Grey Coat Hospital - waiting lists

[davisson]

Anyone ever had any success on getting into Greycoats via the waiting list - CofE place - and if so what was your position on the waiting list to start with. Just when we get the letter from them, want to prepare myself and not have any false hope (which of course I can't help but have at the moment)

I was wondering too. Has the list moved for you at all Davisson?
Ours has moved in the right direction but we aren’t there yet. I’m very aware that appeals are coming up which could bump us back down again.

I wasnt aware that appeals could affect waiting lists?

In the sense that if two children are accepted on appeal that means two more children would have to leave for a place to become vacant.

Hello, we've moved up very slightly, but not there yet...and I hadn't even considered the appeals coming up....yikes

I’m not sure how often appeals are successful for GC Davisson. The booklet that comes out each year around admission time may tell you what’s gone on in the past. For “my” school there are very few successful appeals but even one wouldn’t be great for us. Great for the child that deserved the place of course.

I'm thinking of applying this year - can anyone she some light on the banding tests? Are they only NVR / English?

Thank you

Hi all,
I know this is not an active thread, but you seem to have knowledge of GCH school having been through admissions process. Do you please know how far down their admissions criteria they reach for church (non-CofE specifically if you know, if not CofE would be useful too) places? Ie do they ever reach category B - weekly attendance for between 2&5 years or is it filled with category A - weekly attendance for >5 years? If all filled with category A, any idea about distance cut offs please? All I can find is indicative distances for open places. Thanks all

@wbr8 I don’t have that information I’m afraid but the school will probably know. I’d email them.

@davisson I wondered how your school offer is sitting now we are coming towards end of summer?

@wbr8
My DD1 is in Yr9 now.

It is a bit of a gamble to know exactly.

They are limited on taking no more than 25% from top banding, 50% from middle and 25% from bottom banding.

This is broken down then by faith - Cof E, Other christian, other faiths and then open spaces - these are set out in the administrtion pack.

if I remember the head correclty at last open night (DD2 is Yr7 this year but not going to GCH)
most of the open spaces are decided by council not the school so distance becomes important.

Just due to the numbers applying they recommend being weekly attendance if you do not attend at least fornightly you would not get in.

in Yr 7 DD1 still had girls coming and going - we assume due to wait lists/appeals in October and a few right up to Christmas.

In her year they had 167 spaces.

@tiggermummy70 thanks for getting back to me. Yup, had read admission policy and also looked at previous years distance for open places (you need to live very close for these!) We’d be other churches, weekly, more than five years (minister husband). But I’m not sure how close you’d need to be for this - what I was really getting at with the query about if fortnightly attendance get in is if the place allocation reached this stage, I’d assume everyone in the weekly attendance category (of that banding - ie a/b/c) has been offered a place. Appreciate each year is different but I’d assume there was usually a ball park figure (ie with school x with just a simple distance criteria that distance might range from 0.4 to 0.72 miles depending on what year etc if that makes sense?)

Is your daughter happy there? Thanks for your help

@wbr8

Faith is based on within diocese of Southwark. Girls travel in from SE9 & we are SE12. Not sure on North but a few of DD1 friends are in that direction.
I think distance only comes into play if two girls are at same point for faith etc then nearest would get it but not always.
Also some families apply to GCH whilst also applying for independent schools as a backup until see what is offered.
If they are wait listed for Indy they won't drop GCH offer until late.
Plus GCH have been slow to drop girl offered.
DD2 offered place at GCH based on language place & sibling rule.
We told them we would not be accepting before offer letters were sent as we hoped to save someone from the uncertainty of wait list yet we were still sent offer letter 2 weeks later. And another letter the week after we sent back the declined paperwork.
DD1 has struggled as she has gone through school. She is not super academic and she has ADD.
Lockdown has destroyed her belief in ability to do the work.
We are now in process of trying meds and getting more support from school.
My only real bugbear with school is comms. They insist only email office so replys take an age and they tend to reply by post! Which is in my humble opinion daft.
It costs school money in postage etc and nothing is swift.
We had an amazing offer for DD2 and we also were worried that DD1 would be judged against her gifted sister. It is something I had constantly at school to point I ended up in front of my head of year for being rude to a teacher. He had complained again that I didn't do the work as well as my brother so I replied if its that important to you get him to do it I am not him!
I changed schools for gsces and went from bottom/middle groups in all subjects to top group for all

Thanks @tiggermummy70. I’m sorry to hear DD1 had such a tough time. And I agree sending stuff by post is bonkers in 2020 (unless no alternatives available - I guess there are a few people without internet still).

Yup knew about diocese of London & Southwark which is huge! Assumed however that at some point a tie breaker will be needed between multiple girls in same faith category, and distance is that tie breaker - in fact I think I read that in admissions policy. SE12 is quite far, so that’s encouraging, thank you.

I hope DD2 has a better time at school, and things improve for DD1.

Thanks for your help

Oh and sorry I forgot to say with distance tie breaker, obvs also read about siblings rule

@wbr8

I don't think London Diocese counts.
We also applied to St Marylebone ( banding test is also done here & can be shared with GCH)
Our application was rejected as not in Londin Diocese.

Thanks and good luck with the schools.

And obvs looked after children get priority too. This is current admission criteria as it seems to have disappeared from their website, but previously:
If it is necessary to decide between applicants who have equal claims to a place under one of the above criteria in any band, the Governors will apply the following tie breaker:
“Where the order of priority is otherwise equal, preference will be given to a child who lives the shortest distance from the school. Home address is defined as the address at which the child resides for 50% or more of the school week. Distances are measured by a straight line from the address seed point (determined by Ordnance Survey data) of the child’s home address to the °main school gate for pupils, as measured by the Local Authority’s computerised measuring system. Where it is necessary to differentiate between applicants living in flats using the same street entrance, priority will be given to the applicant(s) living closest to the ground floor and then by ascending flat number order. Where it is necessary to further differentiate between applicants living the same distance from the school, priority will be decided by random allocation.“

@tiggermummy70 it included dioceses of London and Southwark last time I looked. The admission policy that I can still find in internet says:
“ Up to 28 places will be given to girls from families worshipping in other churches which are full members of Churches Together in Britain and Ireland or the Evangelical Alliance and who live in the area of the 1Dioceses of London and Southwark. “Families worshipping in other churches which are full members of Churches Together in Britain and Ireland or the Evangelical Alliance” is defined in...”

My daughter was in category A (or whatever the best church attendance category is) and in the top band, and was offered a waiting list at GCH at the beginning of July. This was 3 years ago, but it makes me think that for the top band at least, they might not make it past category A.

Thanks @MarvelAnn - that’s very useful to know and what I suspected!

Does anyone know if there is any distance criteria on the 15 language aptitude spots? We are quite far but have good transport links to the school and it sounds like it might suit my dd.

@fennelandlovage

My DD2 got a language space for this years intake (we declined as had another school offered)
My DD1 attends GCH - faith space.

We are 8.4 miles from school as crow flies - 1hr by train.

Thanks @tiggermummy70 that’s really helpful to hear. Hope your dd enjoys her school.

Yes,

DD1 seems happy and has a good circle of friends.

DD2 is settling in well, think the friendships are not get fully established but she seems to be loving it, esp Fencing and looking forward to Hockey.

I dont think there is a distance criteria on the 15 language spots.

I attended greycoats and luckily came 10th so secured a language spot. I live in south east london and the other girls who got in via the test were from all over london.

My daughter is in year 6 and ive put greycoats as a choice. Fingers are crossed, its a great school

Hi everyone, in regards to the Language Places, we didn't hear from GCHS before the CAF deadline. I was told all girls are placed in waiting list for the language test only in March - by, rightly so, order of scores - but any idea of what a good score is? Out of 67? If on waiting list for the language place, what are the chances? Does anyone remember their DD's score to shed some light? Thanks!