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).

Ahh glad to see this thread
This last month I thought about march the 1st allocations day least twice a day .
All other parents I speak to even those with private backup offers feel anxious.

Nearly had a fit last month when realised our 2nd preference out catchment /county but within furthest distance had reduced intake wasent clear thourght was happening next year
Reducing intake by 40 could mean shrinking furthest distance we 7 miles was just over 8 last year
They did have 20 reserved sports places which I also applied for so preference 2 made 2 apllications sports consideration with coaches reference and usual cafe form based on distance.

This school is now consulting on removing sports specialism they offered no sports places last year and the admissions officer is new and admissions say it's an academy they can't tell me why so sports not hopeful.
Also odd sibling rule upto 2 years after my child has left the younger sibling can get in despite me not having a child there at the time seems bonkers to me.

So needless to say I'm having a few wobbles about no 2 preference as there was another I ordered but more awquard to get to I wish we had 6 preferences we only get 3.

School 2 was wild card to go veiw and see and husband and daughter loved it but easy transport links for daughter to get there independently and better gcse results than nearest local schools.

We looked at 2 schools random allocation as preference number one both hideously oversubscribed.

School a had 12 music places.
Dd1 sat and failed so only chance random allocation
Out of 120 intake only 27 random allocation places last year 900 applications.
Their website says there's maths equation to randomly pick people not a lottery type number.

We decided chances too slim so dropped idea putting it down.

The 2nd is only state girls school in area
It has 140 places
Guarantees siblings not great for my youngest son.
14 language places we dident get it
Non verbal reasoning test then children places in 5 bands and randomly allocated.
I have a score for test but no idea which band.
They say each band they try keep equal but jot sure how ability can be evenly spread.
Then even after that one final hurdle of postcodes 75% taken from inner city postcodes and 25% outside .
Really only 14 language siblings and sen guaranteed it really is a gamble but it's good school ex independent so we place it 1st as we have a younger daughter.

Neither we or my daughter think we stand any chance.

So im bigging up our 3rd with expectation we get 3rd it's 3miles away out catchment but historically undersubscribed 1st round so no furthest distance to judge.
We live on county border .
We did like it when visited 3 times year 5 and 6 and feels like good fit.
Got really good gcse results lat year we'll better than our locals.

Even my daughters pragmatic always 2nd round.

Few years ago went through hell primary admissions getting none of 3 preferences including eldest school and nearest school.
We have not pit down any schools in our county and the only ones under subscribed likely to be allocated are truly dire.

But it's a bridge to cross if we come to it.
I know everyone says pick. Safe banker but I can't waste 1/ 3 preferences on school I hate just In case

I assume after march 1st like primary I can change my preference drop 1 and apply for another as late applicant and be treated same on waitlist as on time applications.

I woke up other day 5am and thought I can't remember my password to log in.
So requested a new one and reset and logged in.
Also experimented browser using Internet explorer.

Glad I'm not only one stressing.

Some local people have lied or been secretive about their preferences.
Also usual myths going round
Looking at local intake this year's year 6 does seem bigger and council only just managed last year.

Plus of one school does badly ofsted or gcse that can change the pattern of demand out of 3 local schools I don't know which one be people's 1st preference this year as they all have their issues.

Good luck everyone.

I plan to stock up lots of wine and keep myself busy tue.

Unsure if can log in at midnight like primary or we await emails in batches.

Good luck everyone.

I be happy if we get any of our 3.
Be shocked if we get no 1
Slightly relieved if get no 2 as sibling link for 2 younger kids.

Tedd, but because of the equal preference system, you could have put your favoured choice top without it affecting your chances of getting the others if you didn't qualify for top choice. The fact no.2 school was no.2 and not no.1 wouldn't make you any less likely to get it. Putting it sixth means you'll only get it if you don't meet the lowest selection creiteria any of the others employ, but do meet 6th choices criteria. That's why they say you really should rank them in your true order of preference, but that it's good to include a pretty much certain school too.

Exactly ChocolateWombat. My friend didn't put down an acceptable "sure thing" school in her list of 3 as she thought they'd give it her automatically because it's undersubscribed. Instead she put down 3 long shots that she's hardly any chance of getting. As such the most likely outcome is that she'll get the terribly failing school that (unluckily) is the nearest to her house. I'm hoping a miracle happens for her and she gets one of her 3.

If you don't get any schools listed on your CAF can you wait List ALL other schools in your area or is waitlisting limited to the original ones from your CAF?

@Trb17 its a gamble but if its an undersubscribed school hopefully your friend should be able to switch to it after allocation day.

Hope so @Edna1969. That said I'm assuming it will be undersubscribed as it has been for a while. Many schools near us are fluctuating on Ofsted levels (not in a good way) so it's possible that application trends will fluctuate this year too. Nail biting with 6 days to go.

Teddygirl, why didn't you put your favourite, closest school first? What risk was there in doing that? The way the system works means there is no disadvantage in putting your schools down on the exact order you prefer them!

Fab thank you @tiggytape that's good to know.

Our first choice is an OOC boy's grammar school. Every year 1/3 of the places goes to the OOC boys, the places were offered purely by score rankings. DS's score is high enough for a place we hope ( we have made our comparisons with the past 7 years ooc scores). But we can't just sit back and relax until we've seen it on paper.

Choice 2 - a mixed grammar school, less than 2 miles from our house and next to my ds2's primary (ideal) but once again OOC. However we seem live close enough to get a place.
So we shall be happy with any of these two. Next Wednesday seems far away!

@wangxiaosara sounds like you have a good chance. Completely agree that next Wednesday seems so far away. Time is funny when tou are waiting for something. Still we have a very busy weekend so that will help me focus on other things.

you that is not sure what tou is!

I'm getting more and more anxious about next week, I know I am being irrational because DD will do well at any of the three schools we put down and we are in the enviable position that the first two are rated outstanding and the third is rated as good.
It still doesn't help when I'm laid awake worrying at 3am. I just want to know so we can move on to the next phase.

I'm the same. Very anxious and counting down to Wednesday.

I'm really anxious too. I would be happy with either 1 or 2 but I am panicking we get our 3rd choice. Nearly there I guess.

Sorry if this has been answered upthread, but do the results get emailed out at midnight, or some random time during the day, or does it vary according to where you live?

silly it varies on where you live. It seems Kent and London at least come out in batches in the afternoon.

My primary offer last year came out at 6am so I am presuming secondary offer to be similar.

I checked back on my emails a couple of nights back rather than me having an amazing memory.

Sorry some London boroughs. I realise London isn't an entity on its own.

Friends have told me our area is accessible at midnight online and that emails normally come out early hours of the morning.

When dd1 got her offer it was there at midnight, but it was 9 years ago and it was a Friday night so staying up was easier.

Our emails come out in batches through the night so I'm told so should wake up to an email on Wednesday morning.

I'm not sure if this is the same for all LEAs, but for Liverpool council the results were available on the website (where you originally logged in to make your application, with your unique reference number etc) several hours before the email arrived. We sat there refreshing the page from about 11pm and it updated at about five to midnight. When I got up the next morning, the email hadn't arrived till about 2:30am so I'm glad I knew about the website and didn't wait up for the email to come!

I remember the agonising wait. We are in Hers and my DD is year 8. We got our emails at 3.45 ish on allocation day. It was a long wait that day! Reading all your posts makes me very grateful we never have to go through it again. Good luck to all of you with your choices. I hope you get what you want xx

I meant Herts.

It's not the same for all LEAs

Sorry some London boroughs. I realise London isn't an entity on its own.

Actually,moor school admissions it is. The pan-London system covers all boroughs and Surrey. Allocations should be posted on the website at 5ish. And that's when they start sending out emails. There are so many emails to be sent it takes some hours to do them (even when it all runs smoothly).

I think it's deliberately set at the end of the working day, btw, so that people reflect a bit overnight rather than hitting the phones straight away.