your longer wait. Hope its not too much longer.