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

[ToxicGirl]

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...

@Drywhitefruitycidergin thank you.
Going to be such a long day!!!!

First (and only) choice allocated.

In our little corner of W Yorks we still have first/middle/high schools, and move for entry to Y6 and Y9. Once a child is in the “pyramid” you kind of have to follow through, as the chances of entry at Y9 elsewhere is pretty slim; not that there are any secondary schools within about 8 or 9 miles. This is all factored in, but this is the first time we’ve applied for a school than is further than 200m away.

Wow. Shocked we got first choice. Was not expecting that.

Its a new school so I'm open.minded but cautious. Figured the way things were I'd have a stronger chance to move to 3 of the other schools if need be than.move into this one.

Will see how it goes. But initially I'm.pleased. brand new building. New facilities.

It's stressful. My daughter didn't get her first choice last year but both our 1st and 2nd were very good so we were fine with the outcome and not too disappointed. She's doing really well so when a place did come up at our 1st choice we decided to stay where we were.

still waiting here in west lancs..... don't understand why it takes so effing long, most neighbouring councils have information in the system and you can access it from midnight :( so frustrating and stressful..... good luck everyone

@RaspberryStar88

Hi I’m new here, just got our offer for secondary school, 3rd choice 😔 going to appeal 2nd choice, on the grounds of mental health reasons. My son has high functioning anxiety which his primary school are very aware of (and hopefully will give me supporting letters) although he’s not diagnosed. The school we want has a better SEND than the offered school. Also most of his friends have been offered places at the school we want. Can anyone help me with what to do regarding an appeal please?

Best to start your own thread, so that the other appeals folk spot it and can comment too.

What jumps out at me now is that your son hasn’t been diagnosed with anxiety. Did you apply under the medical/social category (if this school has one)? It’s certainly worth appealing, but you may struggle to convince the panel that your child needs a place at this school, firstly because there’s no diagnosis and secondly because wanting to stay with friends from primary school is very rarely enough to win an appeal. You will boost your chances at appeal if you obtain a diagnosis and a letter from a health care professional confirming that your son has a need to be with his primary school friends for his well-being, above the usual nervousness about transition to secondary.

Look for other aspects of the school which will benefit your son. The better SEND provision is one argument you can use. Look for any others (such as curriculum provision, particular clubs your son might want to join, etc).

@anoldcharter

still waiting here in west lancs..... don't understand why it takes so effing long, most neighbouring councils have information in the system and you can access it from midnight :( so frustrating and stressful..... good luck everyone

It's a deliberate policy

The Pan-London system (all boroughs and Surrey) release only at 5pm, precisely to let everyone calm down overnight, so that ensuing phone calls are less likely to be ranting and more likely to be productive

Gosh what a complicated process you all have to go through. None of this at secondary in Scotland. You go to your catchment secondary.

A few parents might put out of catchment requests in but it's reasonably rare.

There's only one secondary we can go to here, so that's it. No choice. No application process. No decision day.

I feel for you all.

The only other choice is to go private.

@Nemorth - agreed! It’s a ridiculous, antiquated system.

@Nemorth

Gosh what a complicated process you all have to go through. None of this at secondary in Scotland. You go to your catchment secondary.

A few parents might put out of catchment requests in but it's reasonably rare.

There's only one secondary we can go to here, so that's it. No choice. No application process. No decision day.

I feel for you all.

The only other choice is to go private.

Thats basically the system where I am in Yorkshire. The problems arise when there are more children in catchment than spaces. The schools don't have space for extra classes. I get the impression that the majority of Scottish schools dodon'have the same pressure.

It can end in a good outcome if the school your child is allocated has a bad reputation. I'm a teacher and worked at two schools with 'bad reputations '. They were both enjoyable schools to work in with smaller class sizes and better behaviours than 'good' overcrowded schools. Both schools are now rated 'good'.

@HappyAsASandboy

We've been offered a random school that we didn't apply to. It's not so far away, and I think will be fine, but I feel really deflated about spending time looking round six schools and carefully ranking them, to be given a random. We only had an outside chance of our first two choices, but thought we'd get our third choice. If we didn't get the third choice I thought we'd get our undersubscribed catchment school, but seemingly not. Maybe it's not undersubscribed this year.

Going to be a complicated conversation with the DC in the morning

Wow - its stories like this that make me nervous - we also have our nearest comp supposedly as a "banker" ranked in fourth place.

Africa2go

@boyblue Every year DC in my area 6 miles away and not in Trafford get places in all of the except ABS. (Urmston but too far for people to put down). They run the school bus service for them all*

Thats probably because the catchment area for the schools (except AGSB) is more than 6 miles - AGGS is 8 miles from the school, for Loreto and St Ambrose the catchments are massive. AGSB has a very small catchment. So those schools are not under-subscribed as you say, they just take pupils from a wider catchment.

I only quote the Trafford LA web site

@boyblue The Trafford website shows the places offered for 2021 and the applicants - in every case for the grammars, there were more than double the number of applicants (and thats once the 11+ scores were known, so only people who have passed) - in some cases, massively more (e.g. Sale Grammar, 180 places offered, 1158 applicants, Urmston Grammar, 150 places, 1064 applicants). They're not under-subscribed. I know it sounds pedantic but anyone reading this post might waste a choice in future years if they put a grammar down thinking its under-subscribed - they're not.

Hope you all got the schools you wanted ours don't get released until 5pm so still hot hours to wait anxious is an understatement!!!

@tigerbear I am in the south east ours done get released until after 5pm x

A few years ago now but my son didn't get into my of the schools we applied to. The four closest, one being a religious school.ñ, all oversubscribed. We were offered a place other side of borough that I'd never heard of. We went private in the end.
I had heard of a couple who were offered places only gif them to be withdrawn - too late for second round too.
I don't get it - where I grew up (in US) you HAD to go to your nearest school. And we all did - never heard of anyone not getting in no matter how many kids born in a year.

Herts allocations are out. DS got our first choice. Very happy as it was touch and go due to change in feeder school groupings. Very happy family.

@Sweetbabydust1989 yup, am so, so anxious.
@BettySundaes exactly that scenario is what I’m most scared of also!

@tigerbear they need to hurry up now feeling so sick with worry especially if he doesn't get 1 of the 3 we put down.

@Sweetbabydust1989 same.
We’ve put 5 options down, and I’m not confident of getting any of them 😱

Hertfordshire came out just after 12, got our first choice which was our closest so all good.

It’s not complicated in England the school doesn’t have enough places for catchment children. We got our first choice catchment school and always known we will get it. No different from Scotland I guess.

I'm in trafford. We didn't get our closest school which is less than a mile away. Got our second choice which is double the distance. It's absolutely insane this year. I'm hearing of some really strange school allocations.

@Anna197264 that’s absolutely crazy, your first choice school must have a tiny catchment 😔

Still waiting in London. I'm actually shaking!