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Secondary education

Connect with other parents whose children are starting secondary school on this forum.

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Original poster

Secondary offers day 2020

221 replies

UselessTrees · 28/02/2020 11:58

Anybody else anxiously awaiting offers day for England secondaries on Monday? Obviously nothing I can do about our choices at this point, and yes it will probably all turn out fine, but I'm suddenly doubting everything and driving myself mad worrying about it!

OP posts:

prh47bridge · 02/03/2020 21:39

if the opportunity arises for the 1st choice, will I still have the choice to decline the 1st it further down the line or will they automatically swap us over

Some LAs will automatically swap you. In my view this is a breach of the Admissions Code as offering a place at a higher preference is not a valid reason for withdrawing an offer, but I know it happens. You need to ask your LA.

SistemaAddict · 02/03/2020 21:41

How do catchment areas work? I'd never looked at the actual catchment area map until reading this thread as we live less than a mile away from our first choice. I'm now intrigued as the school has lots of buses that go way beyond the catchment area and into the next borough. I wonder how they work these things out and if the catchment is regularly changed to reflect when students are coming from (within reason of course).

EduCated · 02/03/2020 21:48

Bercows it depends what people actually mean by catchment. It’s often used when it shouldn’t really be.

A true catchment will be a defined area on a map, with those living in that area receiving priority over those outside the area. The area won’t necessarily be a neat circle around the school depending on areas of need etc.

Many people use ‘catchment’ to mean the area within the last admitted distance where schools use distance as a category. As such it is movable and undefined and. An change each year.

SJaneS48 · 02/03/2020 21:48

Each is different and based on demand (or otherwise) of the school. Most schools will have an annual stated catchment area and you can view last years (and the year before’s) catchment info on how far they went out on first and subsequent offers on their websites (usually!).

tiggermummy70 · 02/03/2020 21:50

I have done this once already and this year got a little bit of info regarding independent schools.

This might help some on wait lists.
So the offers for independent schools started going out just before feb half term.
Most of them have to be accepted by Wednesday.
So if any were waiting to see which state school they were offered before accepting an offer there should be a bit of movement on WL's from Thursday. Especially in North London as seem lot of schools around there.
My eldest got into a london girls school that is heavily over subscribed she still had girls moving into the school from the wait list at October half term.
Although by then if attending another school your child may not want to move.

Don't forget to ask about uniform a lot of schools are using 2nd hand uniform to boost pta funds.
And I'd rather pay £25 for a blazer than £100 new!
Some kids grow a lot in that first year.
Think it was over£300 for complete set and less than £150 from pta.

My youngest DD got her first choice (independent)
as she achieved a scholarship. (whooooop!!)
& we risked everything with one one school on London application. Which she was also offered.
Which is annoying as we asked the school to withdraw her application to save another family the stress of waitlist.

Do double check paperwork you recieve from school. we had 10 days to return acceptance form back to school even though we had accepted offer online.

congrats to all that got what they hoped and fingers crossed for everyone else.

cabbageking · 02/03/2020 21:59

Some schools have no catchment, some have regular circular ones, some use the parish boundary which may exclude someone 100 ft away from the school but extend 2 miles the other way. Each school varies as do their admissions policies.

SistemaAddict · 02/03/2020 22:10

Thank you Ours is a very odd shape indeed!

davisson · 02/03/2020 23:29

Utterly devastated. Didn't get choice 1 or 2, DD now going to a school none of her friends are going to.

TheGreatWave · 02/03/2020 23:46

davisson so sorry to hear that. Take time to take stock and decide what to do next in regards to appeals or just waiting out and hoping for a place.

SJaneS48 · 03/03/2020 06:27

@davisson, get on the waiting lists for the first two and hope but focus on getting your head around school she has been offered and what it can offer her. Go visit again and try and find some parents with kids there who can reassure you all is going to be ok. My DD (Year 7) has gone to an out of area State that no one else from her Primary went too and as she is shy, she found it difficult at first. Nearly two terms in, she’s made a group of friends she genuinely likes. It’s a tougher start than going with existing friends but quite honestly, there will be others in her position and the likelihood of them staying friends with their Primary friends throughout Secondary are small anyway! My DD does Scouts with old Primary friends and there are very regular sleep overs - contact with old Primary mates doesn’t have to be lost if effort is put in. Take heart, it’s likely not to be as bad as you initially think!

SW16 · 03/03/2020 07:04

davisson sorry to hear that. Are schools 1&2 ones that you had a realistic chance of getting into on distance etc? If other local friends got in it is likely you will be in with a good chance on waiting lists?

Also, is your allocated school a good school? It is hard for Yr 6s to see it but once they are there friends from primary are much less important.
They will be in different tutor groups, different sets, and they all make new friends anyway, even if they stay friends with the old ones. There will be induction days etc.

Fingers crossed for the waiting lists.

Toomanycats99 · 03/03/2020 07:58

@HappyMumLdn

We were offered 4th then 3rd. We were also offered 2 and 1 but ended up declining and sticking with 3.

My worry was the letters for 2 and 3 were going to cross in the post as they were only a few days apart!

mumof32015 · 03/03/2020 16:09

My daughter was offered her first choice. Our local grammar school. I got the email yesterday morning, but Saturday we received a letter from the school basically saying she had been offered a place. We just need to fill in a form to say we are accepting the place. Do they notify the schools before we are told?

Tinyandpetite · 03/03/2020 17:46

I’m in staffordshire and we got ours Sunday.

HighDefinitionComfy · 03/03/2020 18:05

davisson - we are in exactly the same position, our DS1 was not offered places at first or second choice schools, instead he has been offered a place at a school 5 miles from home which literally none of the rest of the school are going to. He is devastated.

helpIhateclothesshopping · 03/03/2020 22:51

We were fairly confident that we would get our first choice school as statistically we are well within catchment but there's still always that "what if". We got it, which is a great relief as my son's best friends also got in. We were more nervous for DD, 2 years ago as we live much further from her 1st choice so it wasn't a given. Our closest school is a bit rough (for around here) and wasn't on our list of choices. Fortunately she got her 1st choice too.

sas1879 · 04/03/2020 08:26

2nd of March was always the day to release offers for Portsmouth

Mumgonenuts2020 · 04/03/2020 10:24

We had this last year, we were advised to put two schools on the firm, but they were over subscribed, we got a school an hour and half way, so we allocated to a third preference school and got in, what a headache it was, appealing is very slim and allocated on very strong boundaries such as special needs or a very string indicating whilst they shouldn’t be at the school. I wish we had one school in the area, too much choice these days!! My DC is happy where he is and tbh putting him on the waiting list now it would still be very slim he would get into our first choice, especially new Year 7s going up this year, the mums have the same issue again..

Original poster

UselessTrees · 17/04/2020 23:09

Just resurrecting this thread - because I liked reading about waiting list offers from previous years and it helped me to feel less despondent - to say that DD was offered our second preference school today (got fourth choice originally). Still hoping that our first choice might come through at some point but feeling much happier now as there isn't an awful lot to choose between first and second really, apart from a slightly easier journey.

Hopefully some other posters disappointed with their initial allocation have had some positive news since, or will hear something soon.

OP posts:

LavenderLilacTree · 17/04/2020 23:34

Nice to hear your good news
I always like to hear the follow up stories too.

MumAtHomeMainly · 18/03/2021 20:30

@fatarse

Hoping for advice. We have today had our state school offer of Lady Margaret School. We have an Indy offer for PHS and IPS but have ruled out IPS because it’s co-ed. Question is, PHS vs LMS what would you do. Money isn’t an issue. I hope everyone got good news today. x

What did you go for in the end, fatarse? We are in just the same position! We've just today had an offer from LMS but had previously accepted an offer from PHS and we don't want money to be the deciding factor - but also don't want to pay unless it's worth it. What would you suggest?

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