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.....

[mumwithtwokids]

Have any of you been through this before?

[drivinmecrazy]

Am already having sleepless nights about school allocation. We get 4 choices which must also include any grammar school preferences. We are slap bang in the middle of 2 very good grammars, so put both down as options 1&2. Option 3 is our local comp for which we are (just) in catchment. This is a good school but its admissions criteria means we are criteria 5. Last year, apparently, school only got half way through criteria 5 before the cut off so it seems unlikely we will be awarded a place. Both Grammars had around a thousand applicants for just over a hundred places (super selective), so even though DD is very bright, we know the odds are stacked against us there. Our 4th choice is really not a great school but defiantly the lesser of 2 evils considering the only other option here. I have recently heard that even this school was over subscribed last year.
So, frankly, we are sh*ing ourselves.
Does anyone know by what criteria they would allocate a school not on our list if all options fail? We won't know DDs 11+ scores til we see school allocation. Am already trying to gem up on appeal procedures

[CointreauVersial]

Drivinmecrazy - you be allocated the nearest school with places available, which will most likely be the one no-one wants.

[madgirl]

drivinmecrazy crikey that sounds as bad as us! it depends on the LEA but here in wandsworth if they don't offer you one of your "choices" (make that preferences) then they offer you the nearest school which can make a place available to you..

[mumwithtwokids]

Drivingmecrazy - I have my fingers crossed for you.

[drivinmecrazy]

Great! That puts my mind at rest My DH put it well the other day when he asked what was wrong with the system we were kids, automatically went to your nearest school. Surely that is the real purpose of a comprehensive system.
I feel so much for my DD with so much uncertainty. We are trying really hard to talk up the alternatives, but she's quite perceptive so knows what the options mean.
On a slightly different note, I feel so angry that when my DD sat her 11+ I heard other parents saying how they had travelled from way way way out of the area to try and get their girls into the grammar, some had even sat exams in several regions, so desperate were they to get a place. Find it hard to accept that a child who would have to take a tube and a train everyday to school could get my DDs (potential) place. bad enough she would have a half hour bus journey each day.

[prh47bridge]

drivinmecrazy - As others have said, you will probably be offered the nearest school with places available if you don't get any of your preferences.

You will get plenty of help with an appeal here if it is necessary. Just start a thread with "appeal" in the title and the Mumsnet admission experts will turn up. There are a couple of regulars who sit on appeal panels (admission and panelmember) plus a few like myself who are expert for other reasons.

[mumwithtwokids]

Drivingmecrazy - I hear you, where I live we have children from the complete opposite side of London who have applied.

[kreecherlivesupstairs]

I hadn't even considered worrying until I found this thread in active.
My DD is in Y6, we moved from Belgium so she could join a feeder school for the normally oversubscribed secondary I've put her down for.
I didn't really give any thought to what would happen if she didn't get in so put the next closest RC secondary down.
Roll on March 1st.

[justmumof1]

Yes, although I am dreading it, I wish today was 1st March instead of 1st Feb!!

[madgirl]

what is sad is that in willing the time away until march 1st i am willing away ds's year 6 which he is absolutely loving. it's a special time, increased independence, maturity etc etc and i love this age the most so far (can you tell i am not a baby person?!) and i am just spending the time waiting for march 1st

[justmumof1]

Spot on madgirl!

[gazzalw]

How frustrating that Admissions know....so what are they doing for a month - is it because some Admissions Depts will have completed and others won't have done as yet...?

So some are twiddling their thumbs and we are biting down nails to within an inch of their lives!! AAAARGH.

Funnily enough in this household think it is DS who is really treading water till secondary school beckons - think doing all the exams really made him think to secondary stage two terms too early and in his mind he's done with primary school - a pity because don't think he's enjoying (as he should be) being a big fish in a little pond.....

[CointreauVersial]

OK, let me give you a positive story from last year to cheer you up.....

I used to live near a very good, sought-after senior school, but three years ago, somewhat foolishly moved away - not far, but far enough to be well outside the catchment area of previous years. The DCs did not move primary school, as we didn't move far, but DS1 was very glum that all his mates would easily get into the sought-after school, and he wouldn't.

Nevertheless, I put the school at the top of the list, despite the fact that the previous year's catchment stretched only 4km from the school, and we were at least 7.5km away. I prepared DS1 for almost certain disappointment and waited for the 1st March.

Well, he got in, no appeals, straight away offered a place. Another local school was perceived as "improving", which drew more applicants than expected; also many people had made the decision not to bother applying as they wouldn't get a place. I nearly fell off my chair when I heard the news; I couldn't believe it.

So all I can say is, yes, you can use the previous year's admissions as a guideline, but you never know - that school you think of as a long shot may be easier to get into than you think, due to changes elsewhere you haven't thought of. Stay positive!

This year, I am waiting to hear about DD1, who is a year behind her brother; with the sibling rule it should be a done deal, but it doesn't stop me worrying that I've made a mistake on the application etc. etc. and I shall be quite relieved to see it all in black and white on the 1st March.

[mumwithtwokids]

Hi CointeauVersial - thanks for that, it's good to hear positive stories :)

[Blu]

How many days now?

Thre's a thread about Charter School in Southwark having been obliged to comply with their own admission criteria, contrary to the method for distance they have been using. And it stands for this admission round, so presumably if it was all worked out, it is having to be re-worked.

Why do they say 5pm?

[gazzalw]

28 days and counting Blu!

[justmumof1]

This time next month letters would be arriving with with a resounding thud on doormats!

[justmumof1]

The stress of it all is making me write words twice!!

[busymummy23]

Hi everyone! This is my first time on here. Am so glad I found this thread - at least I now now I'm not clinically insane to be totally consumed with worry about 1st March! I've been counting the days since October - just over 3 weeks left! I must say I feel v angry that the process is already complete - our children's fate is sitting on a council desk/pc and we just have to sit and sweat it out for another 27 days. If it was a planning application we could view the progress online - surely we should be able to do the same with our school applications - they are our children after all!

[Blu]

I would be very surprised if the whole process was complete in every borough, with so many schools running so many processes - selective and banding tests/ considering the SEN Mecical and social cases / lotteries / sibling checks etc, and then running the preferences until every child has an offer somewhere on the list...

I think it's fair enough under the CAF syste to have one deadline and no results known until then and everyone know at once, and that there is a good contingency for all boroughs and schools to go through their processes. Can you imagine the outcry if residents in one borough could find out before residents in another - when there are so many crossover applications.

Agonising though it is.

[busymummy23]

Yes I understand what you are saying Blu -I was only joking about viewing all progress - it would be a strategic nightmare to administer. From what I understand though, the process is complete for PAN first round offers - there is a strict final deadline that all LA must adhere to (1st Feb I think). Just so agonising that our first round offers are already known by the LA but we have to wait. An earlier post mentioned that the primary schools are notified before us parents - not sure that should be allowed!

Good luck for 1st March - I guess our wait will soon be over

[gazzalw]

That's outrageous that the primary schools know before parents - can we then ask the Heads for the information under the Data Protection Act???

[mumwithtwokids]

Good thinking gazza!! Do you think the primary schools know already?

[sandyballs]

We spent last year living in chaos having our house ripped apart by builders and finally we now have a lovely home so it was worth all the stress.

However, DH has just announced that IF the DDs don't get into the lovely school a mile away and instead get the failing rough academy 4 miles away (which is looking more and more likely), then we serioulsy have to consider moving .