Clarity around allocation day?

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bromley mum
Posts: 1061
Joined: Tue Oct 20, 2009 5:04 pm

Re: The schools find out first

Post by bromley mum »

mushroom wrote:The determined admission arrangements for this year state that the primary schools get sent confidential information of allocations on Thursday 25th Feb.
Does this include independent primary schools too?
C. J.
Posts: 87
Joined: Mon Oct 20, 2008 5:06 pm
Location: West Watford

Post by C. J. »

In the past, primary schools have been faxed a list of children's names and allocated schools (not preferences) late in the afternoon of allocation day. Prior to two years ago this meant that schools did know allocations before parents received letters. In the last two years of course, parents could access emails while their child was at school.

The school 'knowing' just before has several benefits: Primarily it has meant that the relevant class teachers could be informed that particular children may be feeling very sensitive and can react accordingly. It has also shown up (admittedly very rare) errors (as examples, a child missed from the list who we knew had applied in time, and twins, with an older sibling, one given the preference school, the other not), these kinds of errors are easily rectified but still very worrying for the families involved. Being able to greet the parent with: 'please don't worry, we've already contacted admissions' is helpful.

Preferences do remain confidential from County, although mostly the children tell us as they talk it through, but allocated schools need to be known because of the liaison that goes on between primary and secondary teachers during the summer term.

I didn't know of this new date of 25th Feb before seeing it on here and I have to agree I don't understand why schools need to know that early!
skools
Posts: 24
Joined: Tue Nov 17, 2009 1:19 pm

Post by skools »

Just looked on the Herts direct website at the admissions timetable. It says we will be able to see our allocation online early evening on the 1st.
Will someone else have a look to clarify in case I'm being dumb - would hate to raise our hopes !
WP
Posts: 1331
Joined: Thu Jan 03, 2008 9:26 am
Location: Watford, Herts

Post by WP »

skools wrote:Just looked on the Herts direct website at the admissions timetable. It says we will be able to see our allocation online early evening on the 1st.
Can you point us to where you saw that? That has been the case in previous years, but this year's Moving On book (p27) says 9am on the 2nd, and the dates page also says the 2nd.
skools
Posts: 24
Joined: Tue Nov 17, 2009 1:19 pm

Post by skools »

Yes . Went on Herts Direct website. Schools and Learning option in pink boxes on left.
Schools admissions at top of page- apply for a place option.
Under blue boxes is more info option- view allocation timetable.
Says Secondary date school allocated avaiable and says 01Mar2010 (early evening)

Hope you can find it WP
Carpe diem
Posts: 10
Joined: Wed Jan 27, 2010 8:54 am

Post by Carpe diem »

Well spotted Skools :shock:

I guess everyone will be glued to their PC’s that evening. (Big Crash)
WP
Posts: 1331
Joined: Thu Jan 03, 2008 9:26 am
Location: Watford, Herts

Post by WP »

skools wrote:Yes . Went on Herts Direct website. Schools and Learning option in pink boxes on left.
Schools admissions at top of page- apply for a place option.
Under blue boxes is more info option- view allocation timetable.
Says Secondary date school allocated avaiable and says 01Mar2010 (early evening)

Hope you can find it WP
Thanks, got it now. So they have different stories in different places. This one may be closer to the horse's mouth, though.
Sally Herts
Posts: 126
Joined: Tue Jan 13, 2009 4:06 pm
Location: Herts

Post by Sally Herts »

The Moving On booklet is perhaps more likely to be correct (sadly), because it would have been proof-read.

The other timetable (well spotted skools!) may have been the initial plan, and never updated on the website...

We'll see :)
WP
Posts: 1331
Joined: Thu Jan 03, 2008 9:26 am
Location: Watford, Herts

Post by WP »

More confusion: the Frequently Asked Questions about Online Applications says:
Yes you will be able to see your allocation details online late afternoon of the day allocation letters are posted.
(I think this document hasn't been changed since 2008, though.)
Wanner
Posts: 34
Joined: Tue Nov 17, 2009 11:14 am

phoned and asked

Post by Wanner »

Well, I had to phone and ask... The person I spoke to said that they will be starting to put allocations on the system on 1st, but it won't be done all at once or there would be system overload. So they may be online in evening of 1st, but they might not... Not sure that that's helped very much or not - perhaps if more people phone and ask we will see if there is any consistency in what people say :?
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