Bromley waiting list

[Thebromleymum]

Hi

Looking for experiences on the Bromley waiting lists, they have said they won’t tell us our position, nor will they start offering places until mid-April. Anyone have any experience of this? Do they really wait that long or is it just a ruse to stop you calling them at the start?

I know other London boroughs where they have already been told their position on the list.

thanks!

Yes I would rather have him homeschool until he got somewhere closer.

Harris Beckenham.
Bullerswood.
Ravensbourne.

@LostMySocks I’m lurking on the Newstead Wood waiting list thread on an eleven plus forum and they are saying the same thing about the knock on effect on Bromley of the Kent and Bexley admissions process. DDs friend was offered a Bullers Wood place in the second round and turned it down as she’s happy with Kingsdale, so I’m sure we must have moved up at least one space since April 🤞🏻

if you're 6th on list for Bullers you've got a good chance. We were 14th or similar and the waiting list moved fast. we got offered a place in June. They were still offering waiting list spaces in the first week of term- my daughter's form has a space in it still (she's y7).

also spotted you said you emailed for an update. They're not good at replying but they do pick up the phone! I called every couple of weeks for an update.

I can’t really figure out where you must live to be happy to consider both Bullers Wood and Harris Beckenham but consider Eden Park too far away to even consider? Eden Park is really quite near to Harris Beckenham (certainly compared to the distance between Harris snd Bullers Wood)

It's actually not close for my son to travel to alone. It's 1 bus to Harris beckenham and 1 bus to Bullers. He would have to get 2 to Eden park.

Thanks @mugboat , that gives me some hope! The admissions team got back to me within 24 hours the first time I emailed them in April but looks like I might need to get on the phone. Others on the Newstead thread have been calling as well.

@Elim81 Annoyingly Bishop Justus is actually very easy for us to get to, one bus ride and the stop is literally straight opposite us. The other schools (apart from Harris) are a bit of a ball ache transport-wise but nothing we can’t work around.

We just have to pray to the school gods that we get an offer soon 😆

I get that - changing buses is an extra stress. I'm still trying to get my head round how my ADHD kid is going to manage one bus, never mind two.

But just to stress again, you are at zero disadvantage by holding onto the place at Eden Park, it won't change your priority on other waiting lists one bit. I know you said you don't want to hold onto a place that someone else could use but you are absolutely entitled - expected! - to have offer you've accepted even if you intend to give that offer up as soon as a better offer comes along. Believe me, everyone who had Eden Park as their first choice has a place at Eden Park, you not depriving anyone who had their heart set on Eden Park.

For what it's worth: I just called Bromley admissions and they said they were due to do a round of updates to schools on acceptances in the next week or so which might mean that's when to expect a new round of offers?

Thanks @KelseyParkGoose Are you waiting on Harris Beckenham?

We got our appeal decision letter (twice!) from Harris Bromley which was unsurprisingly unsuccessful. The panel were all perfectly nice but it was a foregone conclusion almost from the start. I knew our case wasn't particularly strong but wanted to do everything we could to try and get DD a place. Hey ho.

Lovely thank you. I have added some additional schools on too.

Yes we're on the Harris Beckenham waiting list for what it's worth (we're in that top band so it's a lost cause) - we appealed too, not heard outcome yet but that was much more in hope than expectation.

Did Harris Bromley also admit over PAN this year? Was that referred to in the appeal decision letter?

No they didn't! They said they had done for the last three years - so current Y7, 8 and 9 - but had pushed back against Bromley this year. They said to admit over PAN would mean 7 classes instead of 6, not enough teachers or classrooms etc. Another parent made the point that they were obviously still able to provide an outstanding education for the last three years with 210 pupils per year, so why not also this year, but it didn't wash.

Interesting - Harris Beckenham have also gone over PAN for the last 3 years and doing so again this year and it did just seem to add to their case that they don't have enough space to accommodate any more. Not holding out much hope!

All the other schools we applied to have higher PANs - 224, 240 and 232. I think Townley Grammar has a PAN of 240 - 8 classes of 30 - and DD really liked it but unfortunately just fell short of the pass mark.

They all seem really big to me, but I went to a Kent grammar with 3 classes of 25 back in the day! My niece is now at the same school and they now have a PAN of 140, so nearly double what it was when I was there.

Has anyone had any good news? I declined my offer last week and moved from 18th to 5th on the waitlist for 1st choice , may have nothing to do with it but I'm not complaining. Fingers crossed now.

I was told that the Bromley team are focusing on primary offers this week.

One of DDs classmates got an offer from Newstead this week, and the thread on the eleven plus forum also mentioned some
movement there, which presumably will trickle down assuming it’s not just grammar places being shuffled around. Interesting to know about the primary offers taking priority at the moment.

If it helps… Last year quite a few of my friends got offers on the waiting list over May half term (including us!). we were also told the weeks prior to that, that they were focused on primary applications.

Oh really? I thought they closed over half term. There has been quite a lot of movement already in the last 2 weeks so hopefully more soon.

@Thebromleymum We got an offer from Bullers Wood about an hour ago so you were right about half term! So relieved and happy, also pleased that we got it before the transition day so she can go there with her friends as we didn’t actually get a chance to view the school before applying because of clashing open evenings. Fingers crossed for the others on this thread who are waiting

So happy for you. What's great half term surprise 😍

Thanks @Elim81 , hope you hear good news too soon x

Omg I just got offered first choice Harris Beckenham 😂😫we are so happy.