Secondary school offers - when is the second round? (London (Croydon).

[sandyballs]

Does anyone know when the second round of allocations go out? I've rung Croydon Council umpteen bleeding times, talking to someone different every time, and been told early April, mid April, end of April and the most recent conversation the lady said ...... not at all . There has got to be a second round surely for all the people that turned down their first places.

The last bit of that doesn't make sense, I'm stressed and cross about the whole school situation. I'm sure you all know what I mean though - there has got to be a second round as some people would have refused their first place, therefore freeing up a place for someone on the waiting list.

Not quite sure what you mean. I'd have thought the "second round" would simply be looking at the waitiing list where vacancies have appeared and that presumably is done school by school rather than en mass.

I understood that following receipt of acceptances or declines from the first round of allocations, they then send a second round out based on these responses. This time would obviously involve the most movement of the waiting list so it is done as a round rather than here and there. Subsequent offers would be less frequent so they'd refer to the waiting list.

Thanks, that makes sense in one way, although I have heard neighbours talking of a second round. My girls are 8th and 9th on the waiting list.

How are you getting on? I've followed your nightmare on others threads about having no offer at all.

I've never heard of an official 'second round'.

There was a date when all the schools and boroughs had to collate all the acceptances and declined places, and presumably after that the schools have their own waiting lists. It seems to go on all summer.

I wonder if schools wait until after the appeals? But if they kept places available for appeals, then the first point of the schools case - school is full - would fail!

Presumably every time someone is offered a waiting list place they get a period of time within which to accept or not? So it could be a slow process.

When I have heard of people talk of getting a place in the second round they have meant waiting list places, whenever they come up, rather than an offer on National Offer day.

Hi Sandyballs - I don't think there is a set date for second round offers as such. Schools that are their own admissions authority and most are these days will offer places from their waiting list as and when they receive any rejections to offers previously made. One thing I have heard about Croydon Council though is, that they send letters to parents saying that you will automatically go onto waiting lists for schools listed on CAF that child didn't get into. They don't have the power to do this for many schools and so I would check with all the schools on your list that you are actually on their waiting lists. Personally I would nay keep contacting the LA if you are waiting to get into a a run community school or if your child hasn't been offered a place at a school at all (which is not the same as having turned down an offer of a school yu didn't like) in which case your home LA does as a duty to find your child a school place.

Croydon have some interesting ideas in how they operate the admission system!
The national offer day is 1st March and they ask for acceptance / decline by 15th March which is perfectly reasonable. That is the point where places which become available should start to be allocated if they follow the admission code which says in paragraph 3.20 "as soon as school places become vacant they must be filled from the waiting list , even if this is before admission appeals have been heard." - this is from the 2010 admission code which is appropriate for sept 2012 admissions.
However Croydon in their admission book talk about an april reconciliation after which vacant places will be filled from the waiting list. That to me is not what the admission code says. To make it worse the admission book then goes onto say that after the 4th May parents can apply for any Croydon school they have not previously considered. Sorry you can go on any waiting list you want at any time, so that is not right as far as I am concerned. Also late applications will also only be considered after that date, which again has to be wrong, they become part of the waiting list as of the 1st March. One LA was told off by the LGO for doing exactly the same thing and promised not to do it again but did it exactly the same the year after!
I have no doubt that if you raise these issues you will be told that they are OK and meet the admission code but I would have a different view point if I was sitting on one of their admission appeal panels.
Sorry this is not really helping you but the honest answer is that when they start handing out the vacant places is not specified but could be any time before the 4th May.
Interestingly the admission book also says that Croydon will not accept a rejection of a school unless they have proof that the parent has alternative education lined up - not sure they can do that either.

Sorry, forgot to say that under the co-ordination scheme, it is Croydon LA admission department that confirm any places both for schools in other LAs and also for Croydon based academies. Croydon based academies may be their own admission authority but at present the LA has the co-ordination role, so the school should not be handing out vacant places directly to parents.

Sandy - I'm from Croydon and I was 'phoned by the LA offering a place for my dd on the 2 April. To make sure that I was on the waiting list, I initially 'phoned the school as well as the LA and followed it up by email. Croydon have a back and front office dealing with any queries so it was frustrating not knowing who I was talking to but as someone has also said above, there is only one school in Croydon that the LA deals with the admissions and that's Addington High. All other schools deal with their own. Have you been offered a school yet and is it your first choice that you are hoping for?

Hi Sandy, I'm from Croydon and my DS have just got a school offer last Friday (13th April). This school is not from one of my 6 preferences but he got this one by being placed on the waiting list when I revised my original CAF (took away 2 schools and replaced 2 other schools I previously not applied for).

AngelU - I can't believe that you didn't get one of your initial 6 preferences. Was your choices any of the selective schools in Sutton?

Hi, thanks for all your replies, it's interesting reading, if somewhat depressing! I don't remember my parents having all this angst when we changed schools!

I've gone down the waiting list apparently - my girls were 8th and 9th, they are now 9th and 10th . I've been told that it is Croydon council who deal with the admissions, and not the school and it isn't Addington High that we are hoping for.

I only put two options on my form as there aren't many schools near me and we got our second option which I don't like.

The appeals have to be in next week so I need to crack on with that, just wondered if anyone had any examples of how to set it out etc. Can't see much when I google. I've read the other threads which has good advice on content, but I need something on layout and order.

Just had a phone call from first choice school offering both my girls a place, so so happy. They'll be over the moon tonight.

Good luck to everyone else.

Well done - it much be such a relief! I wanted to ask but not until you had found out - is woodcote?

Schools - i asked our admissions dept how much movement there is over the summer term and they said normally around 300 change abouts. How are you getting on - any movement to the waiting lists?

Are there many higher than you on the list? From other posts I know you are looking to appeal to a few schools but would you be happy if you got one of the 6? There are so many schools in my la that is oversubscribed it's unbelievable. one school told me today that they had 485 applications for a 90 intake. They went 0.2 miles which is unbelievable. i know the 485 applications - they do not know where they were ranked but why this shortage of places in London? Surely the LA's should have planned this better