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Secondary education

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

Original poster

11 plus support thread 2022

623 replies

PalindromemordnilaP · 23/09/2022 20:35

Anyone else have a DC sitting 11+ this Autumn?

If so, would you like to chat on a support thread?

DD is sitting her exam tomorrow.

Anyone else? Waiting for the results will be nail-biting.

OP posts:
thing47 · 17/02/2023 18:44

Ah OK that's changed since my DCs day (2010). Back then if you succeeded at an Appeal you were treated as if you had obtained the qualifying mark at the time of the transfer test. Consequently your catchment school was under the same obligation to offer you a place as it would have been had you obtained the qualifying mark at the time of the test. It would have been against the law for a school to say it had no places left.

It was a bit of a lottery, though. A 3-person panel could make a decision which they weren't necessarily qualified to make – for example they could choose to ignore the evidence of a doctor and make a subjective ruling on whether a child's medical history counted as an extenuating circumstance or not.

Thanks for the explanation as to how it works now @Aethelfleda, and many congratulations to your DS!

Aethelfleda · 17/02/2023 20:13

anytime! I have been through this shebang three times in the past six years, I think they brought Reviews in about 2013. This is the first time I’ve needed to encounter the Review system but I’m glad it has worked for us.

MKDmumofflash · 18/02/2023 08:49

Oh I'm so pleased @Aethelfleda, I remember your posts at the time the results came out.

We're just starting half term here so hoping it will fly by!

elevenduck · 18/02/2023 08:55

Really pleased for you @Aethelfleda !

Aethelfleda · 18/02/2023 18:13

thanks guys. it’s a huge relief, but I do feel for those less successful because the system is such a blunt tool. (I have 3 kids in 3 different schools due to this daft system…) it’s also a shame it’s divisive for friendship groups as the end of primary sees them all split to about 6 different schools depending on results, cachements, etc.

Aethelfleda · 18/02/2023 21:07

Anyway, onwards… just 11 days til we all get our place allocations!

<fills the kettle>

lost11plus · 18/02/2023 21:21

I'm so traumatised by the whole 11+ experience, only nearest state school for my youngest.
Good luck in the 1st of March everyone

Aethelfleda · 18/02/2023 22:11

sympathies _@lost11plus , it’s a brutal and often unfair system. Sometimes though it turns out well anwyay, your DC is still going to do well with a supportive parent and my DD2 who also had to go to the nearby comp has had the advantage of a >10 minute school journey for five years!

lost11plus · 18/02/2023 22:12

Aethelfleda · 18/02/2023 22:11

sympathies _@lost11plus , it’s a brutal and often unfair system. Sometimes though it turns out well anwyay, your DC is still going to do well with a supportive parent and my DD2 who also had to go to the nearby comp has had the advantage of a >10 minute school journey for five years!

Thank you! And totally agree with you. Hugs

ElvenDreamer · 21/02/2023 17:29

One week, just one more week, it honestly feels like time may have actually stopped entirely!

Aethelfleda · 21/02/2023 18:16

neeearly there @ElvenDreamer !!
Get out your pancake pan and divert yourself!

here we’re having lemon and sugar, nutella, marshmallow fluff, and the savoury options are cheese and Marmite or chillisiracha-mayo-and -cheese!

Pipsquiggle · 21/02/2023 19:48

I am so bored of this now. I am just hoping that the email comes in the early hours of the 1st.

Also I wish I knew if there was any point remaining on the waiting list if we didn't get our first choice

ElvenDreamer · 21/02/2023 20:00

I'm trying not to think about the waiting list, I know from friend who had to contend with it last year that they couldn't even find out where they were on the waiting list until a couple of weeks after allocations day, presumably because they are waiting for that initial flurry of accepting/rejecting places to happen so they can give concrete information. The thought that the wait could be longer is unbearable, and then could still end up without 1st choice.

Aethelfleda · 21/02/2023 21:54

yeah, but think positive:
you lose nothing by sitting on a waiting list and then it may go “ping” and produce a place.
there does come a point when the WL can also move substantially (as some folk on it think they’re better off sticking with the school they have by the time it moves, or are pleaseantly surprised by their allocation so decline the originally desired place) so it skips multiple places at once.

CreateAName123 · 21/02/2023 22:41

We went on waiting list with our son.... It was difficult. Hoping a place would come but not expecting it.

Worst part of it all was.... I missed a phonecall at work (literally 2 mins after my lunch break ended). Called it back when I got home and the answer phone message just said a name. We googled the name and it came up with a position at our 1st choice school....only it was the start of half term so noone answered our calls.
In the end We phoned the council admission office and asked them and they confirmed his place.... Cue lots of jumping around and crying

1 week to go....

Aethelfleda · 23/02/2023 16:33

<slides a large tray of tea and some Jammie Dodgers across the table>

starpatch · 23/02/2023 16:44

We will get there Aethelfleda!

ElvenDreamer · 23/02/2023 17:55

I may need something stronger than tea, sneaking some gin into the vitual waiting room...

Aethelfleda · 23/02/2023 18:06

<rummages for the Fevertree Elderflower and some lemons> Ice?

starpatch · 23/02/2023 18:27

Yes please! Might need a top up if we are drinking this until Wednesday?!

Pearfacebananapoop · 23/02/2023 19:33

@Pipsquiggle our local authority sends them at 2pm!

However the school we want is renowned for sending a separate email earlier on in the day - so torture either way!

Aethelfleda · 23/02/2023 19:37

I have no idea what time ours comes out. Did long on just to double check our CAF selection was still in the right order and active (!!!) and it just said “place published here on 1/3/23”.
Thing is we’re county border, we’re in one county, “our” grammar is in the other, so I have heard of the communication messing up and places not being communicated… Make mine a double!!

CreateAName123 · 23/02/2023 20:02

I've checked multiple times to ensure little things like "did I put the correct order" "did I spell DC's name right" "does it say submitted" and just in case someone has made a mistake and pressed the button to publish the places 😂

Aethelfleda · 23/02/2023 20:05

@CreateAName123 glad it’s not just me!!

<hits @starpatch and @ElvenDreamer with another G&T>

We may be here a while….

ElvenDreamer · 23/02/2023 20:13

Thank you @Aethelfleda , cheers @starpatch 🍹

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