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. 🤞🏼🤞🏼

@Gobbolinothewitchscat It looks like we can waive the waiting period for an appeal, which will be one relief.

@shockeditellyou well done! I definitely need to makes our more concise. I’m trying to use my business head instead of my emotional heart but it’s quite difficult! We have two letters from church members too by way of support for pastoral and social needs. It’s a real comfort to know people are rooting for DS.

Our LA released the waiting list today and my friend who lives in the same area as us was told that our first choice has no vacancies and 2 outstanding offers. Our second choice has 5 outstanding offers and 8 vacancies. Waiting lists are around 200 for each.

The deadline to respond to offers was weeks ago so I don’t understand how they can be outstanding - and we have a friend who turned down our first choice school too.

We are late applicants due to an international move (because of redundancy) so somewhat up a creek but I’m wondering is it possible that the outstanding offers are for late applicants and it might be us 🤞 (we are meant to be told later this week). Waiting list offers don’t come until later down the line.

My first thought was EHC students but our second choice has fewer ehc than “outstanding offers”.

Can anyone help me decipher this?

if it makes a difference, first choice is a faith school an manages their own waiting list.

"Outstanding offers" could possibly still be original offers that they haven't heard from - they can't just remove the offer because people miss the deadline, they have to go back to them and give them another chance to respond.

They could possibly also be re-offers off the waiting list that have already been made depending on how they run that - whether they offered immediately places were turned down or are waiting until a specific date.

I am assuming the second has vacancies because they that wait until a certain date to re-offer.

Ok - no need to spend my time worrying about what the outstanding offers are etc.

Just heard back and we didn’t get in. We are number 1 on the waiting list 🙏

150 faith kids so we just need 1 to move….

I would say that first on the waiting list is very positive! Have everything crossed for you

@Rhayader 🤞 That’s very positive.

Thanks I’m feeling pretty confident. The admissions office said they have had movement every year right up until September so I think we are in a good spot.

@Gobbolinothewitchscat congratulations! What relief for you all, really pleased for you!!

We are aiming to complete the appeal tonight and have it ready for deadline. Thankfully got some help from local sen charity who gave some really helpful tips on what to include and says our case is valid so feel more confident now. But like many of you it’s taken up so much brain space and it’s affecting my sleep! Want to complete it then I can stop thinking about it for a bit. I hate this whole process, it’s so unfair, it’s been such hard work.

Our appeals are both in. I stayed up until 2am last night submitting them and it feels good to have it off my to do list. Ours needed to be in by tomorrow.

The first choice school felt easy to appeal for as they have so many things to offer that would benefit my son. The second choice was hard, my son chose the school as his second choice due to sports facilities - which doesn't give great appeal grounds. I still managed to put a few points down.

Well done @Hopeful88
That must be such a relief. Fingers crossed you get an appeal hearing date soon

Apparently not a single place has been refused at our first choice. Amazed by that but still lots of time left. I haven't appealed because I can't find any firm grounds to do so. What will be will be :)

Oh wow Hopebridge, that's unusual. But maybe people just haven't declined yet even if they are not planning on using the place. It takes effort to log in and decline so some people just don't seem to bother until they are chased.

Same here! I wish people would deal with their life admin more efficiently 😂

I know I respond to everything quickly. Just how I do things. The LA said sometimes things change up to the day before the start date. Imagine how unsettling that is to tell your child. Mine certainly would need the transition days to prepare 🙈

@Hopeful88 well done on submitting your appeal it’s done now. I put mine in very quickly I keep thinking I should have put more down or found more evidence but it’s done so what will be will be. They said it won’t be until June for us as the school hears all the appeals together. I had hoped having submitted in March they would have a date for me by the end of April so it looks like I’ll be in limbo for a long time.

Also on WL for 3 schools (all were higher preference) preference 2 said they may have some information tomorrow. 1st choice keep saying they don’t manage the WL until after 25 April so can’t help. Seems odd that both 1 and 2 handle it so differently.

school 3 said by the end of March they may have more information for me but so far the LA haven’t told them how many declines etc.

school 2 said that LA send them how many spaces then they allocate based on their admission criteria and send back to LA to handle and issue WL offers 25 April - I’m sure it’s the same for school 1 but they don’t want to give out any information.

it’s all overwhelming and drawn out!

@Rinse123

Our number 1 manages their list by themselves and sent out information at different times to our number 2 which is actually in the same MAT! Sometimes they all do things differently.

I wouldn’t worry too much about the appeal not being as detailed as you would do it now. As long as there are no new major points you can fill in the detail in the appeal in person. 🤞

We heard that we are 25th for our second choice as we are 0.058 miles (93 meters!) outside of catchment. Second round offers go out tomorrow so there will be some movement then. Hopefully we get number 1 as we are still 1st on the wait list there. But last I heard they had no vacancies.

My London Borough says second round offers are made 27-29th March, so I have been checking my phone like a mad thing today, but now I'm not sure if these dates are just for people who have made late applications and we won't hear anything until after the holidays.

I don't have any information about where we are on the waiting lists for our schools. There's now a button that says "check your waiting list position" so I have done that for two schools on our list and it says I will hear back in 10 days. There's nothing to say whether a new offer would come from the Borough or the school. It's just so frustrating!

@MsJuniper our London borough doesn’t give you waiting list positions online. You can to call them up.

The second round offers for us are a combination of late and waiting list folk and that happens tomorrow apparently (but I’ve heard diff things from diff people!)

Thank you - I'm keeping everything crossed. We have prepared an appeal but quite honestly I am not convinced...

@MsJuniper I don’t know how much movement there normally is on waiting lists, I wish they would publish this information! It can probably be FOId but that would take a while.

I’m not sure if the government is still planning to force through acamadisation but if they do, maybe there should be a national system for England instead of LAs all doing their own thing which made sense when the LA had a greater role in the governance of schools.

We have a dilemma. We have been offered our 4th choice school today. Loads better than what we were offered, but still not the 1st or 2nd we really wanted.

our appeal does include strong reasons why the option we were given would be detrimental to our child and highlighted how schools 1 and 2 would better suited. However without that comparison I’m not sure how strong since option 4 is isn’t the worst but equally isn’t the best.

I feel that we still need to appeal but not feel as bad if unsuccessful?

but still feeling overwhelmed/exhausted/upset/sad and all the other feelings about the whole thing!

@Supamum3 Presumably you can accept the offer but still continue with the appeal? I know rules are different in different areas.

it a tough one, I can see your dilemma 😞

i guess you can’t really know how strong your appeal Is - i certainly have no idea about ours, and veer from positive to despairing regularly. Appeals are supposed to be for the school you want, rather than against the school you got, so with than in mind, I’d be inclined to accept, but still appeal, if you think the 4th school is better than what you currently have.

This is definitely a very stressful time, it’s hard to think about anything else at the moment 😞

Accept fourth, if an improvement on original offer (presumably fifth / sixth / nearest undersubscribed?). Carry on with appeals for higher ranked schools, but if not already submitted, amend to remove any reference to original offer and yes, concentrate on Why we want this schoo, not Why we dont want that school.

I agree. Consider it a step up the ladder but still go on with the appeals

Hope you're doing OK @Rinse123. Am really hoping you will hear sooner rather later about some movement. You can deffo develop your appeal points at the hearing so long as you don't start bring up entirely new matters is my understanding