2024 waiting list/appeal support thread

[Hopeful88]

I thought I'd start a support thread for everyone in the same position - either waiting on appeal outcomes or hoping for a secondary school place from a waiting list.
I've read all the advice I can and I'm doing the best I can but I'm still struggling with the unknown.
We're currently in the 20s on the waiting list for our first choice school and an unknown number for the second choice.
Fingers crossed for everyone in the same position. 🤞🏼🤞🏼

Couldn't sleep last night and it is distracting me from work.

It's really affecting my sleep and productivity at work as well. My mind is just so occupied with it all. I think that's why I feel better this week, knowing that most of it will be out of my hands once I submit the appeal is actually starting to feel like a relief - even though it's also hard to have it out of my hands.

I've been sleeping around one each morning after going to bed between 10-11. I used to drift off after 15 minutes or so but I just can't switch my brain off at night as there's no distraction.

I don't see I have grounds for appeal for grammar. My child passes the 11+ but lost out due to children sitting the exam elsewhere and they got higher scores. He is GD across the board and predicted in SATS. I think I'll just have to see what happens. They can't say wait lush positions until end of April due to late applications. For the school we applied for they haven't had anyone reject places yet apparently so not looking likely. Good luck everyone.

Still working on the appeal here. We have the skeleton grounds and just adding details and gathering supporting evidence. 15 April feels like it’s coming round very fast.

The comment made by the admissions lady last week that we shouldn’t expect much WL movement now has really stuck with me. All feels a little pointless…

The comment made by the admissions lady last week that we shouldn’t expect much WL movement now has really stuck with me. All feels a little pointless…

Do you know your position and the school PAN? Unless the pan is really small I would expect at least a tiny bit of movement each month.

PAN is 180 and they issued 100 refusals this year. DS is 29 on the WL and hasn’t moved position since offers day.

Also panicking that if a grouped appeal fails at stage 1 and they find no spaces available; do they even hear stage 2 appeals for individual children?

I think they have to proceed to stage 2 if stage 1 finds that oversubscription criteria were incorrectly applied. Not sure otherwise.

They will always proceed to stage two unless all appeals are upheld after stage 1.
I like to look at this as two chances. 😁

Hi all - just coming on to say that DS was offered a place from the waiting list today for the grammar. The local council sent the waiting list to the school today and we got an email around lunchtime. Am so relieved. I know we are very very lucky

I'm not sure where DS was on the list but we were initially told on offer day that he was second so I think he would be fairly high up. There obviously is movement so (know it is easy for me to say!) please just keep the faith. I genuinely thought no one would ever give up a grammar school place. Am still going to be coming on here to offer any support and help I can and have everything crossed for all of you

I am so thrilled for you and for you DS! What a brilliant outcome!! Well done you - it’s an emotional rollercoaster and I can’t imagine the relief you must be feeling. Congratulations!

Congratulations!

Thank you so much @Hopebridge and @AllSuggestionsTaken. I am still stunned to be honest.

I just hope and pray for successful outcomes for everyone. I will definitely be popping in daily to offer any help and support I can in any way. This thread has been a total life line for me and I am really grateful for it

I have had to listen to the calm app a lot. It had really helped. Don't know if you are religious do feel free to ignore but the Hallow app is also brilliant - has a lot of relaxation stuff on it. I woukd really recommend trying at least the calm app for sleep

Thank you I will definitely try this. And congratulations, what a relief for you. 🥰

Oh @Gobbolinothewitchscat that's great news!

@Gobbolinothewitchscat I am over the moon for you may your positive result extend to us all. The best news

I was told I won't hear until the end of the April because of appeals and late exam applicants. It's a difficult one as have welcome evenings prior to this.

Really good news @Gobbolinothewitchscat, what a relief for you!

Thanks to all of you lovely people. . I would have gone loopy without your support - just knowing there are others who understand this awful process helped me so much. I will be here daily cheering you all on. I am hoping and praying that you will get the good news very soon. I'm still a bit stunned and keep spontaneously thinking about appeals.

Another couple of hours done on the appeal today and the supporting letter from current school also arrived.

I have the first week of Easter hols off work so aiming to get it finished then. I’ll relax once I know we’ve done our best.

@Gobbolinothewitchscat please stay keeping me sane this process has been such a mental strain I’ve really appreciated the support network, hope and pray to send more positive news and that this thread concludes with successful places in schools we are happy with.

I'm absolutely going to stay. Anything I can do to help, please just shout. Even if it is just a listening ear. This is such a brutal, stressful process. The only thing is that (in our situation) thingd can change in a second. Just got to keep on going - I say that as I honestly felt like throwing in the towel last week just to get a bit of certainty

Hoping that you get an early-ish appeal date soon. At least things look like they're moving a bit once you can submit the appeal stuff

@Gobbolinothewitchscat our school are saying appeals won’t be until June. Such a long wait.

Appeal sent off last night. Kept it short and sweet - here's the mistake you made, and here's why you should admit our child. So stressful!

An unexpected bonus has been we've had some fabulous support from our faith community who wrote us some absolutely barnstorming letters of support. It's nice to know that they have our back, no matter what happens.