11plus Exploding Offers

[SnowballedMum]

I have heard that the amount of applications to private schools this year has significantly increased compared to previous years.

Does anyone know whether schools will introduce exploding offers?

Radnor House have gone on record and have said line all schools they will over offer but in the case of uptake being higher than expected it will be first come first serve (rather than micro management of active offers and waiting list I guess)
I've not heard any other school say this. LEH had an unexpectedly high uptake one year but honoured the offers and had to lay on an extra class which some parents in that year reported diluted their DCs experience.

The real nightmare of exploding offers is that there are plenty of parents out there who are wealthy enough to accept a place and pay the deposit whilst waiting for the better offer and then not releasing that place immediately - just in case

I think part of the increase is due to the change to the selection process
ISEB meant you could add more schools without your child sitting more exams - we did one extra because of this

If this is the case this should be made clear in the admissions process before you apply. As we are applying to state schools as well as a couple of independents we made sure the deadline for accepting was after the national school places offer day (1 March).

I assume not. The schools who have done this always get slated for it on here and leave some very unhappy families in their wake which cannot be good for future applications.

What might happen is that the final allocation of places takes longer to shake down if applications are genuinely materially up.

The top 5-10% will get clear first offers with incentives to help the WL sift through. I am expecting some extension to acceptance timeframes due to a blow out of WL's versus a situation of explosive offers per se.

Our prep advised us that the T&Cs in pretty much every independent secondary application allow them to withdraw the offer if they become too oversubscribed. The fact of the matter is that every indie makes more offers than they have places. The most sought after schools may over offer by perhaps 30%. Less sought after schools may over offer by 300%. If more of the offers are accepted than a school anticipates, it can usually accommodate a few more by, say, having forms of 25 instead of 22 or, sometimes by adding a bulge class. But a school can only stretch its capacity so far.

This year will be very difficult for the admissions officers as well. They are aware that the ISEB has allowed some students to make more applications, so they may have a lower yield than in the past. I don't know whether they will make more offers than in past years, or whether they will have longer waiting lists.

Thanks for the info. It appears that it is difficult to know what you are signing up for; whether you are agreeing for your child to attend a school with small class sizes, the mix of boys/girls or a small school. This will not become apparent until the following September. Surely if schools intend to add a bulge class they will notify parents of the possibility.

I can't help thinking there should be some kind of 'centralised admissions' for London private schools. You know, put down 6 schools in order of preference, they don't know where you are on the list. They order their candidates and a central group sorts out the allocations.

If only there was some kind of system like this they could look at and copy...

A nice idea @TeenPlusTwenties but surely one of the reasons people chose independent is to get an element of choice. They want several offers so they can then work out which one is best fit. A child might be offered places at schools they would have listed 1, 2 and 3 but be offered a scholarship to school 3 which would sway them towards that one instead of their first choice.

Maybe you could apply for six schools, have some sort of portal which shows which ones you have passed and any scholarships and then you have to choose the two or three you want to receive formal offers from. You would not receive offers from the ones you didn’t select. It would help schools get a better idea of true interest in the school, reduce waiting lists and help with the whole shuffle thing as people with six offers gradually reduce them down.

It does amaze me how long people hold onto multiple offers though. I guess there might be an element of receiving a surprise offer from an aspirational school, but even so you surely must have an idea about which is your favourite. The London system is bonkers. It’s great if your child is a genius and gets offers to all schools, but for the family who only gets waiting list offers for all the schools they applied to and has to wait until all those multiple offers get turned down it’s torture. It’s the reason we moved out of London.

They want several offers so they can then work out which one is best fit. A child might be offered places at schools they would have listed 1, 2 and 3 but be offered a scholarship to school 3 which would sway them towards that one instead of their first choice.

In the state system you get the choice, you just have to get on and decide in October and not faff about in Feb/March.

I do agree though that scholarships & bursaries add in complications, because you might change order depending on costs.

@SnowballedMum , when LEH seniors added 2 extra classes without indicating until June prior to entry it was even tougher for the LEH junior girls who's parents had made the decision at age 7 and now found the chances of their dd getting in a netball team or a part in a school play at senior school much reduced. The year 6 parents were really cross but there is nothing anyone can do.

It's such an unusual time that all families have to be flexible and extra patient, I'm afraid. Selective schools really are in a very difficult position ... and they have staff and bills to pay, as well.

Good luck to all families and all schools!

I think any school that puts parents (and children) under additional stress by suddenly announcing exploding offers when probably at least half the parents haven’t had an opportunity to visit the school or to attend an offers holders day would create themselves a PR shitstorm.

I think what might happen is schools will be cautious with initial offers and then gradually release more as they get a sense of take up. Having a more comprehensive idea of where one sits on the waiting list would help with this. (As done within the state system)

@SnowballedMum

Surely if schools intend to add a bulge class they will notify parents of the possibility.

Francis Holland Regent's Park used to be viewed as a backup at our prep. In a typical year we were told that our leavers had been offered 15-20 places there, of which 1-2 were taken up. So FHRP had to make far more than 60 offers to fill their 60 places.

A few years ago, FHRP found that they'd become unexpectedly popular and over 70 girls had accepted offers. The school, to its credit, didn't rescind any offers and also didn't increase form sizes by 20-25%. Instead, they added a fourth form and made more offers to girls on their waiting list to fill it up.

No one had any idea that this was going to be a bulge year until after the initial round of offers had already been accepted. The head teacher did say afterwards that they were going to have to be very conservative with their offers in subsequent years because they didn't have the space to add another bulge class.

Last year in London, I only heard of Radnor having exploding offers.
They are a small school taking about 60 and tight for space, so I guess would find bulge classes impossible.
Whereas Hampton last year, said they would honor all offers regardless.