secondary school (IPS) waiting lists - first we were on the list and now we are not?

[AbbeNumber1]

Did anyone else experience this - we received a letter following an assessment and sport scholarship assessment and were placed on a waiting list. The letter advising about a waiting list was positive and that they are sure that our child's music abilities will be of benefit to the school ( they coudl not fit him in for the music scholarship ( he plays 3 instruments - albeit grade 3-4 and sung in the church choir).

We chased the school up reminding that we are still v keen on IPS and received an email back this morning advising that they will only know this afternoon if any places are left.
At 3 pm we received an email advising that no places for year 7.

'I am writing to inform you that Senior 7 is now fully recruited so unfortunately we shall not be going to the Waiting List.

Thank you for your interest in and commitment to Ibstock Place School. We wish your child every success in the future.

Kind regards'

The strange thing is - I know two families who did not accepted their places at IPS as went on accepting elsewhere. it is so frustrating. And i do not know what to and how to tell my child about this... He s a keen tennis player and he was looking forward to play at a nearby LTA as well bike to his swim club..

Could anyone share their similar story or perhaps someone was in a similar story with other school last year......Or, perhaps, i was naive in believing into waiting list - perhaps, it is a standard practice to over-issue places, thus waiting lists are just a façade.

But the fact that two children didn't accept the place only means that either their places were given to others higher up the waiting list than you or that the school,over offer allowing for people to decline places. I don't see that's strange? Waiting lists don't guarantee places. They could have 50 children on the waiting list, did you check what position in wait list you were?
Hope you find a school to suit, good luck.

It is confusing...until you realise that the school make more offers than they have places. For IPS maybe 2 to 2.5 x the number of places they have. Therefore, they expect half the people (or whatever the ratio they work with) to refuse. Therefore, people turning down offers does not mean they go to their waiting list. They have to wait until half the people (or more) offered places decline. My nephew is at IPS and it is a terrific school so it may be worth staying in touch with the Registrar as there can be movement right up to the first day of term in September and beyond. Also it is worth noting that IPS has a number of families from abroad who move at fairly short notice. I don't think waiting lists are a facade, I think that a school may genuinely not know how many will accept but definitely want to avoid a bulge class.

They over issue places and then wiggle about when places are accepted, like universities do on offer day when some courses go into clearing and others don't.

Agree, they will have over offered initially to allow for a typical rejection rate, so they may have filled their places without going to waiting list at all. It might be worth staying on it in case some are appealing for a state school place and may occasionally turn IPS down later, even forgoing a term's fees.

If they also intake at 13+ then the balance of numbers may be redressed at that point so they can afford to be a few over/under now.

Dear All,
Thank you for your replies - they are much appreciated.
AN1

Received allocation results. Our 1st preference was Parmiters, but got an email stating my daughter is in waiting list 42. any idea what it means?