Waitlist, offers and accepting... how do they work?

[pizzanoodle]

Hi everyone,

We're applying for primary school for next September reception entry.

There are two schools we really like, A and B.
A is not very close and we are likely quite far down the list if the school is oversubscribed (which it has always been). We like A more.
B is closer and we are likely to rank high up on the list and get an offer straight away.

My question is:

1. When we get the school B offer, should we accept it? Does that remove us from the waitlist on A?
2. If we don't accept school B offer, does that "expire" in any way?
3. When do we see our position on the waitlist?
4. How many rounds of offers are there? We are in Haringey.

Thank you!

You need to accept a place even if you don't like it. Otherwise you are outside the system and they will assume you have other arrangements.

You automatically go on the waiting list for any schools higher than the one you are offered.

When you get your offer you have a set amount of time to accept or decline. (Around 2 weeks I think). Then there is another round of offers. After that it's ad-hoc as there is movement, eg people moving away, make other school decisions meaning they turn down a place etc. In my area of London there is a LOT of movement between offer day and September. Astonishingly so!

To stay on the waiting list after September you have to tell the council. I know of 2 or 3 people in our 2 form school who joined in September (so quite a big proportion really).

To know your place you need to contact the council (or in some circuits school, eg for my school they have church places which are administered partially by the school).

I think they don't publish the waiting list until after people have accepted places the first time (but not 💯 sure on that).

if we accept an offer, do we come off the waiting list for our first pref?

No you stay on the wait list of any listed higher (eg if you get school offer 3, you stay on wait list for schools 1 and 2) - so advice is always to list your first preference first, even a longshot. Your offer letter will tend to say this too, but each council is slightly different.

Accept the offer of school B. Stay on the list for school A. This should be automatic but you may have to confirm you are still interested..
This means you'll definitely have a school place.

Note some councils you do have to ask to go on the waiting list whereas some councils it happens automatically, so just double check re my comment above. Either way it is easy to get added to a waiting list of a school after admissions day.

"Where a child does not receive an offer of their preferred school, parents can request that their name is placed on the waiting list for that school. Waiting lists are ordered, and places allocated as they become available, strictly in accordance with the school’s admissions criteria."

new.haringey.gov.uk/sites/default/files/2024-06/appendix_2_-_reception_and_junior_transfer_2025.pdf

Not sure you will necessarily find out where you are on the list. Edited as found the link below.....

https://new.haringey.gov.uk/schools-learning/schools/school-admissions

No it doesn't.

You can even ask to go on the waiting lists for other schools after the initial offers too in my area but you have to ask them for this

Thank you all so much for the information, these are super helpful!

Waiting list places can go up and down as they’re based on the admissions criteria. So, if someone comes along a bit later and applies, and they fall into a higher category, they will go onto the waiting list ahead of you.

in terms of ‘how many rounds?’, there aren’t really rounds. If a space becomes available, it’s offered to the first person on the list, and so on.