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Secondary education

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

Original poster

Waiting Lists

148 replies

bex12345 · 08/03/2021 13:21

When would waiting lists typically start moving?.

We are hoping for a waiting list place (5th currently) and to know when to expect movement would be much better than me wondering and not really knowing!

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Original poster
bex12345 · 08/03/2021 13:22

This is for state secondary, sorry should have put that in the post and title!

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ImpatientAnn · 08/03/2021 13:26

Is there a set day people need to confirm their offer by? In my area it’s 29th March so places will start to be offered from the start of April.

We can’t even find our place on the list until after 15th March but it closes then so hopefully this means no one will move lower on the the waiting list after that.

MintyIguana · 08/03/2021 13:29

They'll be constantly moving. We were on a waitlist last year and it seemed to be very slow moving initially. Think we started at 16 and by summer term had only moved 4 places. Got an offer around mid July.

ImpatientAnn · 08/03/2021 13:30

I did start a thread which is on page 2 now asking for some positive stories and there are some. I just wish I had a crystal ball so I could know for sure.

How far did you miss out by? We are less than 10m further away than the last child offered a place. We were well within distance the last 3 years. So annoying.

ProfessorPootle · 08/03/2021 13:33

15th March is the deadline to accept places here, so after that.

Original poster
bex12345 · 08/03/2021 14:07

It's 15th March acceptance deadline here too so hopefully some movement soon after.

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Original poster
bex12345 · 08/03/2021 14:08

@ImpatientAnn

Is there a set day people need to confirm their offer by? In my area it’s 29th March so places will start to be offered from the start of April.

We can’t even find our place on the list until after 15th March but it closes then so hopefully this means no one will move lower on the the waiting list after that.

Fingers crossed you get good news soon!
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ImpatientAnn · 08/03/2021 14:54

Thank you. You too.

PorcelainCatStack · 08/03/2021 19:11

We don’t have an acceptance deadline here as it’s assumed you accept unless you say otherwise. I work in admissions and our waitlist rarely moves much at all. Usually only people moving away as we rarely have people turn down places to go elsewhere to be honest.

Original poster
bex12345 · 09/03/2021 10:15

Hoping there may be a little movement by way of parents opting to go private but who knows. Looks like it's a waiting game 🤞

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thesunday · 09/03/2021 10:23

wishing you all the luck for this Bex!

Cariocbirello · 09/03/2021 14:54

Good luck bex12345 we are also hoping for a WL place, but still to find out where we are on the list, so don’t know if we have any real chance of a place yet. It’s nerve wracking!

thesunday · 09/03/2021 15:08

I'm in the same position.

Have obsessed a couple of days and created a waitlist spreadsheet and now distracting myself with work.

@Cariocbirello @bex12345 what do you do to compartmentalise this?

I find it hard to focus if not everything has been 'settled'. Finding it very hard to live with the uncertainty.

And seeing everyone else happy with their dream school - really happy for them all.

Will have to wait till March 15th (when people have to confirm or reject places and then wait for the re-allocation process)

steppemum · 09/03/2021 15:14

What tends to happen:

first offers go out, have 2 weeks to accept.
When those come back, there is then a second round of offers to take up the places that were not accepted.

Then there is a lull, then the appeals begin. Once appeals begin, every appeal won is a place released in another school, so then there is a trickle of places through May/June as appeals go through.

Then there are only a few changes as people eg move house.

Finally on 1st day of school in Sept, there are always a few who don't turn up, and then (once they have been chased and established that they will not be taking up the place) then the last places appear.

Original poster
bex12345 · 09/03/2021 15:35

@Cariocbirello fingers crossed you'll find out your waiting list place is favourable. It certainly is nerve wracking!

@thesunday honestly I don't think I've sussed out how to compartmentalise on this one. If you work out how then do let me know!

@steppemum thank you, that was very informative. I think its going to be a nervy wait....

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Cariocbirello · 09/03/2021 16:23

Also completely failing at compartmentalising here Grin

I’ve heard a couple of stories about friends of friends offered places at their hoped for school the day before / first day of the September term, so stress up to the last possible moment. Think I will be dusting off the meditation app on my phone!

steppemum · 09/03/2021 18:10

i think realistically there are 2 moments when you need to make a decision.

  1. When your kids go for their orientation day in July. At that point, assess, where are they on the list and what chance do they have of moving up the list before Sept? if it is an outside chance, are you still going to hold out for it?
  2. If you decide to hang on in July, then on 1st Sept, you should evaluate again and look at that choice again. Are you happy for them to start school in one place and then move? How much does this matter?
Also bearing in mind that you will have bought uniform etc by 1st Sept.

I woudl say that you must be certain it is worth it to move after they have started in September, to miss the settling in, getting to know you, making friends etc.

It is obviously sometimes worth it. But not always, and I think it is important to take that step back in both July (bearing in mind most appeals have gone through by then, so less movement will follow) and in Sept.

Some kids still move in Dec/jan, so it can be worth holding on. Just saying it is worth stopping and assessing.

ImpatientAnn · 09/03/2021 18:21

Struggling with not obsessing over it here too.
We can’t even find out our place until 16th March so I have been drawing distance circles on google maps and trying to estimate how many houses are at the same distance as us and how many might have year 6 kids and how many might want to go elsewhere.

I may also have asked the magic 8 ball...

And I have started giving to any friends’s charity sponsorship posts on Facebook to build up my good karma.

I am nuts Grin

ImpatientAnn · 09/03/2021 18:23

Our first choice school has a two week induction period - they basically join the school for the full last two weeks of term. Guess that means not waiting til September for final list places (they say not attending may mean you lose your place and obviously will flag up those it intending to come) but does mean a lot of the friend making will have happened by the time the latest places are given out.

ImpatientAnn · 09/03/2021 18:24

*”not intending” not “it intending”

TriggaHappi · 09/03/2021 19:10

In my area lots of parents hold on to state and private offers and they might be on waiting lists for both too, so there is lots of continued movement. In July there's a transition day when all the year 6's visit their new school. If some people don't turn up, the council phones them and so usually that results in quite a lot of places coming up. The same thing happens in the first week of September when students don't turn up at school. So there's always a bit more movement in the first few weeks of the new term.

TriggaHappi · 09/03/2021 19:15

Oh, worth a mention that when they have all the offer acceptances in from the first round, they then add in all the late applicants and any new waiting list preferences, so sometimes people find they go down on the waiting list rather than up.

icegarden · 09/03/2021 19:27

I assume they start confirming revised wait list positions once the initial offers have been accepted and declined. In our area around 7% go private

indie123 · 09/03/2021 20:02

My area said 15th March deadline to respond to offer. Fingers crossed there's movement not long after. We got none of our choices but are decent position for 2 schools .. really desperate to secure one

Original poster
bex12345 · 10/03/2021 09:33

We have decided to hang tight for as long as possible. Our DC is adamant they want the wait list school and they can honestly only see themselves going there but luckily they will have friends at the offered school and the wait list school anyway.

Hoping we won't go further down the waitlist and only go up it! 🙏

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