Its 2018....countdown to 1st March secondary school allocations!

[Hersetta427]

Well two months down and two to go to 1st March. I have been fairly chilled since applications were submitted however now that 2018 is here it is creeping into my thoughts more frequently.

We are truly lucky to live in a town with very good secondary schools but I know DD would be heartbroken if she didn't get her first choice (a top 10 non selective girls school).

Realistically we should be virtually sure of a place as if we don't qualify on distance within our feeder school group then she should get a sports aptitude place (she score 10 percentage points higher than the required score for the last 3 years). However a part of me is still nervous as I imagine what if all 200 girls taking the aptitude test got amazing scores too. Logically I know this isn't the case as other girls at her school score 20-25 marks lower than DD but there are only 9 places available so the margin of error is small.

Anyone else beginning to get jittery? Please tell me I'm not alone.

Set my alarm for midnight- when ours is posted. Not that I'm anxious or anything ... not that I can do anything if I need to do anything at that time of night...

shattered I wish they'd stop drip feeding this! I can see that one child from our primary hasn't got a ranked school. And that our first choice school had around 80 more first place applications than last year!

Hope yours works out okay - intrigued which school you're after now. You'll have to PM me...

Bella - sort of. I can also tell from the max distance admitted to #3 (decent local school) that we will definitely get school #1, #2 or #3. However..

DD really doesn't want #2 now - a lot has changed since then, and it's more important she stays with friends. #2 allocates on score test, and she was very borderline. #1 or #3 would be fine, although she'd be a bit disappointed with #3 as it would have meant all the 11+ prep was for nothing.

Unfortunately it seems that the out-of-county allocations from Herts for school #1 have dropped by six. This almost certainly means the furthest admitted distance has shrunk, and were not even a mile inside it last year. Now scouring Google Maps with circles on trying to work out if there's enough of a buffer of homes between the inner circle (us) and the outer circle (last year) to cover those six places!

And it does mean that it's entirely possible her friends have got in as they're fractionally closer than us, and she hasn't. Which means potentially an appeal on the grounds of her newly diagnosed ASD. Which I haven't got the mental energy for!

Sitting - I know! This is agony. I get the feeling they weren't supposed to issue that document until tomorrow though, tsk! If only Bucks CC would do the same, then I would be put out my misery.

You can probably work out which school we're after from my post above now, especially if you're fairly local to me!

If it's the school I think it is, rumour is that it's a high sibling year. We're usually in catchment, but in the other direction.

Actually re-read your post, and I'm not sure sure I've got it from the clues! #1 Out of county? #2 Consortium? Just can't guess #2! Another consortium?

The one we're after is just over the border in Bucks, the other two are Herts!

Yep, #2 is a consortium one!

I'm going to PM you...

We have just got an invitation to a year 6 taster day for our first choice school so I am guessing that is a clear yes!

I can see too that 100% of dd's school were allocated one of their preferences. There were 223 First place preferences for dd's first choice and 177 second place choices for 180 places. It's just made me more nervous.

Congrats User267

user267 was your first choice also your feeder school because we have been getting year 6 taster invites from our feeder school for the last couple of months.

No it isn't our feeder schools - we're out of catchment so it all looks good!

Well done User267! That certainly sounds hopeful!

I can't believe how detailed those stats are - our allocation day statistics are nowhere near that detailed.

The admissions portal where I am says emails will be sent out on the evening of March 1. So that's tomorrow evening would you say? Am in West London.

Thanks Tiggy. I was hoping for after midnight 😕

That Herts document is interestingly scary reading, if you know the local area. There are five local schools which didn't get 100% ranked places, so I'd put money on the catchment of one local secondary having shrunk, as we thought. Very high sibling year. That probably means that lots of ds's classmates will get their 4th choice, at least on this round.

Two from my DS cohort didn't get a ranked school according to that Herts document. Now to pray he's not one of them! However I work in the infants school attached to his juniors and have first hand experience of how daft parents can be about school applications so maybe it's just that those 2 didn't put 4 schools down...? The combination of snow, book day, having a cold and school allocations is making me feel mildly (!) demented and I'm not sure i parsed that document properly...

Happy news user!

Sounds good user

Help! Anyone know about East Sussex? I have scoured the website but it only says 1 March nothing about times. I assumed it would be same as previous county for primary which was about 4pm but all this talk of midnight releases has me hitting the caffeine.

I was reading the document wrong and looking at the 2017 stats and for 2018 one child has not got one of their ranked schools. Knowing where we live though it will be someone putting the most oversubscribed school in the whole County Down and nothing else as they intend going private if they don't get the state school.

Brilliant news, user! Talk about letting the cat out the bag a bit early by that school.. heh!

That Herts doc has essentially confirmed a place for at least one parent at DD's school, she's happy! Silly Herts posting spoilers!!