11 Plus Exams Forum

At the risk of being laughed off these board I have to ask the following;

How do waiting lists come about as rom what I ve picked up the schedule is this ;

DD sits the test

We wait till March 2011 to find out if she has/hasnt made it ?

If she hasnt how does she go on waiting list and how do children get places often months afterwards if they werent succesful in the first place ? Its not as if you find out what mark they got ?

My niece actually got a place at Chelmsford Grammar school this way nd even her parents could not enlighten me .All they know is they got a call one day asking if she would still be interested in attending CG as her name was on the list ...how it got there is a mystery ....................

Most schools will run " Continued Interest Lists " for different criteria e.g distance,music,academic and sometimes sport.

After allocation day ( or sometimes at time of application ) the schools send out letters asking if you wish your child to be placed on this list under the criteria you applied so you could have a differing place for academic and distance for the same school.
The schools advise you how long they run the lists for.

The schools will offer from the relevent list if / when someone declines a place which is how you see the " movement " on the list.

In Herts you are automatically placed on the CI list of schools that you ranked higher than your allocated school. If you do not want to be included on the CI list you have to notify them

And just to add that if you have sat tests you sometimes do find out your position or score in March depending on the school, even if you are unsuccesful. This can sometimes give an idea how close you were and how likely you might be to get offered a place from the waiting list (this is what happened to my DD), but if you have not asked or been offered that info then a late offer might come out of the blue but places would always be offered in strict order from the waiting list.

Dame Alice Owen tells every single candidate exactly what mark they got for each paper and exactly where they came in the total list of all people who sat the exam (910 last year, will prob be over one thousand this year). This is known as your ranking and never changes. Until the end of time you will always be the candidate with the 89th highest position for example. If you did not get in but got in the top one hundred they will give you a waiting list place which will of course change. This year we know that the waiting list went down to at least place 17. So those on the waiting list would have gradually climbed up the list.

Beware in Herts they will automatically put you on the waiting list of all the schools you dont get into. So if you change your mind you have to contact them to remove yourself. We know someone who got their second choice, decided they were happy with it, then they were offered their first choice and lost their second choice because the Council wont let you hold onto two schools.

I think all the Watford Consortium schools also give you your marks. HBS do not, only your waiting list position. DG