Change of Preference After National Offer Day

[TheLoyalPoet]

Hello, I applied for 4 different schools before the application date. We are on the boarder of different counties and they are all in different counties. I was employed at the second choice at the time of application. Today we didn’t get accepted for any of our choices, we got offered a local school we don’t want, we have automatically been placed on the waiting list for the four schools. I contacted the second choice county and asked why we were not accepted as we met the criteria of being employed at the time of application and they said this was not flagged and they hope to offer me a place tomorrow. However, I have found out today also that we are very close to being accepted to choice 3 (last offered place was 0.5 miles away from us) and I now realise this is a much better school and I assume if we stay on the waiting list we will get a place in May.

If I accept choice 2, does that mean I will no longer be on the waiting list for choice 3?

Thank you.

As you didn't get any of your preferences, you're automatically on the waiting list for all of them.

(much frantic editing here).

If you accept preference 2, you will be removed from 3's waiting list - however, you can request to be added back onto the waiting list.

If you then get an offer, your preference 2 offer will be withdrawn on acceptance.

You can ask to stay on the waiting list of any school tbh, even if it was lower down your list.

This puzzles me tho: I assume if we stay on the waiting list we will get a place in May

Why in May specifically? 0.5miles is quite a distance for some schools, even secondaries, if they are in a city for example. I wouldn’t have thought there were any guarantees unless there is info specific to this school?

Thank you all. So I could accept choice 2 and ask to stay on the waiting list for choice 3 and it wouldn’t move me down the waiting list?

in May there is the second round of applications and we are quite rural here so I think/hope 0.5 miles is very little.

Thank you very much for your help.

Yeh the waiting list is strictly done in order of priority relating to the admissions guidelines – nothing to do with where you listed the school or even if you listed the school. You’ll be ranked on (probably) how close you are. If you are rural then I agree 0.5miles is not very much, Best of luck.

At most LAs you will be removed from the waiting list for your third preference if you accept an offer from your second preference. If you want to stay on the waiting list you need to talk to your LA.

Thank you so much for taking the time to post, really appreciate it!