11 Plus Exams Forum

Hello - can anyone help please?

We have just found out that our son is placed 5th on the Dr Challoner's waiting list.

Whilst this sounds relatively positive, I have no idea whether this means he has any chance of gaining a place at this stage ... does anyone have any previous relevant experience please? Logically, I can’t see why 5 people would turn down their place so late in the day. Also, some people may Appeal successfully, and in that case, our son would move down the list.....

Any advice / insight gratefully received!

Thank you.

I am afraid that I am the bearer of bad tidings. It is very unlikely that the waiting list will move at all after the first round, let alone as far as 5th place. The only real "shake-down" for places at the school is when parents decide to opt for private instead, and that will already have happened.

Let us hope that I am proved wrong though!

Your son would not move down the list as a result of successful appeals - please see my reply to dansaki on that same subject: http://www.elevenplusexams.co.uk/forum/ ... 1&start=70" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Just to offer Baffison a glimmer of hope.......some people who have accepted offers from private schools hang on to their grammar school offers until the very last minute - just in case of a change in circumstances, or just because they can! (Who knows!)

It is certainly not unknown for places to become available at very popular grammar schools in late August and even in to the autumn term. How likely it is to be as many as 5 at one school, I can't say.

I hope you have a good back-up - but hang on in there, you never know.

Although I agree with you in general, Demon Pixie, Challoners tends to be an exception to normal rules. Many people seem to view it as the equivalent of a private school and therefore, apart from the very few who actually opt for an indie on 1st March, people seem to cling on to their places at DCGS very firmly.

Other schools are somewhat different, and I am aware of at least one instance where a GS place had been accepted, but the child simply didn't materialise on the first day of term, creating a vacancy for a child on the waiting list.

Many thanks to you all. I'm grateful you took the time to reply.

You have all more or less confirmed my initial thoughts when we got the letter... so we'll hang on in there, but we will not be surprised if he doesn't get a place.

Thanks again.

... just a quick question... did your son get in?? did he move up the waiting list at all???

Hi. As far as I know nobody on the waiting list got in.
Six people got in via a Transfer Appeal (i.e. they had originally been allocated another Grammar, but successfully appealed for DCGS). I believe that this was highly unusual.
All the best