Needmoresleep, you are right. And as others have said they only have 70 places to offer on a very restricted site.
I would imagine they thought very carefully about this policy and weighed the pros and cons. They will be aware of the negative publicity and threads like this, and of course they would rather not have negative publicity. The fact it generates some, doesn't mean they don't care. They are at pains to point out to parents who are considering applying that people should consider how realistic journeys are, that places are very limited and that they encourage only applications for girls who would come to the school - and go as far as saying, for whom it would be first choice.
Are all the first choice girls top of the ability range? No, but when making their over-offers they only offer to those they are prepared to take - this is not the same as going towards the lower parts of a traditional WL, which may well be necessary after 5 March, when many people have accepted other places, as these were always their first choice, or because they decided that a bird in a hand is worth more than a bird in a bush. They know there will be enough first choice girls in the number of offers they make (but not which ones they are) who really want the place and will get their deposits in on time. These first choice families make sure they read the paperwork and understand that speed if of the essence and don't dilly dally.
Others who aren't quite sure, simply don't have the luxury of time after offers to choose. It's decide now or lose out. It's their choice, and they do have a choice - to thoroughly investigate before offers come out, so they are ready to write the cheque or make the bank transfer to City or somewhere else, or to decide to wait and think and re-visit after offers - but they make that choice in the knowledge that one of their choices may no longer exist. It is up to them.
Most people who have had offers explode weren't sure City was where they absolutely wanted. In reality, many who had exploding offers would have gone elsewhere. If they really wanted it and knew they wanted it, it's hard to understand how they could fail to understand the necessity of speed and miss out. Many of those complaining wouldn't have take City anyway, but don't like the fact that they weren't given 3 weeks to ponder and re-visit. How much should the school pander to them? In the end, they weren't going to be their future students anyway? That bit of bad publicity and moaning is a shame, and not something the school would ideally want, but they see it as a necessary cost that they are willing to bear, for the benefits it brings.
And all this talk about the devastated children who had an offer one day and two days later found they no longer did have. If they were genuinely devastated because it absolutely was their first choice and they had their hearts set on it, then I ask again why on earth hadn't their parents got on the case for this school they definitely wanted, but instead allowed the offer to explode when the danger of this was very clear. For the others, is suspect they weren't devastated at all - some kids have applied to so many schools, they barely know which one is which....for those whose decisions are very much still in the balance (and lots of people seem to suggest on here that they are far from decided and need lots more time and visits) then it's all still very much an open field and they and their parents will visit other places and choose, in all liklihood somewhere different anyway. I don't buy that loads of children are devastated by it. I don't think the parents are devastated either to be honest - not devastated because they depsarealty wanted City as their definite top choice and missed out - yes, perhaps a few who didn't get their acts together, but the majority are not devestataed, but annoyed and cross that a school has chosen to do this - because they feel entitled to time to revisit and make a leisurely decision, because they are paying and because that had become the norm. The school dictating the terms and forcing choices to be sooner really annoys people, even when most of them would not have had City as their first choice anyway. Annoyed, not devastated.
Again, the school just accepts it has to bear this annoyance from mostly parents who wouldn't have taken up the offer anyway. It's a bit of a shame, but when looking at their overall process, the far bigger gain, which comes from this approach is that they have a seemingly full cohort of people who had definitely chosen City, rather than those who they had to draw from a WL, who might be lower ability or for whom it wasn't their top choice. Having top choice candidates counts for a lot - they have chosen in full knowledge of the journey and are committed to the school and to bei g fully involved in things outside of the school day as well as within. Once you have people for whom it is their third or fourth choice, you're often looking at people with difficult journeys, who simply won't be able to stay after school....and in a smallish school, this can make a real difference to the overall broader experience of school.
I think on balance, City will be pleased with their outcomes this year. No doubt some who have accepted might pull out later, but the school hope this will be few. No doubt they are already planning how to handle all of this for next year, when word will be out even more about the tight time scales. In the end, no one needs to apply to City who don't like the school or its application process. It's a free choice. I suspect they still won't be short of applicants at all, or worry too much about the loss of those who aren't strongly committed enough to have been able to make a choice and a decision by offer day.
All schools are more interested in the parents who will say 'yes' to an offer. All schools face the problem of not knowing which parents they offer to will say 'yes'. City has just found a way to find that information out more quickly than many other schools. They feel knowing it sooner creates a stronger school, because the limited site won't be squeezed and current pupil timetables compromised by the uncertainty generated by the current system. They out that ahead of courting potential parents who in all liklihood won't have the school as top choice anyway. It's a thought out choice, which I think makes sense for the school - and I'd want any school I chose to put the school and it's pupils above other potential, but unlikely parents annoyance.