Secondary School Waitlists

[Lazza88]

Hi all. My daughter has been declined all 3 preferences (2 we are in catchment for) and had an LA offer of a totally unacceptable school. We are now going to get her waitlisted on all 3 of her choices. Do any of you know definitively wether the order of these three now makes any difference ( we can re order at this stage too). Thank you

I assume if you’re on the waitlist for all 3, they will all offer you a space when one is available and you are at the top of the list. You can choose to take the place or not, and I think you can remain on wait list for the other schools.

I would imagine that if you decline a place on the waiting list then same rules apply as in offer day... accept the place, then stay on waiting lists for higher preference schools.

Firstly accept the offer you have.

Then make sure you’re on waitlists for all other schools you would accept.

Regarding re-ordering. If your LA permits this then it’s worth checking you are happy with the preference order of the waitlisted schools. However this only matters if you are lucky enough to gain a place off waitlist for more than one school. So for example if your 2nd choice school place came available from waitlist, you’d then still remain on the waitlist for your 1st place preference. Ultimately then you could be lucky and move up again from 2nd preference to 1st preference.

The schools don't know in what order you have put them.