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Secondary education

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

Original poster

National Offer Day - 1st March. Anybody else anxious?

286 replies

ToxicGirl · 23/02/2022 15:22

I feel like a woman on the edge. Am unbelievably anxious about 1st March. Made my peace a long time ago with the fact DD won't get a place at our nearest secondary (within easy walking distance) because it's so oversubscribed. All her friends and most other children from her school will go there. We live a tiny bit further away and just won't get in, particularly as I understand it's a big birth year.

Would be happy with either our 2nd or 3rd choice schools. They're further away and not as popular but we'd have got a place at them in previous years as we're in catchment and just within the distance they usually offer.

However our LA has warned of unprecedented pressure on school places this year and said that the schools are likely to be significantly oversubscribed. I'm worried that we now won't get a place at the schools that would previously have been 'bankers'. Our other preferences are too far away. We won't get a place at them. Just put them down because there was nowhere else.

There are a couple of hugely undersubscribed and really poorly performing schools in neighbouring towns within the borough. From everything I've read and from looking at Y6 leavers destination info from previous years, I'm absolutely convinced we'll be allocated one of them. They're the schools people get allocated when they only put one choice down and don't get it.

I'm so anxious about it. Can't think about anything else and am driving DH mad. Am managing to hide it from DD but know she'll fall apart on Tuesday. She's prepared to go to school without her friends but not to a completely unknown school in another area.

It's going to be a long few days...

OP posts:
WEMum · 23/02/2022 16:44

I'm also biting my nails for a few days now. We are very luck to get offers from independent schools but very worried about the high fees that we could just afford. Our local comp is good but we are in the very similar situation like you, not sure if we can get a place. And DD is not very keen on this one, though most of her friends will go. The top two schools on our list are grammar schools and the chances are slim for us because we live very far away. We will have to relocate if we get the offer and decide to accept. Big decision!

Original poster
ToxicGirl · 23/02/2022 17:04

It's awful isn't it. We debated moving a couple of years ago. Lots of people do in order to get closer to school 1.
However we took the view that DD would be happy and do well at school 2 or 3 so stayed put. Absolutely never dreamt that we would be in the position where we might not get an offer from either of them.

Am really regretting the decision not to move now. Feel so awful about how our choices might impact upon DD.

OP posts:
Comedycook · 23/02/2022 17:07

I'm a mess!

Boombastic22 · 23/02/2022 18:15

Yes OP where do you live? I also worried that you have insider info about the LEA saying there’s unprecedented pressure. We are also on the edge and anxiously awaiting.

Comedycook · 23/02/2022 18:21

However our LA has warned of unprecedented pressure on school places this year and said that the schools are likely to be significantly oversubscribed

Oh god, I hope we don't live in the same area! I might have a meltdown. How do you know this op?

Original poster
ToxicGirl · 23/02/2022 18:30

No insider information at all - I wish I did!

It was in the local papers last September and we all got something from the Council saying the same thing when we got the secondary application info through the post. DH thinks I'm catastophising. I hope he's right!

OP posts:
PatriciaHolm · 23/02/2022 18:37

Children going to secondary in Sept this year would have been born between 1 Sept 2010 - end Aug 2011, and 2010/11/12 were boom years for births in the UK, with rates on the decline since. So unfortunately that would suggest pressure on places - on the upside, it's a known problem, so hopefully LAs have been planning for it for a while (asking schools to add bulge years, for example).

Aroundtheworldin80moves · 23/02/2022 18:45

We should get a place at our nearest school. We are one of the nearest families... but the admissions criteria didn't really specify how they chose between the children if they are more children within the catchment area than spaces. The criteria is LAC, Catchment, siblings, staff children, feeder school, other. We live in Catchment, at a feeder school, but she's only been there since Easter and you need to be there a year...

I think I'm being paranoid. Its just there are currently more spaces in Yr6 at the feeder Primarys than spaces in Yr7...

Original poster
ToxicGirl · 23/02/2022 18:51

Unfortunately, according to what I've read online, all our secondary schools (apart from the the really poor one in the next town to us) are outside of LA control. The report said that there's only really one school with space to take on more pupils but the governing body said no. The report was from September, so hopefully there might have been further discussion behind the scenes since then.

OP posts:
Comedycook · 23/02/2022 18:57

Please don't say you're in SE London op? I'm panicking!

Original poster
ToxicGirl · 23/02/2022 19:01

@Comedycook No, don't worry. Nowhere near London. We're NW.

OP posts:
Comedycook · 23/02/2022 19:02

Fingers crossed for you. It's a horrible wait

BettySundaes · 23/02/2022 20:27

Our first preference school has confirmed a substantial bulge intake for 2022 but it is still hugely oversubscribed. Nervously counting down the days to next Tuesday.

greyinganddecaying · 23/02/2022 21:12

Ah I think you're near to me OP. We are the same, no chance at getting into the most popular school where most if DS friends are going. I've also heard it's a big intake year, so we might end up somewhere we really don't want to be.

Original poster
ToxicGirl · 23/02/2022 21:25

@greyinganddecaying

Ah I think you're near to me OP. We are the same, no chance at getting into the most popular school where most if DS friends are going. I've also heard it's a big intake year, so we might end up somewhere we really don't want to be.
GM borough with grammars? Hate the system so much. If the selectives didn't take so many out of borough pupils then there would be enough spaces for us all.
OP posts:
Hersetta427 · 23/02/2022 21:37

Joining for the wait. First choice is our local outstanding boys school which we would have got a place at the last 10 yrs but this year they have changed the admissions criteria and put DS's primary school in a different feeder school group making it now unlikely that we will get a place on first round allocations. Second choice is our local comp but it is 3 times the distance of the boys school but we are virtually guaranteed a place as we live in the priority area. Resigned myself to choice two and waiting it out on the continued interest list for first choice. DS is our second but his older sister goes to the outstanding local girls school.

greyinganddecaying · 23/02/2022 22:32

GM borough with grammars? Hate the system so much. If the selectives didn't take so many out of borough pupils then there would be enough spaces for us all.

That's the one - and completely agree. Just hope we don't end up somewhere miles away.

twilightcafe · 23/02/2022 22:46

It's a horrible wait for 1 March. I wish you all well.

LightBulbous · 24/02/2022 19:47

Good luck. I work in Admissions and also have a DD in secondary so I know the fear.

Weirdly in my area of the NW we are down on numbers this year so can’t have been a high birth area everywhere.

Meredusoleil · 24/02/2022 21:43

I feel your pain everyone. This was us 2 years ago.

I just wanted to say that whatever offer you get on 1st March, that is just the beginning!

For dd1, we got offered our 6th choice. We were absolutely gutted. That moved to 5th choice. Then 3rd choice was offered in April. Then 4th choice in July.

So the moral of the story is that the waiting lists can and do still move right up to September. Don't lose hope on getting a higher preference school 😉

Drywhitefruitycidergin · 24/02/2022 22:39

Starting to get super anxious now.
Dd1 chose girls school as her first choice but they do fair banding entry so no idea if she stands a chance. All we know is which band she's in and if there are fewer than 30 siblings or people living closer she'll get in. There's a possibility of more places if the other bands don't fill up.
2nd choice is over subscribed and we are realistically too far away unless there's a weird anomaly.
3rd choice is across the road so hopefully guaranteed coz I can't actually remember what we put as 4th choice....
Keep trying to remind myself it's not the end of the world & we will find her the right school even if it's not on Tuesday.

boyblue · 25/02/2022 00:19

OP Trafford I assume. I have friends with kids at the 'less desirable scjiiodz

greyinganddecaying · 25/02/2022 00:42

@boyblue

OP Trafford I assume. I have friends with kids at the 'less desirable scjiiodz
How are your friend's kids getting in these schools @boyblue?
tigerbear · 25/02/2022 00:51

OP, completely terrified and anxious, for exactly the same reasons.
Fed up of the whole waiting game, but equally terrified of offer day!
DD is a mess, too, and has been anxious for months.

boyblue · 25/02/2022 07:18

@greyinganddecaying In Trafford lots go to grammars. Then there are a few very popular comps on distance then some less desirable ones. The comps are on area / distance etc.

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