Offers day: 1st March 2024

[Jbrown76]

Anyone nervous, slightly apprehensive?

Hammersmith have posted the 2024 offer criteria and based on this we didn't get our first choice as the 2024 catchment is less than half the distance it was last year and the year before :(

Won't know for sure until we get the email but this is dated 2024 offers.

I'd be grateful if you could have a look at my thread in secondary education, thanks @prh47bridge

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/secondary/5019106-urgent-appeal-faith-criteria-incorrectly-applied

Don't lose hope yet. Lots of movements before September, especially cities like London. So many choices with Indies alongside. Many DCs choose to go elsewhere in the end!

In our area they were actually higher this academic year.

This. I've mentioned that DD1 went through all of this last year - and she got our second choice on offers day, which we were OK enough with. Didn't choose to appeal or go onto the waiting lists for first choice (it's a small school and was a bit out of catchment anyway) - but got a call from the LEA a few weeks later offering us a place on the waiting list, which we declined, and then we randomly got a letter out of the blue offering us a place anyway - which we accepted and it was definitely a good choice.

Wow, that's interesting.
Sounds like the only rule book is the preferences set in application form!

Don't they have sibling policy so you could avoid going through the same this year?

We had moved house since then so were very out of catchment - so we had priority for siblings, but it was still always a bit hit and miss if we'd get in because it's a fair distance.

Got in in the end which we were relatively sure we would (but we had also made sure we had an OK banker option nearby) but I never view school admissions as a certainty. Last year we had a few parents who only put one choice down and got sent to the arse end of nowhere.

Lancashire here - we got the offer email, sent at 8.15 am. Very relieved that DD got first choice (Grammar). Not all her friends have heard yet though.

I saw that the local authority mentioned that 86.1 percent got first preference this year. They also reiterated the reassurance that waiting lists and appeals do change things, and I send absolutely good luck to anybody handling waiting lists and appeals.

We got our first choice! I'm so relieved. Hope everyone else gets what they want. This has been so stressful!

Third choice for us, I'm gutted. We'll appeal.
Going by past statistics we would have got our first choice if we applied the past two years. 😢

We got 1st choice (and only choice).
V small Welsh language takes everyone in catchment 🙂

that suggests you'll be towards the top of any waiting list.
I think the number of kids that get in to popular schools via appeals is tiny. Via waiting lists, potentially significant.

Bucks here. We got first choice.

Logged onto portal to see. Ready now even tho it says 2pm

1st Choice!

Twins here too that have been allocated their 2nd choice. I’ve just called admissions and they’re 13&14th on the waiting list so I’m unsure if one would be admitted first or wether they’d be treated as a pair, should a space become available 😬🤷🏽‍♀️.

Wish I didn't check in MN on these two threads 😂

I don't even have the login details (DH has it), so I'm basically just refreshing forums and see who got what and but all irrelevant to us! (Not till 5pm!!!)

He doesn't sound like a very easy person to deal with,.............

Just ask DH for the password?

No, staying this way helps with my mental health (a little). 😂

Ours wouldn't come out until 5 anyway (local council practice)

We did! thank you

Yes you have to accept the place you are offered because otherwise it looks as though you are blackmailing the Appeal panel into giving you a place. If all appeals fail and you have rejected your only offer then the LEA has discharged its responsibility and you would be on your own to find a place. Get on as many waiting lists as you can and there should be movement to something more desirable.

We’ve accepted and are now on waiting lists. Had a call from the admissions secretary at their first choice - we missed out by 143m on distance. So basically don’t give up hope on the waiting list was her message.

I asked about twins and she said they’re usually asked to take both of them and create an extra space @SugarPlumpFairy3

The point they are making is that they don't have to come up with another offer if you reject the place. You can, of course, reject the place and hope to get something through the waiting lists, but there is no guarantee. And, as another poster says, rejecting the place can make it harder to win any appeal.

Filled my application online in time. Have email confirmation.
Live 0.3mile from school, North of England, well within catchment.
No offer, seems like council just didn't process it.
Have called them, they confirm all offers have been sent out, waiting for a call back. Any advice?

eek, if this is what happened then surely it's a cock up and at the very least you should put you right at the top of the waiting list, if not make a special case to find a space. Worst case scenario surely you'd get in on appeal. Hope they sort it out asap