City of London Girls withdrawing offers

[Leo12345]

Hello! I was surprised to receive an email today from City of London Girls that their offer to DD is now withdrawn. I opened their original email with the offer and read that indeed this is their policy: first-comes-first-gets.
We are much more prone to go to LEH or if not Kingston Grammar, and now I bless this decision as I learnt something about City of London Girls character and aptitude towards its pupil.

My question is: do other schools (in particular LEH and Kingston Grammar) practice such policy?

We would accept the offer in LEH today then, though we are waiting for the tour in there.

Afternoon all,

Just to let you know that unfortunately we can see there's a fair amount of sock puppeting going on on this thread. This is not only disingenuous but also in breach of our Talk Guidelines. We're going to be deleting a number of posts now - apologies if this means the thread is difficult to follow.

I saw the mention of City Boys, makes me curious how they avoid the exploding offers assuming they have similar constraints of CLGS?

LondonUSmum I agree. Same can be said of so many other schools that are oversubscribed but still manage to execute a fairer admission system.

I don't know how (efficiency? good judgement? decency?)... but they do. We have a CLS(boys) offer and rang them up this morning to double-check it was non-explosive and they were emphatic that it was a "firm" offer valid until March 5th. Also, you could get through to them by phone, which is another one up on the Girls' school.

Surely the underground prep thing can't go ahead, can it? No natural light? Can that be legal? And who would send their daughter to such a place?

I thought CLSG would grab the Museum of London space since they are moving to Smithfield. But apparently that’s already been earmarked for something else.

I've now heard of a North London prep school warning about acceptance practices at CLGS and Channing.. These are schools with long track record of sending to both.. Maybe no-one listens to their child's prep school, maybe it adds to the allure given how alpha North London can be about schools.

Either way, it's tough on the girls.

Just to say that after radio-silence since Wednesday's 'retracted emails' fiasco I finally had an email this morning from CLGS asking if I still planned to attend tomorrow's offer holders' morning given that places were all filled. I replied asking for an indication of the length of the waiting list to help me judge if this was worthwhile. Not heard back.

They seem poor at responding to emails - wonder if this is normal?
(I had to Google sock-puppeting and am still a bit hazy - are MNHQ saying that people on the thread are adopting more than one identity? Or are they able to impersonate a genuine user's identity?)

It means people are name changing and making posts that look like they are by different people when they are by the same person.

Just to add, whilst I'd like to go along to the offer holders' day tomorrow and ask for an explanation of what went so wrong, I am still so upset that I don't think I could hold it together. And I don't want to spoil the event for the girls who got places and are probably blissfully unaware of the mill that others have been put through.

Thanks @Quadrangle.

Dragthing I think that's very kind and considerate of you...

Parents who went to the “offer holders” morning (not that the offers were ever real...) please let us know how that went!!

I don’t usually bother posting on mumsnet just tend to read but this thread hit a nerve. We are one of the many families whose offer exploded. To be honest City wasnt our top choice to start with, the location and grimeyness was depressing but academically it is so impressive. We got our offer, decided to wait and attend the offer holders morning, speak to staff and other families and see how we felt after that. That is the point of the offer holders morning isn’t it? To help parents decide? Anyway we went off on holiday only to find our offer explode within a day! We were simply not willing to be bullied into making such an important decision so quickly hence let it slide. Lucky we have 2 other very good offers otherwise this would have been a nightmare and I really feel for the girls in that position. I was sad to read some parents defending City’s behaviour. How would they feel if they had to tell their 10 or 11 year old child that the place they worked so hard to secure exploded within hours? Even if everyone who wanted their place arrived at City at 8am on the Monday morning they would have had to turn some away so please no one b,and parents for not reacting fast enough. I also agree with some of the earlier posters who said City are going end up with the lower end of their ranking list because the strongest girls had equally good offers to consider.

Thanks Quadrangle for the explanation ..I was wondering what sock puppetry meant too! I don’t remember what those posters said but I do wonder whether the threads were deleted because City complained to Mumsnet. Can’t be great to have their name dragged through the mud. PR disaster! Let’s not forgot it hasn’t always been this way. A couple of years ago City had a perfectly humane admission process like most other schools, sure it was harder work to manage but manage they did. City simply needs to stop making offers to so many, rein it in a bit and have a waiting list. To suddenly decide actually balancing our admission numbers feels too much like hard work so let’s just open the floodgates with offers and close it when we have enough, hey several dozen girls will be upset but we don’t care, is just shameful!

I went. Not that many people there and no cross parents so maybe lots of people are taking dragthing’s approach. I liked it but Dd still not thrilled with the grimy ness so we will probably end up taking somewhere else (Shhs probably or our local state if she gets in). I spoke to one of the teachers who said that everyone was a bit horrified by what had happened and she thought that they would just have to change the system for next year. She said they had issued far fewer places this year and had 15pc higher take up than last year so were totally caught on the hop. This made me feel slightly more kindly towards them and the teacher genuinely seemed upset about it. Small consolation for those caught on the wrong side of this but I don’t think this system will be in place next year.

User
The threads deleted were attacking a particular poster who spoke in defence of City, and it got unpleasant. They were actually criticising the school as well, so not what you are suggesting.
(As someone who was accused of sock puppeting myself I was relieved to be vindicated )

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..."

The offers exploded so much more quickly than ever before though - and the school has traditionally issued a countdown indicating how many places have been filled.

Surely no research in the world could have indicated that this would happen?

No need for smug posts about how organised you were - there are families who have been devastated through no fault of their own.

"No need for smug posts about how organised you were - there are families who have been devastated through no fault of their own"

yup. +1 !

Not a smug post - just stating some points and relevant experiences.

Soyalatte but City DO have an option!! They are not unique to other schools who all face similar challenges balancing offers and acceptances. They simply took the easy way out to suit them with no regard for the girls and families they disappointed. Make fewer offers and go to waiting list if you have to. More work for the admissions office, granted, but surely a fairer system!

Mulling over an important decision for a few days is hardly dallying!

It was a smug post

Has anyone else seen the posts on social media from the Good Schools Guide and the reponsss about the issue? Seems to be an indication CLGS violated their collective agreement with other Independents to wait until at least the 1st Monday in March to withdraw offers so as not to make it unfair to those waiting for state school places.

I do not see what other option the school has

Surely they have the option to operate the system virtually every other school does?

Other options would still give the same results; only the first 70 students get a place. Surely no one would want them to hold that information secret till March 1, when they know after 72hrs.

Soya there were no emails indicating % takeup. They went too fast for that. Most families had no way of knowing that they had 9 business hours. My friends only knew because I told them having overheard someone say something to that effect when I went.

Also I think since the school are informally saying this was not what they wanted and they don’t think it’s sustainable there’s no further need to defend the system. Ok that was from one teacher this morning but since the school is horrified I think we can all agree this system is basically kaput.