6th form registration on results day - vs. accepting conditional offers

[smashthepumpkins]

GCSE results day is very rapidly approaching and with a few conditional 6th form offers available to us, we need to start making decisions about which school/college to go to. I've seen a lot of threads asking questions about accepting multiple offers at schools, and I fully understand that is the standard practice.

What I'm less clear on is: on results day, when we now need to go to a school which made a conditional offer to see if they will accept DS and "register" - is that the same as accepting an offer and we can go and register at lots of schools (if they'll take DS)? Or does registration now become about choosing a single school? (Perhaps I'm imagining a difference between accepting an offer and registering for a school?)

I read in one of the threads about teachers not knowing in September how many students they will actually have in their class - to me this sounds like you can register for multiple schools, and almost only need to decide on the first day of term which one to turn up to. Is this correct? Can we approach each school that made a conditional offer, in order of preference, and register for a place if DS has the required grades/they have an available place for him? Reason for not choosing a single school yet comes down to his current school being his third choice, but while we're there collecting results it may be worthwhile registering for the place they've offered, despite them not having the main subject DS wants to study.

Please can someone clear up whether we can go from school to school with GCSE results (and his passport I read somewhere) and potentially sign up at more than one? thank you

I read in one of the threads about teachers not knowing in September how many students they will actually have in their class - to me this sounds like you can register for multiple schools, and almost only need to decide on the first day of term which one to turn up to.

Well, you can, but imho the decent thing to do is for the applicant decide which of the schools whose conditions they have met is the one they actually want to go to, enrol there and inform the others that they no longer want the place offered. Every excess place for which your DS registers potentially deprives another student, on a reserve list or approaching the school on the day, of a place on the courses that your DS won't be turning up for at the start of term.

(It hadn't occurred to me before now, but I wonder whether people behaving in that way was the main driver behind several of our local schools reintroducing a formal school uniform for sixth formers over recent years, although there are probably some people who wouldn't baulk at the cost of providing their DC with four sets of blazers and ties to play eeny meeny with for an extra couple of weeks).

Agree with PP - whilst you could register for multiple sixth forms, I really don't see why you would want to and it's not really fair on the school or other students (who might miss out on places). If your DC gets the grades for his first choice, then great. If he doesn't, then have a conversation with first choice about whether they'll still take him. Repeat down the list of preferences as needed. Assuming you don't spend weeks dithering, there's really no need to register for schools you're not interested in.

No, it would not be worth registering at his current school if he doesn't want the place.

Just register at the best one possible with the grades he gets.

My son is in this position due to A Level subjects available and differing grade requirements for maths. We plan to get his results then start by approaching his first choice and see if they’ll accept him even if he falls slightly short, if not we’ll approach the second and then the third. If he gets his first choice we’ll release the others immediately as I see no value in keeping them - plus it’s simply not fair on other candidates waiting.

DS is going to have to register at his second choice college next week then a day later register at his preferred college and see if he can change his A-level choices, they wouldn't let him change since he accepted a place last December.
The local education authority said it's fine for him to do it.

My DD’d school have already booked them an appointment to register after they pick up their results so she will register with them and then come home and double check that her grades will be accepted at her first or second choice. Once registered and confirmed then she can inform her school if not going to attend. Makes sense if conditional offers are not met but there is some flex and they may be accepted with slightly lower grades. I wouldn’t do this with more than one school 6th form unless we were kept waiting for confirmation. DD’s second choice you have to enrol/ register by 4.00 pm on results day!! So that might be a factor.

Mine's going to state 6th form college. She has an appointment to register at the one she's picked - I think they run registration over the first week or so after results. Should she suddenly change her mind, she could go and register at her second choice instead. But my understanding is they accept all conditional offers they want, and then "convert" one to an actual place after results by registering. Then they figure out the classes once they know how many have registered.

Have the different sixth forms given your DS a date and time for his enrolment interview? That's how it works here, and all well and good if the first choice one comes up first, but if not you may have to enrol at more than one place to make sure you get the one you really want. As others have said, it's then polite to let the others know ASAP.

Ok, thanks everyone for the replies. Similar to others' situations here, we've been informed by current school to register when collecting results, if they want to be assured of the place. As it's not DS's first choice I was nervous about committing to that and then perhaps being unable to register at first choice - at which he only has a conditional offer.
So based on what I understand now, he'll register at current school first, and then we'll try the other two conditional offer places. If he gets a place at either of those we will of course inform anywhere we've already registered that he'll be giving up the place. Thankfully no uniform involved in any of the options!

I posted a similar query in the GCSE thread. DS has 2 offers both from colleges (no 6th forms round here).

Second choice you have to input results and enrol by 4.30pm on results day but his preferred choice won't be firmed (or not) until next week in person.

Not an issue if he achieves or exceeds grades for preferred choice but if it's a narrow miss where there might be room for negotiation we have a bit of a quandary.

I'm reluctant to hedge our bets by accepting two then backing out of one a few days later but in the absence of any joined up process between local colleges it's our best (selfish!) option I think.

Unless I can get hold of someone at preferred college on the phone tomorrow but chances of that are slim I reckon.

My son has 5 conditional offers - same set of 4 subjects including Further Maths so high grade requirements. He strongly prefers two. There isn't much difference between the offers in grades per subject - all quite high - differences are on how many subjects need to be 7 or above - and his second preference would require an average of 7.5. While I like the idea of the second preference better in some ways, I think it's probably a good thing it's that way round.

I think if he misses out on required grades there is a little space for negotiation at his favourite places, but there could be difficult decisions if he gets his Maths & Triple Science grades or more but narrowly misses on a written paper, and my worry is based on his predictions in March after two rounds of mocks. We will let other colleges know as soon as we possibly can though.