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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:
DrHildegardeLanstrom · 26/02/2022 10:07

I have decided if DS doesn't get into our first choice (closest) school then I will just wait it out on the waiting list. I will accept what we are offered but won't be sending him.

boyblue · 26/02/2022 10:55

@DrHildegardeLanstrom what will you do tho

LightBulbous · 26/02/2022 11:24

@DrHildegardeLanstrom

I have decided if DS doesn't get into our first choice (closest) school then I will just wait it out on the waiting list. I will accept what we are offered but won't be sending him.
@DrHildegardeLanstrom what will happen if you never get a place off the waitlist? Will you home Ed or send private?
ufucoffee · 26/02/2022 11:27

@DrHildegardeLanstrom

I have decided if DS doesn't get into our first choice (closest) school then I will just wait it out on the waiting list. I will accept what we are offered but won't be sending him.
You may never ever get a place from the waiting list. Even if you're near the top. What will you do then?
ufucoffee · 26/02/2022 11:31

Just a comment on waiting lists. In my experience some parents don't seem to realise that for a place to become available a pupil who has a place has to refuse the place. There is a myth we hear ever year that schools keep emergency places so they can take extra pupils. Not true.

DrHildegardeLanstrom · 26/02/2022 11:35

But I keep hearing of such movement over summer holidays on waiting lists?

DrHildegardeLanstrom · 26/02/2022 11:36

But yes perfectly willing to home Ed in the short term

Whatwouldscullydo · 26/02/2022 11:37

Also being number 1 is no garuntee.

If their are 3 or 4 " excepted pupils" in the class. I believe multiples can take a class over 30. As can anyone who won an appeal.

If the class ends up as one of say 34 as a result of appeals etc then you will have to wait until 5 kids leave in order for there to be a space.

Hasselhoffsheadband · 26/02/2022 11:42

This is one of my bugbears about lots of new houses/flats being built. Lots of schools (primary & secondary) are fit to burst, but there seems to be no consideration of that, or plan to increase school size/places to accommodate the children whose families move to the area

This is also a major issue with special needs schools as well. There are some new schools, primary and secondary, being built in certain areas near me where there is a lot of housing going up. But absolutely no consideration at all that a proportion of children moving into this new housing will have additional needs and will need specialist education.

FavouriteGame · 26/02/2022 11:54

We’ll stay on waiting lists if we don’t get our first choice, but if we don’t quickly get a place after the first flurry once acceptance/rejections come in I don’t think we’ll get anywhere. I have some hope that some parents who want grammars and miss out will go private instead and free up their places at our non grammar. But I know people who’ve been on the waiting list well into September and never got anywhere.

I also know people who have been given schools not even on their list and actually ended up really happy with the school. Which I hope might give some people comfort. I think you never really know if a school is right until your child is there. A favourite school might end up not meeting expectations, a disliked school could be much better than you think.

ChildOfFriday · 26/02/2022 11:54

@DrHildegardeLanstrom

But I keep hearing of such movement over summer holidays on waiting lists?
What do you mean by 'such movement'? It is likely that there will be some movement, yes, from after offers day and into and including the summer holidays, as children move away/go private/a cascade effect from them being offered another school they prefer from the waiting list, but it is impossible to judge how much there will be. As a pp said, there are not spaces kept back, and places have to be declined for a child on the waiting list to be offered a place. It is an incredibly risky strategy to rely on waiting for the list to move, as unfortunately it may never move enough for you to be offered a place.

Posters on MN tend to really know their stuff with regards to school admissions, with some very knowledgeable experts, and you can get some excellent advice on the best next steps to take on here. If you are not offered a place at the school you want and decide to put in an appeal, posters here will be able to advise you on how best to put this together.

ufucoffee · 26/02/2022 13:10

@DrHildegardeLanstrom

But I keep hearing of such movement over summer holidays on waiting lists?
It depends. If a school is very very oversubscribed there is unlikely to be movement unless a family moves. There may be pupils who get a place because of a mistake made by the LA and this takes the school over their number. But then, if anyone leaves, the place isn't filled from the waiting list until the school gets back down to its PAN.
ufucoffee · 26/02/2022 13:17

But I'm posting from somewhere that doesn't have grammar schools and not many children go private so maybe there is more waiting list movement in place that do.

boyblue · 26/02/2022 13:39

@FavouriteGame spot on in my experience. There is movement but you can move down as well as up a waiting list. You need to know where you are on it in the first place. If you are no36 you will need a plan B etc

greyinganddecaying · 26/02/2022 13:48

I think we will end up accepting what we're offered, then go on waiting lists if it's not one of our choices.

But at some point (probably mid-summer holidays) we'll need to bite the bullet & buy uniform & get used to the idea.

Echobelly · 26/02/2022 14:08

Don't be too discouraged if 1st choice seems unlikely.... I thought there was no way oldest would get into top choice; we'd applied for 2 good but further-away schools that had music-related places and had those as back-up which gave us the courage to give 1st choice a chance.

I was totally gobsmacked when we got it. Did not for one minute imagine we would but we did.

Waiting to hear if DS gets in on Tuesday, which should be a shoo-in as they do prioritise siblings. We felt it was right place for him as although for very different reasons from eldest - he has ADHD and finds learning tricky, though he is bright, but it's a small school with good pastoral care and we think it will be good for him.

Echobelly · 26/02/2022 14:10

I would add, I was suprised how much movement there was in the places before the start of Y7 and even during it - I know quite a few people whose kids got into a higher choice, either within a few weeks of offer day or else within the first term or two of Y7.

EducatingArti · 26/02/2022 14:39

Have any of the Trafford people got any experience of Urmston GS. Do you think there is a bulge there too. Are they likely to be able to offer places to all their "catchment" postcode applicants?

Original poster
ToxicGirl · 26/02/2022 15:45

@EducatingArti

Have any of the Trafford people got any experience of Urmston GS. Do you think there is a bulge there too. Are they likely to be able to offer places to all their "catchment" postcode applicants?
In my experience the Trafford grammars will be ok. If your DC has got the required score and lives within catchment then I'm sure they will get a place.

I think the pressure will be on the high schools. Very few of the new arrivals will have sat the entrance exams because they won't have been here in time to register and sit the exam, so reckon that is where the pressure will be. Plus the grammars had money to expand recently. The info we had from the council when we applied certainly said that AGSG, AGSB & SG weren't oversubscribed in terms of local children.

OP posts:
Original poster
ToxicGirl · 26/02/2022 15:47

@EducatingArti

Have any of the Trafford people got any experience of Urmston GS. Do you think there is a bulge there too. Are they likely to be able to offer places to all their "catchment" postcode applicants?
Just to add, all the children from my elder DC's year that passed the entrance exam were offered a grammar place
OP posts:
Waitinggame22 · 26/02/2022 15:48

Anxiously waiting to see what DS is allocated. No grammar schools in our area in the East. DS and our preferred school was over subscribed last year , 2nd choice would be OK it's very large and few possible none of Ds friends would go there. 2 local schools not good but put the better one as banker. I know everyone wants the best for their child but it seems such an unfair system if you don't meet priority criteria such as siblings.

LightBulbous · 26/02/2022 16:58

@DrHildegardeLanstrom

But I keep hearing of such movement over summer holidays on waiting lists?
@DrHildegardeLanstrom in my school we rarely offer places from the waitlist. We always end up slightly over pan due to a few successful appeals (not many mind). Then not many ever give up the place and because we have to fall below pan before we offer to waitlist, it’s not common.

So it very much depends on area by area and school by school case.

boyblue · 26/02/2022 17:23

The Trafford web site says the grammars are not over subscribed.
The answer lies right there. Lower the score threshold by a couple of marks. Fill the grammars. Stop even more of an advantage re class sizes in grammars. Allie more PP kids in. Don't take so many out of area.
That would relieve the pressure on all the high schools. @ToxicGirl @greyinganddecaying
Then there would be no shortage

SwayingInTime · 26/02/2022 18:04

Eh? They are definitely full. And every year a few Trafford children who have 'passed' don't get a place.

greyinganddecaying · 26/02/2022 18:14

I think they should bin grammar schools and focus on all children getting a decent education on a level playing field, but that will never happen!

I also saw on the website that it says all (eg) Sale children who pass the 11+ will get a place at Sale Grammar, then I guess other places are filled by children from elsewhere in Trafford. I noticed when I last looked at admission criteria that most grammar schools offer places to nearest first (I believe the exception with ABGS which offered the on the basis of 11+ results (best first).