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!

Kbhawnani; would you mind sharing where you did accept?

We didn't have any help from our dd's prep. Rather frustratingly the school goes all the way up to sixth form and there's some speculation that the prep refuses to help with 11+, common entrance or guidance in applying for secondary school to retain talented students.

From the sounds of it we took an unusual risk in applying for two schools and ending up with two offers. That said though there are very few independent secondaries in east London and certainly none that are comparable with City!

Youngmum, it sounds as if you applied for only two schools with the knowledge that you had a place at your existing school for secondary if necessary. You were therefore in a very different position than the vast majority who would risk having no school place if they don't apply to wide range of schools (we, for instance, put four state schools on our CAF and applied to three independents when we did it a couple of years ago).

You didn't really take a risk in the same way that the rest of us would have done if we'd only applied to one state and one independent.

As a consequence of most of us being forced into a position of hedging our bets, we don't tend to know with any certainty what our preferred option is until we know that it is an actual option. Hence a lot of those with City offers wanting to make a considered decision based on offers days etc.

Claireblunderwood that's a very good point! I did still have the advantage of still knowing that my DD would have a school place regardless of what happens in applications.

Has anyone heard of any girls on the waiting list that was made up of applicants who had their original offers withdrawn actually being offered places at City?

Nope. We haven't heard anything. To be honest we weren't expecting to hear.
Specially when they have over offered by 50%. Has anyone else heard from them?

I thought some places would come up after the state school offers were made, i.e. parents who felt like they had to accept their City offer pre 1 march to stop it exploding then getting their HBS offer and pulling out. But I guess having already had to pay up those parents could simply choose to sit on their CIty offers for a while.

Interesting to see what they do next year. Because of their location they have a very wide catchment so may get a lot of people applying as their back up choice (eg west London girls who preferr SPGS and G&L but would be happy with City as a back up and North London girls who prefer NLCS with City as a back up), so it must be hard for them to predict.

Out of interest, was anyone on the waiting list offered a place in the school, we were put on the waiting list but are far down enough that we're not holding out hope. The deadline for welcome packs was 20th March so figure no one is dropping out now

We were n.3 apparently on list but haven't heard of anything...

I know of a withdrawal from an accepted place at City in the last 2/3 weeks. Anyone been offered it here?

Many schools operate on this basis but are not quite so transparent about it. The reality is that these schools are massively over subscribed. Parents put their children in for several schools unnecessarily. You need a sure bet, a good fit and backstop. The feeder schools will have given informed advice about the range of schools within their capablility but some parents don't listen. Some are genuinely unsure, some are trophy hunting. You can only go to one school and harvesting multiple offers just perpetuates waiting lists. Often good candidates are demoralised by being on a waiting list when other kids clog up the system when they have no intention of taking up the place. This skews the whole system unfairly and makes the pressure and stress enormous. Channing and Highgate definitely close early and many others also, not just this year but historically. Schools can't use their crystal ball to predict what proportion of their offer holders will take their places up so they have to compensate for attrition by over offering or risk empty spots. That has been the protocol in the independent sector for decades. The truth is, the good schools fill fast so, having gone through this 3 times with my DDs in various schools, don't hedge you bets waiting for a better ship to come in. Accept your favourite firm offer. They really want your child and that counts for a lot. I think sounding off when your game-playing backfires is sad. This is not a unique situation. Many schools work in this way. If the email indicates first come first served that's what they mean. I hope all your lovely girls find a school they can be happpy with. Mine were all at CLSG and regardless of some ill informed comments I can honestly say it was a super kind environment for my kids through some very challenging times.

I think overall it’s a really stupid system (I speak as someone who is not British!) but I do think that adding a “line up on Monday morning or you may miss out” element to it makes it a bit absurd. We went through this whole saga last year, and it the whole process of preparing for the 11+ was pretty hellish because we were applying from a state primary and I was not familiar with the system. Despite all my research I knew nothing about exploding offers and we happily went on holiday. It was only when we got back and read the paperwork (which arrived after we had left for the holiday) that I realised. Luckily we were on time.

I think a better system would be to issue only as many offers as there are places but give people a shorter time to accept - e.g. by 5 pm on Tuesday after half term.

I also think that the status of applications moves quickly in real time and most schools recommend that you don't go away in the first bit of half term so that you are on the ground to deal with things quickly. Maybe your school didn't issue that advice. Same goes for GCSE and A Level results days!! But it sounds like you a bit of time before that monster rears its head!

Surely it's common sense to be around when offers come out, especially after all the prep, tests, interviews etc?

We went through the whole 11+ hell last year and I wouldn't have dreamed of going away Feb half term, as even though we were at state primary, I knew that it would be silly to be away at the culmination of a fraught process.

Just to say this is the 2017 thread. The 2018 thread is here www.mumsnet.com/Talk/secondary/3167209-City-of-London-Girls-withdrawing-offers

As a parent I understand original poster's angst but I do not agree with all the negative publicity and shaming articles this has generated.

Reading on here, the school also sent follow up comms to notify non-accepting offer holders of % up-take.

I do not see what other option the school has. Otherwise you end up punishing parents and children who have made effort to:

• research this topic - first time 11+ for us but google last year showed this is not a new situation for CLSG or other in demand schools;

• prioritise CLSG - speaking with daughter, she made clear this was her first choice school so wife and I scheduled work and activities for our other children accordingly for 9th Feb. Made sure we were available to respond as soon as offer email was received - able to fill in and signature forms to return asap, CLSG bank account details pre-authorised on our account so deposit could be paid asap and not risk delay by bank account admin, etc;

• hold CLSG above other schools and do not dally and wait for other potential offers - daughter had scholarship offer from Alleyn's, scholarship offer from JAGs, etc

• read offer email - clearly states "Please be aware that the school reserves the right to withdraw this offer (before it is accepted) if we receive the requisite number of acceptances for the places available before the final deadline..."

Precisely soya.

All the info is there. If parents don't read it or plan a holiday knowing offers will be out on 9 Feb then they are letting down their own DC.

We were fortunate enough to be offered all schools we applied to, but once our first choice came in, we immediately sent off our acceptance. We had been researching schools for almost 2 years beforehand so it was hardly a last minute decision we were having to make.

It's just that one might assume one could have more than a day to get there, if they were encouraging attending in person.