11+ done… but did you still apply for state/faith schools? 🤔

[Nkmama15]

Hi all,

With state secondary admissions results looming, I’m curious how others approached this.

If your DC sat the 11+, did you also apply for your local state comprehensive(s) and/or religious schools?

Was it mainly a back-up, or were you genuinely considering all options?

Just wondering how common it is to hedge bets versus being set on grammar or indie if you’ve gone through the 11+ process.

I think grammar (i.e. state) and indie would be different.

We have done the 11+ for state grammar. We filled out the form with a mix of grammar and non-selective options, including a 'banker' i.e. the nearby local school DC will almost certainly get a place at.

If you are aiming for indie, I imagine it depends in your odds. If you have applied a 'sure bet' school, or are already at an all-through school, then great. Otherwise it would be sensible for most people to make a state application even if it's 'just in case'. Where we are, people often apply to a mix of indie, grammar and non-selective schools and then make a final decision when they know what their options are. Some people are hoping for grammar or desirable comp and have the indie as back-up.

We are genuinely considering all options! We have a place confirmed at an Indie, but if DD gets into an Outstanding state school, we do have to consider that seriously… as private is such a financial responsibility/burden.

On that note, we have been open with her about this, and we haven’t force-fed hours of tuition for years - she had 6 months of tuition since last Easter. We’ve always just said she should ‘give it a go’ and see what happens.

DD was at a prep school and all the parents applied to state, although everyone went through the 11+ for indie schools and all got first choice. We were all encouraged to make state school applications by our head, as it's quite a long time from applying until results day and there could be all sorts of potential life changes that might mean private isn't suitable, plus it's reassuring for the dcs to know they have a plan B. There's no cost to applying and it's quick, so there's no reason why any parent wouldn't. Personally I was quite set on private school for secondary and never really planned to send DD to state (our finances are secure enough that we knew we could pay for it), but I was curious to know which schools we'd get into esp. with declining birth rates.

Depends a bit on how the 11+ works in your area. DS was given a guaranteed place at a superselective, so I just applied there. However, DH then looked a bit panicked and said what if we'd messed up the application or something, so I ended up putting local comps on the form too. Private isn't an option for us.

Leaving independent schools aside (as they have a different admissions process) the time for 'considering all options' was prior to submitting the CAF at the end of October.

The CAF should have been filled in listing schools (whether grammar, comprehensive, religious etc) in their genuine order of preference.

It's not really a case of hedging bets. The child is allocated the school highest on the preference form for which they qualify. They are not penalised if they put 'outside chance' schools above 'safe' schools on the CAF.

If you've also applied to independent schools, the above is still relevant, but of course once you have your state school place you can just decline it if you pick an independent school instead.

Personally, we didn't consider independent schools, so we simply submitted DD's choices on the CAF (in her case three grammars and then two comprehensives.) We were in the fortunate position that DD would have got a place in whichever school she put first, but we still put down all the schools we were happy with, just in case!

Just a note to say that if you are going private but applied to state as a back up, please remember to withdraw your state application- or at least turn it down as soon as you know you won’t take it.

Apparently there are state schools every year who have a few not turn up in September because they’ve gone private and not bothered to withdraw from the state process. Meaning some poor kid(s) gets a WL offer for that school after they’ve already started at a different and less preferred state school, when they could have had their preferred choice weeks or months before.

good points.

yes just interested in the motive of people doing 11+ for indie or grammar but putting the state as a just in case and you raise an excellent point about releasing the space and that maybe they never intend to send their child to the state and limit the possibility to other which never consider indies or grammars…

Please please if you intend to go private do decline the state offer ASAP so the waiting lists can move.

I understand the deadline to accept private is 2 of so days after the state offer … it’s a shame really because it can really affect children/families who only wish to apply for state …

Getting a place off the waiting list in April/ early May is far more preferable to September though!
This is why people are saying to give up your space as soon as you know, rather than hanging on to it for ages.

Absolutely!

we only applied for state. Just been seeing so many post regarding private school offers and wondered what proportion of those people also have state places being offered also!

So much can change, especially with the current economic turmoil. Even with a confirmed offer, there’s no guarantee parents will still be able to afford the fees by the time the new term starts (eg.redundancy).
I don't blame anyone for hesitating. Private school parents are effectively subsidising the state to the tune of £13k+ per child every year, between the saved government funding and the extra VAT. Though, I’m not sure if the government will actually channel those funds back into state schools or if they’ll just disappear elsewhere.

True starfall and I wouldn’t blame parents whose finances are uncertain for waiting and holding onto the state option for a bit - although I do think once it gets to say late June people really ought to bite the bullet and decide to let the state place go if it looks like they won’t use it, it’s not fair on other kids to leave it to September.

We're in an area where our secondary catchment area is two schools. We are close to a lot of others, but due to the tight catchments we wouldn't get places at any of them based on previous allocations, even the faith schools.

Of the two schools, one has terrible results and has been a bit of a council dumping ground for kids expelled elsewhere. The other is decent, but stretched and doesn't get great results either, but a better environment.

For us, there was an 11+ opportunity at two schools where we are in their outer catchment area. Based on the scoring, it meant that our DD had to score highly to have a chance at the limited places from the outer catchment. She did put a lot of effort in and was fortunate enough to pass both 11+ exams. With our local system, you have are told you have a place should you chose to put the school as first preference.

As a result, we put the preferred Grammar as 1st choice, the other Grammar as 2nd and then the local comp we are in catchment for as 3rd choice. We expect next week to have the 1st choice confirmed, but as we are not fully trusting of the council's administrative work, we'll wait to see it before believing it.

For us it was very much a binary 11+ place, or the better of the 2 local comprehensives. There really wasn't any choice should DD have not got through her 11+ exam.

We applied to state and released the offered places shortly after getting (selective) private offers. Private school exams and interviews are after the state application deadline so foolish not to apply to state too.

Grammar schools are in the state system, so if you have a “probably high enough” score in the 11+, put preferred grammar(s) first on the form and then comprehensives, you will never be offered a school if you qualify for one of your higher choices so that doesn’t impact any other allocations.

Why is this a shame?

Some parents will go private if they get school X but not if they get school Y. So the private school acceptance deadline needs to be after the secondary school offer day, for such parents to make this decision.

We absolutely applied to state secondary, it would have been insane not coming. Deadline for state was October before any of the private 11+ exams so for all we knew at that point, we might not get any private offers at all.

We did decline the state offer straight away as we had a private school option we were going to take. From a selfish perspective no downside to us hanging onto it until August just in case but morally the wrong thing to do.

We applied for a state place as a safety net. DS has been accepted at his independent school of choice for secondary so we will decline the state place on Monday. His year has a low birth rate so I imagine there will be spare places at the comprehensive anyway.

In our borough you get 6 preferences for secondary school- you put them in your priority order - I filled all of them just in case. This is what the council advises for both primary & secondary schools.

The first 2 choices were grammars, the third was our local comp. The next 3 were other local secondaries but a bit further away, one was a faith school.

Fingers crossed we should get our first choice.

You would be really silly only to put 1 or 2 options down.
Every single year, there are parents moaning on NOD saying they can't believe that they didn't get their first choice and have been allocated a school miles away........then it transpires they only put 1 school on their CAF which realistically they would never get a spot at anyway.
I am always shocked at how many parents don't read admissions criteria for the schools they are apply for.

Maybe I am really silly, but I only put 2 schools on the CAF. It's probably different if you live in a large population centre versus somewhere more rural. I chose a selective Grammar which my child had passed the entrance exam for, though places are based on distance and we are just out of catchment. I am relatively confident they will get a place, but we will know on Monday, and then plan B our local secondary which is very good and about a mile away from our house, we are certainly in catchment for this school. All other secondaries are at least 6 or 7 miles away, so not really viable choices unless I drive them every day. There is a school bus to the selective school, as obviously there is demand for this.

Fair enough but it sounds like you did your research and know historical allocation distances for the schools on the CAF.

You may not get your first choice in the first round so you have a solid 2nd choice.

There are so many parents who don't do any research and just put down a school they have no chance of getting in.

Yes, the point is to make sure there's one school on there you'll definitely get a place at. If your local secondary is undersubscribed or you live on the doorstep, it's a bit different. Growing up we lived ten minutes walk from the school that served the whole local area. Our next-closest school was both more popular and out of catchment. I imagine my whole primary school put one school down.
People do occasionally get caught out though. There was one year a school local to us just had a lot more siblings than usual and people whose streets had historically always been given places suddenly weren't. It's caused a lot of panic among Year Six parents this year.