Bancrofts and Forest Schools - any experience?

[rbs]

Hi,


Our offer letter exactly same as abuzus. Taster day was before the deadline.



Rbs

[Son123]

any luck with bancrofts ? taster day was 1st march

[RAB321]

Just checked the dates -

I rang on 25th Feb, the deadline on our letter was 27th Feb and taster day was 1st March.

Bancrofts let us give our admission form and deposit in on the 1st March.

Are your dates different?

[rbs]

How strange.........


Just checked our letter and the deadline was definately 6th March.


Rbs

[RAB321]

Unless they had two taster days? I can understand that, incase they usually have a lot of parents and children attend taster lessons, but wouldnt it make sense to have 1 deadline date?

My sons letter definitely has the 27th as the deadline and 1st as the taster session.

[Son123]

deadline was definately 6th march.

[abuzus]

Rab321, I can only guess that either of the following are reasons for why your deadline date varies from others:

1. Typo on deadline date! ...and they were too embarassed to own up when you called
2. Your offer was somewhat different - bursary, scholarship, etc.

[Bancrofts Head]

Bancrofts has a closing date for acceptances, like every other school. If parents are unfortunately let down by the post, the school will do all we can to support the child, but we are also concerned not to have classes that are too large. I would be interested to know where the school has four form entry, since I introduced five form entry in 2008 with class sizes of 24 on average, and have run six form entry in the larger years to keep class sizes down. (As have Chigwell and Forest ).
I know that making choices for your child is a tough call; my own son is 24 and life doesn't get easier for parents! All I can say is that parents in N E London have three good independent schools to chose from, but are also in one of the best local authorities nationally: I hope you all find the right school for your child.

[elimu]

Hi all, thanks for your concern and tips/ideas. We emailed the head at Bancrofts on Friday and she replied on Saturday that they were full to bursting and had to cut off at 10am on Wednesday but were expecting movement on Monday so if a place did become available they would contact us. Now from where in the world did they expect a place would become available in just a couple of days, when only the previous day no one was even ready to listen to our plea!
We were concerned that our DD would be left without a school so we had called Forest ( whose offer we had previously declined), and they were kind enough to let us submit an acceptance form. That done, they sent us a confirmation letter, which arrived the very next day.
Yesterday (Monday), we got a very quick matter of factly phone call from Admissions lady at Bancrofts informing us that a place had now become available if we would like to accept it!

Much as we had liked Bancrofts in the run up to our decision making, the whole episode and the way we were left in the lurch last Thursday was dreadful.

We don't feel Bancrofts now deserve our DD and out of principle will not forsake the place at Forest to which we have committed. We have faith that whatever happens does so for a reason and perhaps matters were destined to turn out this way. After all Forest is but a stone's throw from where we live.

Best of luck to all of you and your dear children wherever they pursue their quest for learning. Hopefully no one has to experience what we did and in future parents can draw the appropriate lessons.

[nonethewiser]

elimu, that is good to know. Things do happen for a reason and I am sure DD will thrive in Forest.