Help with rankings please!!!

[Totalworrier]

My son has reached the qualifying standard for Marling but is not in top 150, he is ranked v low 200's so I assumed wouldn't get a place but email with results suggests that "virtually all" those who receive ranking and choose Marling will get a place, I assumed we would be at bottom of list but have heard of others with rankings in 350's also getting same email.....does anyone know last year where they let people in up to on list?????

[Tolstoy]

My son has reached the qualifying standard for Marling but is not in top 150, he is ranked v low 200's so I assumed wouldn't get a place but email with results suggests that "virtually all" those who receive ranking and choose Marling will get a place, I assumed we would be at bottom of list but have heard of others with rankings in 350's also getting same email.....does anyone know last year where they let people in up to on list?????

If they have given out ranks into the 300s then last year they must have gone down that low. Therefore your DS has done really well to get into the low 200s and is highly likely to get a place at the school. Many DC in the top 200 will chose to go to STRS, Crypt and Pates. Congratulations on a great score

[Totalworrier]

Sorry when I say low 200's I mean a low ranking as in almost 300, not that he was near 200....he is almost ranked 300 and so I assumed wouldn't get a place but the email says that "virtually all" who have a ranking have been offered a place in previous years. I assumed he was so low at nearly 300 that he wouldn't get in but have found out that the ranking go as far as 365 and those people still have same email about almost all with a ranking getting a place....surely 300 is too low in list??? What was cut off last year?

[cazien]

You cannot "really" compare to last years ranks - all schools have increase their PAN this year.

If Marling is your preferred school, you MUST put this first to stand a chance of a place. If he is then not allocated a place at Marling, your second choice will become your first choice. As their are 400+ places available, you stand a reasonably good chance. Good luck!

Rankings are "low" because majority share results with all schools, but they can only be allocated one.

[DC17C]

This is way I understand the situation:
If you look at all the grammar schools there used to be just over 400 places for girls and 400 places for boys- there are now more due to schools increasing PANs.
Many but not all parents share with all the schools to maximise their chance of getting a place somewhere.
It is not an exact number because Pates is Co -ed and does not allocate half the PAN to girls and half to boys. For simplicity though it is probably easier to say the Pates qualifiers will be roughly half boys and half girls so the many of the Pates 150 will also be top scorers at the other schools but may well choose Pates as their first preference- but some prefer single sex schools and there may be logistical reasons-so make other decisions so that opens the chance for some in the just below PAN rankings to be in the "twilight zone" and put Pates as their first choice but know they have a place at another school as they are in the PAN for that school.
Roughly half the PAN of the other schools will not be qualified for Pates but will be qualified for 1,2 or 3 other schools -all sorts of factors then apply as to which school then goes down as first choice for them so we start going into the rankings and it all depends on who choses which school and their ranking. Many will put their "twilight zone" prefered school first knowing they will get their "in PAN" but less favoured school as a back up. Those who have qualified for only 1 school have a good chance of a place at that school but there is more chance of being round the cut off.
Also bare in mind there may be some out of county entrants who decide to apply elsewhere so I would think that the rankings may go into the 300s for some schools but not for others and I would think could go up to 400.
I don't know if anyone else has a different view - I am no expert just a mum who went through the system in the pre CEM days

[steppemum]

If Marling have said that pretty much all the ranked children get in, then that is a good as you will get in terms of information, and I would hang on to that. It is surprising how far down the ranking they go, due to the fact that everyone ticks the boxes to share with all school.

My advice would be to put Marling first, but look at your other school options so you have a back up choice as second. Because of the increase in PAN I would guess that they will go even further down the ranking than before.

[CKMum]

Agree with the comments above. Many parents (including us) have chosen to share our DS's results with 3 schools. He achieved the PAN for all of them, so will go to his first choice school, so in effect releasing a PAN place in 2 schools. I think that this is quite common across the board, so there should be quite a few PAN places not being taken up at several schools for 1 entrant, so if you are ranked near the PAN, I think that there is a good chance that your DC will get the place as long as you put the respective school first on the form.