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.

[ineedamoreadultieradult]

Can I join? We could select 3 places. Our first choice is an excellent academy school with several specialised sports academies running alongside. We have absolutely no chance of getting in apart from being one of the 20 kids chosen to join the sports academies due to sporting ability. So fingers crossed DS1's ability to hit a cricket ball hasn't gone unnoticed! Our second choice is a highly oversubscribed CofE school (we are not CofE) and last choice is a definite due to location and his primary being a feeder school. DS is desperate for the first school and I feel.so helpless telling him it's not down to me! One of his teachers at primary also helpfully told him it was down to how good at cricket he was which I was purposefully not telling him!

[Shattered04]

[b]Hersetta[/b] Thanks, I think you may be right. I've never looked too deeply into private schools and assumed because they seemed to advertise so much that they always had spaces. But then I started reading threads about entrance exams and having to leave hefty deposits and needing to accept places BEFORE the state school day. Which feels very unfair, but it is what it is and it's probably to dissuade people like us who might clear off after a term. Can't say I blame them really.

I'm thinking that option probably won't be a backup after all. Hopefully it won't come to that though, statistically it's very unlikely based on my calculations and previous allocation information.

[thegreylady]

Dgs is applying for this year.
School one ‘above average’ his mum teaches there and he goes to a feeder primary school but lives just outside county border (places in past have gone to some students from his area).
School two has just come out of special measures, has had a bullying problem now rated ‘average’ in walking distance of home.
School three a short train ride away, excellent pastoral care, rated average.
Desperately hoping for school one...

[MedusaBadHairDay]

I can understand the 5pm offer time of giving parents time to chill out before hitting the phones in the morning - I just can’t see the point in a 3pm one, that would make me on edge all day tbh.

[Sittinginthesun]

I think the intention was that parents could then tell their children when they get home, giving the children time to process it before seeing classmates. Also stopping the inevitable playground gossip between parents.

Unfortunately, most parents seem to find out on their mobiles in the playground, which is even worse! Luckily we're not in school that day, as ds has a music thing, so we'll avoid it completely...

[BeesAndChiscuits]

Ugh, I am thinking about this too. We are in an area with superselective grammars, which give places to the top n applicants. Ds’s rank would have got him a place at his first choice last year, but you can never predict these things. We think he’s got a certain place at his second choice but really prefer number 1 for travel reasons. We have our catchment comp on at number 3 where he should get a place on catchment grounds. I can never work out how it can take so long for the allocation process: we’ve had the eleven plus results since early October!

[TheWoollybacksWife]

Tiggy as I said upthread we are moving soon. We started the process after the application deadline and it looks like we'll exchange contracts this week. We're still in the catchment area for 2 of the 3 the schools we applied for but the 3rd school only takes applications from the town we are currently living in. The county website says places will be allocated based on the address at the application deadline. School 1 is random allocation, school 2 we score high on the admissions criteria and school 3 is random allocation.

Do I need to tell admissions my new address if we exchange before 1st March?

[Rewn7]

If it helps, this gives you a timeline for our LA to explain how it takes quite some time:

[EveryoneTalkAboutPopMusic]

No all schools do not release at the same time. We line close to a county border and the neighbouring county usually release their emails before ours. You then get FB full of people in the next town saying how they are delighted that their DC have got into our local school and you’re sat there still wondering if your DC have a place when you live 2 streets away.

Luckily our High School does give preference to siblings so it should be a given that DD gets a place. It hasn’t stopped her worrying though.

[Stickerrocks]

Tiggy I know of someone who foolishly missed the initial application deadline. They have access to the county's application system (they work in admissions but for an entirely different tier of education) so they looked up the number of applications made on time to all the schools in the local area. Now they've made a late application in the light of the numbers applying to each school. Would this inside knowledge have been of any practical use to them, as presumably they will join all the other late applicants then be ranked against the County's usual criteria. Accessing the County's info seems to be a high risk approach to take, as they would face disciplinary action if caught, If there is no tangible gain to be had from seeing the numbers involved.

[Gileswithachainsaw]

So 10 say count down.

Everyone still standing?

[Shattered04]

Barely!! The next ten days are going to crawl.. I've been anticipating this moment for the best part of six years since we decided to move to our town - I always knew this was going to be the tough bit!

In Rewn's post above, with the timeline, it says schools know February 19th. Does that mean primary schools or their new schools, I wonder? It would feel mean if the head of DD's school knew ten days before we did!

[Gileswithachainsaw]

Everyone- throw all dark clothing and flash lights into a pile.

We should organise a break in or something

Im.too clumsy but I'll keep watch

[Hersetta427]

Still here - still shitting bricks. DD is laid back about the whole process - she had forgotten that results were next week !!

The thought that we will have to do this all again in 4 yrs time for DS is awful too - he won't get any sibling priority as DD will (hopefully) be going to a girls school.

[thesockgap]

Argh! It's NEXT WEEK! Can't believe how quickly it's come around. I've been trying not to think about it too much, as I know it's totally out of my hands and nothing I can do about it at this point - but my stomach is churning now, knowing that it's a bit over 9 days till midnight on Wednesday...

[Shattered04]

I guess the primary heads need to know in advance so they can prepare themselves for their reactions to any "controversial" placements!

Still tempted to break in though!!

Actually, when I get the results, I would kind of like to prepare myself by having seen the "furthest admitted distance" on our first choice school first. And if that looks bad, I'll look at the second, then the third.. somehow getting the result like that feels slightly less heart-stopping as I have to do some poking about rather than just read a word in an email.

Will that distance information be released before we get the email, bearing in mind it'll probably be 6pm, and we're (just!) out of county for our first choice school in Bucks, so they may have a different timescale.

[Stickerrocks]

Thanks Tiggy I couldn't see the logic in risking your job just to look at the raw data either.