Is it too soon to start a 1st March (secondary school allocation day) support thread?

[teddygirlonce]

DD has six good options on her CAF - we will be happy if she gets any of those six but there are no other local schools we would be happy for her to be allocated/offered - and private schooling is not an option.

So just a bit nervous and already counting down the days until we find out which school she's been allocated (if at all).

Thanks for those insights @tiggytape.

Not entirely sure it's fair that the HTs know before we do - what on earth is the rationale for that?

We are waiting too. DS passed his 11+, and our local Grammar don't rank by scores. So after siblings/children of workers/medical/LAC he should get a place as we are only 1mile away - and their PAN is 170 with only 130 boys in the district passing the 11+. Doesn't make me feel any less nervous though. Our second choice is the high school with a grammar stream in the same trust as his primary, but it's a 20-25minute drive. And our third choice I could honestly hit with a stone from my front door. So I know we will get one of our three, but we really want the Grammar. I feel sick at the idea of needing an appeal!

I can't even begin to think about an appeal at the moment, although it may well become a strong possibility if DD doesn't get one of her CAF six (as I would not send her to any of the other local state options).

We didn't have this same stress with DS as it seemed very unlikely that he wouldn't get one of his 'selective' options.

I'm really nervous too. Counting the days. If my DD doesn't get her 1st choice she'll be devastated and so will I. We stand a good chance as it's the local Academy and we are very close but until 1st of March comes I'm really worrying about it as I don't think I'd get our 2nd or 3rd choices and all other schools have serious issues.

Thanks for the reassurance @tiggytape. I think we'll get choice 3 which will be acceptable to us, but I know DD will be hugely disappointed not to get her first or second one. She is not as mature (and therefore realistic) in outlook as her sibling so it will be managing her disappointment and then deciding whether to do waiting lists or not.

What keeps coming up in my mind (which is what is alarming me) is what happened with the son of one of my friends last year. He didn't even get the fall-back comp (which is very good) option which should have been a dead cert (but wasn't because it's becoming so popular that come last year he wasn't 'in catchment'). He got none of his six choices (and they were not unrealistic) - he had to wait until towards the end of June to get the fall-back school (his third choice).

Sympathies with everyone waiting nervously. TiggyTape and others here were a great source of knowledge to me last year.

I just wanted to say that we got our second choice. At the time dd and I were a bit disappointed but now I'm SO glad we got our second choice school as it's a much better fit for her.

If I was a bit woo I'd say it was fate 😉.

Good luck everyone x

oklumberhack I totally agree with you but it's hard to keep the faith as one anticipates 1 March!

@tiggytape is awesome!

@edna - I know some of the parish boundaries are because some of the villages are allocated a percentage of spaces in the town schools as they have no secondary of their own. So say the PAN is 180, 18 places will go to the outlying villages and then the normal criteria kicks in for the townies to fill the other 90%. So people from say, random town, offley, will get into the girls school where as people living in the town will miss out.

Sorry, and the 18 from the parish will be a lottery. Whereas townies will have to fit the criteria.

And the percentages change too.

Thanks for your thoughts.

@teddygirlonce actually none are faith schools (we are athiests so really don't qualify), although all are acadamies. Most follow the main Herts CC admissions criteria. The parish system definately comes from county.

@JustEatYourDinner yes I think you are right its there to ensure village children get a crack at the preferred schools which does explain the distance thing. However whilst thinking about it I can of understand how it works for the general admissions round but still don't get it when thinking about waiting lists and how they are constructed. How this is then balanced between town and village. I get even more bewildered when thinking about our preferred school which then has a lottery for each parish.

@tiggytape I wish I understood how the wait lists work. Its not explained in anything I've seen on the Herts CC website or the schools. I guess I'll just have to talk to admissions if / when we end up on a waiting list.

@oklumberjack I'm glad it worked out so well. I hope the same is true for us although I really do feel our first choice "fits" DD best.

I'm getting really nervous now, I'm hoping that the fact that next week is our half term and we have family visiting will take my mind off it. I'm going to be off work that day which means I can think about it properly without having to rush out the door (I am not taking the day off for that, I have a hospital appointment)

My first choice admitted under PAN last year and almost half were on the distance criteria (after siblings and admission zone). Due to the way the admissions zones lie we are not actually that far from it, I think we might actually be closer than our admission zone school. (how the crow flies at least)

If we get her in then I can breath a little sigh of relief as it means dc2 will be higher up the pecking order (though we may end up applying under the exceptional medical reasons (asd) if another school seems best fit)

The wait is driving me mad now. I never thought I'd be this stressed tbh. Here it states that the finalised lists get passed back from the LA to the schools next week (wk/c 20th) so now I'm considering who I know that I could bribe to tell me early

I've been thinking about this at times during the day but I'm really starting to feel stressed about it now! I only put Dd's other three choices because I was confident she will get her first choice. Found out that they have had 600 applications for 170 places! Feel sick! Don't want her to go to the other ones! My sisters daughters go to our first choice and they absolutely love it and are achieving so much!

We're waiting to hear too, hopefully first choice as we 'rank' in the faith, sibling and distance categories, which are set by the school in that order. Just feeling nervous because had to appeal a few years ago as the school and LA made mistakes with our application and we ended up with no school place offered at all; my sensible head says it won't happen this time, but I won't settle until we know for certain.

Tiggytape, PRH, Admissions and the rest of the experts on here were so helpful when we were going through the appeal, I will never forget how kind they were and generous with their time. I'd also recommend anyone going through the appeal process to get a copy of 'How to Win Your School Appeal', I found it invaluable in helping me prepare the paperwork and word the appeal appropriately.

Thanks @Acornantics ... I'm feeling the same. We should get our first choice on distance as we live about 0.6 from the school and people further usually get in. However I'm terrified that something's gone wrong with the application or that there'll be some problem. I check the email confirmation from the LA at least once a week to make sure it was right. Madness I know.

Trb I did that yesterday too! The closer it gets to March 1st, the more my nerves are jangling! Hoping you hear what you want to hear, when the time comes

Glad I'm not alone Acornantics. Fingers crossed for you too

Trb17 you are definitely not alone. We are supposedly in the front line of the catchment area for an excellent school but I keep double checking I applied properly. Every blooming week. This is daft but I do it anyway.

I tried to reset my password for the admissions service yesterday, it complained that I couldn't use safari so I tried chrome, again it complained so I tried Firefox and chrome with the same results. I tried edge, again it complained that I needed to use Internet explorer. I tried IE and it still complained that I needed to use IE 😡

Offers are sent out and accepted online so quite what we are supposed to do is beyond me. Technical 'support' say I must be mistaken and was not actually using IE...idiots.