Kingsdale waiting lists - any experience

[waitingnervously]

Has anyone got into Kingsdale Foundation School from the waiting list? We won't know what position our child is in until next week and I'm preparing for the worst (536th/723rd - it is very oversubscribed ) but I wondered if anyone else's child had got in from the list and how fast/slow it had moved for you.

Thanks

Oh and there were 1/2 bulge classes last year so 300 in year 7, so lists moved more than anticipated.

So do they not take equal numbers from each ability band with a banding system? I don't understand the system as it's just "whoever lives nearest gets in" here.

Ida, it's amazing how the most popular schools, such as Kingsdale, Harris City Academy, Coloma Convent manage to exclude low achieving students, despite not apparently setting out to do so.....

Coloma selects on strict religious criteria. I assume that low achieving children don't come from religious families as only 1% of the children there are classed as 'low achieving'. The nearest comp (about 400 yards away) has 13%. The comparative figures for free school meals are 9.6% vs 38.4%.

I just looked up Kingsdale admissions and see there is an exam. I'm not sure how else i thought they would band by ability as sats would be too late. I hadn't really thought about it, but anyway maybe there are so few parents of low attainers who put their child forward for the exam that even if they accept all the low attainers, it's still only 3% of the school? That's all i can think of. And maybe with Coloma there just aren't that many parents of low attaining children that fulfil the religious criteria. I guess that must be what it is

I was in your position last year

We got The Call on the third day of the first week, by which time my kids decided to stay put

It does move, and they're very helpful (after start of school year, anyway)

No really IdaJones. My son is in band c (the lowest) and there are still around 300 on the waiting list (there's around that for all three bands). He is expected to get a level 4 (what was the level 4 that is, and what is now called expected for his age and is actually more on par with last year's level 5). I have a feeling he didn't take the exam seriously and pretty much chose his answers based on which letter he liked (it's multiple choice).

The school takes 10% of admissions through a sports or music scholarship and I know people have long been suspicious of that.

Also as of this year the school will have 12 classes of Year 7 - so 360 pupils in each year.

"The school takes 10% of admissions through a sports or music scholarship"

15% actually. Any selection will favour middle-class kids, as they're the ones most likely to go along for try-outs. A lot of working class parents aren't even aware of the issue of partial selection because they only take on board information which is given to them about schools in their own borough. It's m/c parents who are going through league tables for anywhere within travelling distance, and then reading through the details of many complex admissions policies. I blame primary schools - they need to do more to support parents with finding and applying to secondary schools.

OK 15% then.

MuddhaOfSuburbia do you mind saying which position on the list you were last year?

No idea

I dont think we got a number

I think they just do another lucky dip (!?)

(we had better odds because twins, but still)

I'll check back through my emails

I don't think it matters where you are on the waiting list as admissions from the waiting list are still applied using the same criteria. In this case it is by lottery.

I think it as still a lottery from the admissions waiting list but I can try and find out on sunday.

Yep

What pps said

Iirc you get a letter you have to return if you want to stay on the list. Then the places pop up and are filled by lottery from that band (unless some skullduggery is involved as one of nine had a half scholarship- whatever that is- and the other had g&t)

One of MINE

Tsk

There are only two of them tho sometimes it feels like nine

I forgot to add, the letter also said that 2,250 applied to the school, so if they allocate an equal number from each band then that would mean each waiting list contains 630 children.

I'd say be prepared for a loooong wait- into September

people hold on to their offers while they hedge their bets

I would hazard a guess that most WL offers are made right at the start of autumn term and up to the half term while kids are starting at their second- or third-choice schools (I know lots of people who have been offered their first choice school- not just KD, but other popular/oversubcribed S E London schools- right at the start of term or in the first week)

My daughter wanted to go to KD to start Sep 15 - she was about 110 on the waiting list iirc and, although we are happy with the school she attends, we have kept her on the list to see how long it takes for her to get an offer. I checked at Christmas and she was mid-20s... I know there was a lot of hand-wringing at the primary school my other children attend from the parents who had put in applications for Sep 16 entrance when they heard about the stabbings (understandably) so perhaps the waiting list will move faster this year as some parents whose children have been offered places turn them down.

MuddhaOfSuburbia, they said they haven't processed any acceptances/declines yet and they will start contacting people on the waiting list after Easter, since the deadline to confirm acceptance is just before the school holidays.

Does anyone know if putting an appeal in affects position on or offer from waiting lists?

If you appeal successfully, my understanding is the school has to offer you a place, it can't just bump you up the waiting list. From memory, very few (if any) KD appeals are successful though - the headteacher was quite proud of that .

I am guessing that waiting lists in KD and that area of London will shift faster than usual partly because, as mentioned below, KD have expanded to a 340 intake , and also because 120 families will have 2 offers, because the new Charter school admission was done outside the CAF this year (for this year only).

Has anyone heard about movement in the list yet?

I think "a wild guess" that it will start moving at the end of April after looking back on last year's movement.