Wandsworth waiting lists - no movement?

[Stircrazyschoolmum]

Its been a week since state secondary school allocations - am I deluded to think that the wait lists should have moved a little bit during this time?

I have several friends who are taking Independent offers.. I can't understand why this movement hasn't filtered down to state level? My thinking is that either the council haven't gotten around to updating the spreadsheet fully or that parents are failing to surrender their state places despite accepting an indy one.. not a headache I need on a Friday night..

Argh! Hate this process!

Welcome letters were sent out this week so that might trigger some movement

@Confuzzle that seems like very little movement indeed with it now being late April. Getting a sense on the 11+Forum that there's not much happening with the super-selectives' W/Ls either.

I'm not Wandsworth but another London Borough. I was 3rd on the waiting list after first round for a 'backup' school (it's not a grammar but allocates a proportion of places to 11+ passes). I rang school Friday and was still 3rd however got an offer yesterday. So that's taken 6 weeks from initial offer day to filter through.

I was told that with grammar places the process can take longer as many applicants are in different boroughs and so acceptances etc have to go from one borough to another.

When, many moons ago, DS got offered a place from W/L for preferred choice super-selective (within three weeks of Offers Day), he received it directly from the school. I recall that the local borough (not our own) was a bit miffed about it having been made in this way (rather them via them). Maybe processes have been tightened up since then to ensure all go via boroughs'?

Yes, I can easily see how much the whole process is slowed down by 'between borough communication' about places becoming available...

Total PITA if you're near the top of a waiting list and desperate to hear before all the 'starting Yr 7 induction' rigmarole starts (as early as May in some cases).

@AveEldon hopefully this will trigger some movement!

@Toomanycats99 I think you are right - I spoke to Wandsworth admissions and they are apparently still working through contacting everyone to see if they are accepting/declining places.

@NewModelArmyMayhem18 Yes it seems to be out of the school's hands and down to the borough, and with them having to wait for out of borough communication it is a slow process. There seems to be a bit of movement re Tiffins, but less on the Sutton schools which probably have more impact on Graveney. Not sure about the whole independent school timelines.

A number of people are surprised about the lack of movement on the list compared to previous years. Here's hoping

@Confuzzle

Yes. The school seemed to have no idea the offer letter was coming out to me even though it was obviously posted that day. It came from the council so they have obviously not passed them back to schools yet.

I know someone that applied cross borough and they were emailed saying they hadn't received their acceptance about 2 weeks after cutoff for first offers - the council either hadn't passed through or receiving council had not updated system as it had been sent in good time!

How much time do they give overall for accepting/refusing an offered place in the first round? A month or longer? Presumably Easter being early delayed the process?

Maybe the lack of movement is more to do with increased pressure on places this year? Or it's perfectly possible to have a random type of year when more people than usual are perfectly happy with their allocated schools?

First offer was 1st, cutoff for acceptance was 15th. I received my second offer 21st of this month acceptance due by 30th.

I think although the cutoff for first round acceptance was 15th, if people do not 'decline' their place it is still held open and the council have to contact them to get their decision, which obviously takes ages, plus Easter was early delaying things (she says hoping!).

Lack of movement could be due to the bulge year, although I heard the Graveney applications were the same as usual - that saying, there could be more pressure on independent places/grammar places affecting this.

Just can't quite believe that almost 2 months in, there has been movement of just 5 places.

And hasn't one of the admissions experts indicated that most movement usually happens in the first two months?

Some moons ago, when DS was 9th on a waiting list for a super-selective place (he got the cut off score but places were allocated in distance from school order), we only had to wait three weeks after Offers Day for him to be offered it.

Maybe the grammar schools have become more canny about the way they do their initial round of offers (isn't the trend now to over offer?), so there isn't the movement there used to be (which in turn will have a knock-on impact on Graveney and the like).

Annoying though @Confuzzle. I feel your pain.

@NewModelArmyMayhem18

Agree with over offering. The school we have now seems to make 80 offers for 60 selective places as obviously anyone that gets a full grammar will usually take that so I think they have a high dropout rate.

Some private schools have been over offering and then taking the first people who get their acceptances in.

State schools can’t and don’t over-offer, and can’t be ‘canny’ in making offers beyond doing exactly what they say they do on their published admissions.

And many people choose Graveney selective stream for example, over the Sutton Grammars based on the journey, and plenty of people pass for the Grammars but not Graveney (and vice versa).

@TammyWhyNot I've read on several forums of interested parents that some of the local super-selectives have been over offering in recent years (for the first round of offers). Clearly not on the first come first served basis that some of the London public schools have been using though. I haven't thought up the idea myself. And I do have a DS at one of them, so am not entirely ignorant...

Agree about Graveney (did I say otherwise?), yet I suspect it's mainly in 'Extension' places that there's most W/L movement potential. Maybe this year more parents/youngsters are 100% happy with Graveney as their allocated school and are therefore not holding out for other potential offers? It must sometimes happen.

What happens for children who are Graveney pupil siblings but also do really well in the Wandsworth Test? How does the admissions process at G treat them? Do they get sibling places or ones based on WT performance?

State schools can’t and don’t over-offer

Actually yes they can, and increasingly seem to be doing so - I regularly sit on appeals panels where the secondary has overoffered, usually by around say 10 places on a 240 intake. We are in an area of a fair number of private schools so state secondaries know that they will lose a handful to those each year.

It normally works out, unless the school is on a rapid upward improvement path and the stats from say 3 years ago on the number of declines are out of date! That happened to one school around here a couple of years ago.

@PatriciaHolm thanks for confirming what I said! In many ways it makes perfect sense for really popular schools to do so, as it saves the schools' lots of extra hassle admin wise over the months.

Maybe Graveney has started doing the same thing too (which is why there's been so little movement this year)?

Ok, I was wrong: thanks for the clarification.

I find that quite shocking, though.

@TammyWhyNot recently at least two of the local super-selectives found themselves having to resort to offering places to the highest scoring pupils who'd not passed both stages of 11+ exams...It was a one-off scenario but clearly one they hope to avoid going forward with admissions.

@NewModelArmyMayhem18 -

High scoring siblings would be offered a Extension place rather than a general place according to the admissions policy

Thanks for clarifying @AveEldon.

Maybe this year there were more high scoring siblings in the Extension places mix?

Looking at the details from the council -
Graveney had 70 selective places but offered 72
General places - 210 but offered 201

They are due to admit 280 pupils - but the above only adds up to 273?

AveEldon - they also admitted 12 children with an EHCP/SEN statement, which makes a total of 285. So an over-offer of 5.

Ah thanks, I missed that bit

Just wondering if you'd had any joy from the waitlist?

No joy for us yet, however, we have moved 16 places. Still seems slower than I have heard for previous years, and have no idea if there will be further movement from now, or if everyone is now set on their schools!

Good that you've moved up 16 places, Confuzzle. Are you now in the top 10? Very frustrating for you.

I would have thought there still could be some movement but not much at this stage. I know we were offered a place for DD at her second choice school in early July last year (but we chose not to go with it, as she'd already got used to the idea of going to the one we'd initally accepted, we'd bought the uniform and she'd done several visits already).