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)

@indie123

We have moved from 20s to 80s. I'm very confused..asking them to double check but no reply yet

You may find that a number of people have now added GCH to their list of schools either because they are late applicants or they didn't get other options and are now applying for everywhere possible.

Could also be children who sat for Indies and either didn't get a place anywhere or parents now rethinking finances and putting in state applications.

Thanks - don’t want to get too excited as I know the lists can move in the other direction too..

That definitely doesn’t sound right to move down 60 places though, surely they haven’t had 60 new applications in that category?

@indie123 I suspect you were originally told your position on one waiting list (for example the language place) and have now been told it for the open place.
My friend called this week to find out her waiting list position for another school and was told it was in the 50s. She knew they must be looking at the open(distance) list since her daughter just missed out on a music place (that was the list she wanted to check). When she explained that to the admissions person and they rechecked, they confirmed it was the position on the open list and gave her the waiting list position for the music list as well (which made sense).

@BananaDaiquiri no clue what's gone on. Hoping its an error or something, as its easter now though I'm not sure I will get a reply anytime soon. We didn't get any of our 6 choices and was really hoping GCH was a possibility for us as i thought we had a good position ..fingers crossed :(

@Stokeyfolks Personally, I think it is right that the school don’t share the Band as it is used specifically for their admissions purpose to ensure their intake is of a mixed ability of 25% across each of the bands.

They don’t use the information for academic selection; streaming or setting - so all is fair and no need to know.

Otherwise in knowing, surely it can potentially inflate or deflate a child / parent’s confidence in a way which is not useful of purpose...

@Stokeyfolks exactly! Doesn't sound right. Seems like its more that one of the figures is incorrect..hoping to get clarification asap

@indie123 did you find out more about why you jumped so massively on the waiting list in the wrong direction? That does seem really strange. I hope it was just an error.

I sent several emails about the waiting list and never got a reply but finally managed to get someone on the phone at Grey Coat yesterday who said my daughter has gone from 19 in her band to 8. This seems like a good position but it's not a dead cert of course. Does anyone know how many bands/categories there are in total?? I'm trying to work out what % of girls need to drop out of her band in order for her to get a place by the autumn. The admissions person told me that based on previous years she has a good chance of getting a place, but nothing is guaranteed.

@Minbadger yes got a reply only just yesterday. They said the original number we were given was incorrect so we are infact in the 80s. Def no chance now !

@indie123 Oh no, I'm really sorry to hear that. That's very unfair of them to have given you false hope with the original waiting list number.

You never know though, stranger things have happened... and you can always do an 'in-year' application after the waiting list closes on Dec 31 I think?

www.gov.uk/government/publications/camden-school-for-girls

The schools adjudicator (SA) feel that it is important for parents to know what band their child is in and that the parents need this information before the application date of 31 October. CSG were reported to the SA for breaching this rule (amongst others) and their admissions criteria and test daes were changed accordingly. So Grey Coats should give you the banding details and should give them before application but I imagine nothing will change unless they are also reported to the SA.

@minbadger
The following numbers of offers were made on 1st March 2021:
Band 1 (top 25% in banding test) :
C of E: 24 places
Other Christian: 8 places
Distance: 6 places

Band 2 (middle 50%):
C of e: 49
Other Christian: 16
Distance :11

Band 3 (lowest 25%):
C of e: 22
Other christian:7
Distance :5

BananaDaiquiri - thanks so much for this breakdown, amazing that you've got this information!
The total offers add up to 148 and I thought they offered 167, do you know why this is? (unless I've miscounted!)

I make it 148 too Minbadger.

This is from the 20/21 admissions. 151-148=there are 3 children missing!

www.gch.org.uk/MainFolder/documents/Admissions/2020-2021/Admissions-Policy-2020-2021.pdf

1.2 In September 2020, the Published Admission Number (PAN)
for entry into Year 7 will be 151 (one hundred and fifty one)
girls, who will be within the full range of ability and from a
wide range of backgrounds.

Thinking about it, maybe there are 3 children who were given spaces prior to the 1 March. I suppose these could be looked after children or those who named the school on an EHCP?

I must stop procrastinating on MN...

@minbadger @camdenish
Its from here (rbkc publish both their own and Westminster schools offers on March first):
www.rbkc.gov.uk/children-and-education/schools/join-school/admissions/primary-secondary-school-transfer-2021
The missing girls are the 15 language places and 4 EHCP so that brings the total to 167.

It’s unfortunate that GCH refuse to disclose which ability band your child is in as it potentially makes a big difference to your chances of moving up the wait list.. so say you are at position 5 on the band 1 or 3 wait list this is (in theory) equivalent to position 10 on the band 2 wait list since that band has twice the available places

I know there are many other factors and the band 1 list may have more movement due to more band 1 girls taking grammar or private places, but it would be useful to know and other schools share it so I’m not sure why GCH don’t

We actually had a call today from our 1st choice school (St Marylebone) to say that DD has been offered a place so we accepted it and dropped off the GCH wait list, so this should help anyone still waiting in ‘our’ band to move up the list

Best of luck to everyone!

Thanks Banana and whoop Stokey, that must have been a great phone call to receive! What waiting list number did you start on?

We are over the moon!

For GCH we started at position 11 on 1st March and then moved to position 2 by 9th April so we thought we had a fair chance

For StM we started at 19 and had only moved to 11 by the same date so we had kind of given up on that and were surprised and delighted to receive the call!

DD was in band A on the StM test so we assume she was also in band 1 for GCH as it’s the same test but obviously a different cohort so may not be (we will never know haha)

We are CofE and live 3.8 miles from StM and 4.8 miles from GCH

Hope that helps others trying to figure out their chances

@Stokeyfolks Great news! I guess it takes a while getting through the list and except movement has happened due to those who were also holding on to an accepted private school 11+ place and had to make a final decision before they were liable for a full terms fees if they did not decline the place by first date of the summer term which was 19 April for most. So those who decided to follow through would then have declined their state school option this releasing more state waitlist places.

Worth mentioning for anyone looking at next year's entry that if one puts Greycoat as second choice it is almost 100% unlikely that they would get it unless they did not fulfil their first choice LA preference and had not fulfilled the maximum 5 year church (40 times a year over the period) attendance required for GCH as from what I understand all their church places get filled. So, if GCH is first choice for anyone, then make sure it is noted as your first preference and same thinking applies to St Marylebone. Basically one needs to choose between one or the other. Having either school as a second choice means no chance. They are both hugely oversubscribed as you will also see from the RBKC admissions data for this year's applications. Just under 1000k applications for St Marylebone and just over 1000k applications for GCH for this year 2021 entry!

[quote MumsRule20]@Stokeyfolks Great news! I guess it takes a while getting through the list and except movement has happened due to those who were also holding on to an accepted private school 11+ place and had to make a final decision before they were liable for a full terms fees if they did not decline the place by first date of the summer term which was 19 April for most. So those who decided to follow through would then have declined their state school option this releasing more state waitlist places.

Worth mentioning for anyone looking at next year's entry that if one puts Greycoat as second choice it is almost 100% unlikely that they would get it unless they did not fulfil their first choice LA preference and had not fulfilled the maximum 5 year church (40 times a year over the period) attendance required for GCH as from what I understand all their church places get filled. So, if GCH is first choice for anyone, then make sure it is noted as your first preference and same thinking applies to St Marylebone. Basically one needs to choose between one or the other. Having either school as a second choice means no chance. They are both hugely oversubscribed as you will also see from the RBKC admissions data for this year's applications. Just under 1000k applications for St Marylebone and just over 1000k applications for GCH for this year 2021 entry![/quote]
I'm a bit confused by your post but just to clarify, you are at no advantage for getting a place by putting a school first- all LEAs in England have to use the equal preference system. If you put a school second (or even lower down) and meet the admissions criteria better than someone who puts it first, you will get the place above them. Each school you list on the form is effectively a separate application- the only time the order you list them in comes into play is if you meet the admissions criteria for more than one school, in which case you will be offered the school you listed highest. If you list Grey Coat sixth but it is the only choice for which you meet the admissions criteria, you will be offered a place above someone who put it first but lives further away (or doesn't meet the admissions criteria as well in some other way).

@Stokeyfolks, that's such great news for you re Marylebone, congratulations! Thank you for freeing up a place on the waiting list for all of us ;-)
Re GCH's reluctance to tell us about which band our daughters are in, I emailed them with this question several times and got no response. Earlier this week the school reception finally had permission to transfer phone calls to the admissions department and they told me over the phone which category my daughter is in. So, it's worth calling them!

@ChildOfFriday.
When they review your application.
It's sent to first school on top of your list.
If they offer you a space the other schools on your list don't even see your application.
If they reject it because they can't offer you a spot for whatever reason it moves to next school on your list and so on.
Until you are offered one school or you are rejected by all.

It was designed this way to avoid all the delays in finalising intakes in state schools that occurred when I was moving.
You had to wait on post arriving and one child could be.offered more than one school.
But they would hang on to all of them until last possible moment.

At GCH open days they stress they never need to go to anyone with GCH as their second choice school and have had parents complain when they put it second and don't even get wait listed.

@tiggermummy70 that’s contrary to their published admission policy, if reading what you’re saying correctly.

It shouldn’t matter where you rank schools.

Wasn’t GCH David Cameron’s daughters second choice anyway? Appreciate this is anecdote, but might convince you that what you’re saying can’t be right (it’s not right, even if they say that at open evenings).

@tiggermummy70 That is definitely wrong I'm afraid. You are at no disadvantage for putting a school second at all. The equal preference system has been the law in England for many years now. A school absolutely cannot give priority to people who put it first. Every school you list is effectively a separate application, and the order only matters if more than one is able to offer you a place. If you put Grey Coat sixth and I put it first but you meet the admissions criteria better than me, you will get a place before me.

GCH list moving - a child in DDs class had a call this week and is turning down an indie place to accept the offer.