Offers Day 1st March 2012

[gazzalw]

Anyone else feeling like we do about the impending Offers Day?

Not at all a foregone conclusion that DS will get into any of first five choices (all selective, two 11+ passes, one 11+ result due this coming week) so rather up in the air.... Sixth choice is okayish but DS has talked it down to the point that he is now desperately hoping it's not his one and only choice! Otherwise DS is being quite mature about considering that he could end up at any of the schools and is already thinking about which friends from primary school he is likely to stay in touch with etc.....

It all feels a bit as if life is on hold till 1st March.....

I was going through this last year for my eldest daughter. We got our 3rd choice which was our 'realistic option' of the failing, under subscribed, in special measures secondary school that was being changed into an academy. BUT... And it's a big but: she loves it! She's in the top class, is being pushed really hard and the school jump on any pupils or behaviour that isn't of the expected standard. I've had friends move their children out of the 'top' schools in the town (the ones we desperately wanted last year) because of bullying etc into my daughters school and they are doing fantastically. It's easy to say but please DON'T PANIC as things often work out for the best.

Reassuring words Stroppy 40.

Our 1st, 2nd and 3rd choices prefs are huge, huge longshots. The kind of schools that you can only dream about. Hugely over-subscribed and without sibling or catchment, he will not get in. Still, worth a shot!

Our 4th choice is a brand-new academy, with a head teacher who has an excellent reputation. As distance is the only criteria (we are 1.053 miles away from the school - yes, I know the distance having checked!!), we can only keep our fingers crossed.

5th pref is another academy which is a great school but, again, we don't stand much of a chance as we are a good 3 miles away.

6th pref is our catchment school. Ofsted calls it 'outstanding' but I just did not get a good vibe from the place.

Would it be the end of life as we know it if we get 6th pref?....probably not. There are plenty of worse schools out there.

So, with smelling salts at the ready, I am ready to face you 1st March!!

When I wrote my message earlier I was calm. At approx 5pm when I was rushing out to do the school run, I received an e-mail from Herts Admissions saying that we will receive our notification to go on-line and look at our allocation at 6pm on the 1st - but to be aware that the system may be overloaded and therefore not be possible to access for a few hours.
I was furious! Why don't they just say the allocation comes out on the 2nd March!!! I can't believe how long we have waited for the 1st March now to have the rug pulled from under us at the 11th hour!!!
Have a good week everyone :)
Rant over. Thank you.

justmumof1 - I completely relate to your message, my first 3 choices are longshots, 4th is ok and 5th is worst nightmare as ofstead called it outstanding and on open day (after CAF submission) the place gave me the creeps
Nearlly reaching the finishing line...but the wait seems too long...

CustardCake - wouldn't that be the ideal situation

Here, we get 3 choices.

1st is fab (lottery with about 5% getting in), 2nd is great (catchment - we're on 'fringe'), 3rd is super-duper-wuper (actual word) selective that DS on reserve for, on it to keep appeal hopes alive if need be.

Weirdly, we should feel smug - DS has a brilliant indy scholarship offer, so its either that or 'choice' of state - but we're still stomach-churningly obsessed by 1st March allocation. Such a build up. Stupidly busy in work, but have cleared my diary for Thursday.

And our online system just says offers will be made available "at some point". Yeah thanks. FFS.

In Northampton, the council won't tell you what time the allocations become available (or they'd have to shoot you)!!! Last year I went on about 2am and found out so try earlier as you might be able to get access. I wonder (being cynical) if they tell you 6pm so you don't bombard them with phone calls trying to find out which school you've got during office hours if you can't get on!! Last year, most of us got on quite easily but it was 10pm the previous year due to the system crashing!! It's a bit like trying to get Take That tickets!! Good luck to everyone for Thursday but, if you don't get your top choices, don't panic and stay calm and fully consider ALL your options as it worked out for us last year (as per my previous thread) and my daughter couldn't be happier!

Oh, and BE POSITIVE (if only on the surface) even if you get a school you wouldn't ordinarily want as your child will pick up on any bad vibes/disparaging comments! If your child hears you slagging off the school they may end up attending then they'll never go in with a positive attitude and you may as well give up now!!

Definitely Stroppy - being positive is really important, even if you don't feel it! A friend's DD didn't get the school they were hoping for last year and she was so worried and downhearted about the offer (but she didn't let her DD know.) But her DD loves it, is doing well, and they haven't looked back at all

Wise words but unfortunately DS has already made his own mind up that he doesn't like the 6th (fall back option) choice - he is happy with any of the other five but all selective so who knows.....

He is however just champing at the bit to find out....

It doesn't surprise me some of the Councils have the information up ahead of the given time.... sure it's more common than one might think. Personally think there's a place for giving the information out in a staggered manner either by postcode, alphabetically or by primary school DC is at? That would save the mass log-in chaos! It would then be relatively calm, cool and collected rather than like the bun-fight that is the NEXT Sale!!!!

Hello
My first post on this forum!

My DD's primary school did indicate that they would receive the results before us but did not give us any indication of timings. We are not brave enough to ask though "when?"

Well, it's between 48 - 54 hours from now - surely we have waited for this long, so lets just engage ourselves into new hobbies :-)

Good luck all and I hope your DC gets the school he/she desires the most.

Good luck everyone - stay positive and don't forget that one way or another it will all work out.

xxx

I cornered the Deputy HT today morning, trying to find out if they have any info on offers - the only thing he admitted to was that they have received the Borough Test results, nothing more! should have twisted his arm a bit harder.
Isn't there anyone on this thread who works for the local councils?

Well we know one of the Mumsnetters (is it Custardcake?)works at a London secondary school and they got the allocation of places information last week....

Well done for trying Kravings - I think they might know just before us on Thursday. You might get a different response if you ask at going home time then? DS's Head was decidedly vague about it and changed tack half way through so not sure what to make of that.

Maybe no-one is going to own up to working for a Council for fear of being deluged.....

Do you think once the allocations are finalised by Councils and dispatched to secondary schools, the information is 'locked down' and passworded so that only the Director of Education and one or two trusted others (probably one being his/her PA) have access?

My friend said to me yesterday as I was getting out of my car -'Ooh, nearly March 1st!' and I didn't catch on about what she meant!

She lives in 'the leafiest city' in Hampshire where 2 of the 3 comps are outstanding. She's on the edge of the catchment for one but wants to send her DC to the other (where there is an older sibling). She absolutely will get in but it got me twitching about our 'dead cert' preference for DS2!

Cautionary tale: Don't do what I nearly did.

We were renting and we started house hunting in the catchment of our preferred secondary for DS1 (also in Hants, and strictly catchment only) but as time ticked by and nothing came up, we decided to carry on renting just to ensure DS got a place; so we took a 6 month rental, DS went into the Y6 of the linked primary, we put in his application.

In November we bought (or should I say, 'moved into') a house very near by. On March 1st, we got the email telling us the good news. 'Oh good', we thought. Then a week later I woke up at 6am and suddenly realised there was mention of a letter which had to be replied to in 10 days, accepting the offer! As early as was socially acceptable, DH dashed around to our 'old' renter and knocked on the door. Sure enough, there was our letter, complete with the 'return to sender' biro'ed on, just about to be shoved back in a post box!!

That might have been a £336,000 mistake......

Quick question for Surrey schools - do we need to remember our login details for March 1st or will email give all details re school place without having to log on..

Thanks

Do you think once the allocations are finalised by Councils and dispatched to secondary schools, the information is 'locked down' and passworded so that only the Director of Education and one or two trusted others (probably one being his/her PA) have access?
gazzalw - now I am hunting for a hacker who can hack into their systems in the next 24 hours, because the wait all the way to 5pm on Thursday is driving me mad

Our primary school find out 9:00am on March 1st. But you can get allocations online at midnight, the midnight before. I've got about 33 hours to go and will wait up on Weds eve for 00:00. Just hope tghe site doesn't crash,.

Okay, perhaps I am being really dim. But where on the pan-London site do you see what school has been allocated. Will it just be on the main screen after you log in? Or do we have to wait for an email with a link in it?

Avantia - I'm not sure, but am making sure that I know my user name and password just to be sure.

Roll on the weekend...

I've found my login details now so one less thing to worry about

Our emails are sent out 'after 9am' so I shall be logging feverishly onto my internet provider to check every 5 secs after then!!!

Thankfully am off Thursday - we cannot get onto external internet sites at work

I don't think we get emails.