City of London Girls full and withdrawing offers - anyone heard similar and advice?

[NL2016]

Admissions office of the City of London Girls school is now saying that they have had the target number of girls confirming acceptance and are downgrading firm offers to those who have not yet accepted back to the waiting list, all before 6 March deadline!!! any one heard anything and any advice how to handle this situation is appreciated!

Hi there

I am on waiting list for City (we also got caught up in the 1-hour rush...); however we have an offer for G&L, which is also closer. I didn't know G&L is holding an offer morning...has this already passed?
Thanks!

There were still doing some decider tours at G&L this week. Maybe you should try and email the registrar there?

They didn't advertise the G&L open mornings but if you contacted the registrar they provided dates. I'm sure they will still be able to accommodate you.

They run smaller group viewings tomorrow and Thursday, we are in similar position in respect of City and Godolphin...

NL2016 -
what did you decide at the end? have you signed up for G&L?

Is anyone on the waiting list for City?

Yes, I am - but have not heard anything yet. Has anyone?

Same, we have accepted now a place at the school which is as good as City incl in terms of academic results (that's why we wanted to see both at the open mornings in the first place...). As many have mentioned on the thread - it is City's loss ... and big dent to their reputation and credibility...

We are also on the waiting list and pushed to meet the head teacher. To our surprise we were informed that City have over offered by more than 50% which makes one wonder how they have managed the process and how many parents will loose deposits?? Even if 10-15 parents loose deposits it's a lot of money for school to pocket? Has anyone heard back from them as yet?

Well, they told us that they made 12 more offer than places, this doesn't add up to 50% more! We are on waiting list.

This does sound very odd! When my DD was interviewed the question came up about how many offers were made and the deputy head answered "in the region of 100". Which sounds like over offering by 30%?

50% of 70 is 35, so they offered around 105 which is consistent with what the Head told kbhwani. I think City must have had a much higher acceptance rate than they expected this year.

ah of course! must get a coffee and screw my head on!

It does seem even more competitive than usual this year. I wonder why?

Yes that's true. The head confirmed that they are finding it difficult as number of parents showing up & asking explanations!
I still think they could have managed the process better specially considering their location. I believe 2 years ago NLCS was in similar position & they added an extra class to protect their reputation

Do you think the list will "unlock" at all? or this is it?

Mummy, the list will definitely move as a few parents paid a deposit to keep their options open! What I don't know is how parents can get out of places they've currently accepted if a place subsequently frees up. Personally we were irritated to have the choice taken away but have accepted another very good school and happy to let this go now. City's mismanagement has put me off the school slightly.

I couldn't agree more with Cdstanding. We too r very put off by this. Seven years is a long time and there are occasions when parents need to work out problems with the school. Such an attitude in very beginning is worrying!

We have accepted another offer

I do sympathize with those who had their offers withdrawn, esp those who are going through this process for the first time like us and were trying to make such a big decision.

We made a conscious decision to only apply for two schools, CLSG and a state school as a back up. That does sound scary but we have known from the beginning, last summer, what was no1 and what was no2. We didn't apply for any other schools to have practice of the exams or interviews, or even just for a punt. We only applied for what we wanted and we knew what we would do when we got the offers.

For those reading about offers being withdrawn and intending to apply next year, I'd urge you to visit the school before application. Applying for the sake of applying can only put pressure on the application process, leading to over offering from the school, leading to offers being withdrawn. Similarly if you've paid a deposit to delay a firm decision, do release the schools! It's clear from MN that people are on tentahooks! It's a stressful cycle; let's all try and be mindful of others who might be waiting.

Sorry if this is a bit intrusive; but Kbhawnani and cdstandingnow; would you accept a place at CLSG if they offered you one from the waiting list?

I wouldn't accept City if offered now. For me the opportunity has been and gone and the school we accepted has equal standing to City.

Ah no that makes sense. It's so difficult to manage children's expectations!

To be honest we aren't too keen either.
I have only child and her first choice was City and now she is heart broken with no fault of hers

Kbhawnani: what part of London are you in?

We are in the west and it is not prudent to apply only to two schools to have a decent chance of getting a place as the competition is in the range of 10 kids per place, there are no state schools (except for Holland Park one), our HM's advice to apply to 4-6 schools (there was a comment though that 5 years ago applying to 2-3 schools was enough...). The good thing though that there are several schools of equally good standing in West London; we visited all the schools that we applied before exams, as most of the girls have done, but were conscious to recommend DD not to have a one super preferred school as the outcome is not assured...

It is totally unpredictable how schools choose: there are plenty of example of girls getting St Paul's but not Latymer Upper, for example. My DS got Westminster, City and St Paul's but not Kings or Latymer...who knows why...

On another social media site there was a reference to 56 extra places being offered by City this year.

We are in North West of London near Harrow. Being very new to the process we applied only to 2 indies and 1 Grammer school. Hence we got caught up in this. My daughter is in a prep school. They advised us.