Less than six weeks til offers day!

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crazycrofter
Posts: 440
Joined: Wed Oct 08, 2014 10:10 am

Less than six weeks til offers day!

Post by crazycrofter »

It's nearly here! Does anyone have any predictions for this year's cut offs? I'm particularly interested in HGS.
Ricky74
Posts: 732
Joined: Sun Aug 14, 2016 1:55 pm

Re: Less than six weeks til offers day!

Post by Ricky74 »

Low I hope! :lol:

I have twins - one with a good score for QM and the other with a very borderline score that will see us praying the cut off is low. It will be a day of mixed fortunes for us on 1 March as I have one elated child and another who will, if we are lucky, be offered our final choice, an underperforming secondary two bus rides away :-(

We are also in the process of moving though, so we are an admissions' team's worst nightmare right now....

Therefore, have decided to hide all day on March 1!
crazycrofter
Posts: 440
Joined: Wed Oct 08, 2014 10:10 am

Re: Less than six weeks til offers day!

Post by crazycrofter »

Poor you, that sounds very stressful! I hope things work out for you. Are the schools in the area you're moving to usually oversubscribed ?
mum1115
Posts: 127
Joined: Tue Sep 16, 2014 1:05 pm

Re: Less than six weeks til offers day!

Post by mum1115 »

Ricky74 that does sound really stressful.

I really can't even begin to predict. It's a nerve-wracking process. The other girls at my DD school who sat the birmingham test have v high scores whilst my dd is just below last years chg cutoff. As far as she knows the boys haven't fared so well as the girls.
OldTrout
Posts: 386
Joined: Tue Jun 04, 2013 1:21 pm

Re: Less than six weeks til offers day!

Post by OldTrout »

Hi all:

I don't want to predict cut off scores - but hopefully last year's cut offs will serve as a reasonable guide for standard entry/ FSM entry.

However, I thought I'd post from a Birmingham perspective on what OFFER'S EVE and OFFER'S Day were like for us last year:

OFFER'S EVE:

I can't remember when exactly people started to hear - maybe just after midnight on February 28th (just to clarify - I mean late (11 p.m.+) on Feb 28th and into wee hours on March 1st) - but people started to post that their child was accepted to x or y grammar school on whatever score. By 1 a.m. Papa Trout (who had mercilessly teased me for joining this forum) had prized the ipad from my hands and was following the conversations intensely. We knew that 234 had not made the cut off for Camp Hill Girls and small fry had 235 - it was very close and Papa Trout had eyes the size of 50p pieces that night reading posts. I said we'd know in the morning and called it a night - I fear Papa Trout stayed up for a few hours more - hoping for news one way or the other.

Our little fish is an odd fish (no surprises there based on her parents) but she only wanted us to put down Camp Hill Girls - she wasn't interested in Five Ways (she was tired of loud, disruptive boys) and like her sister - she didn't like the idea of a long commute to Handsworth and at the time (although subsequently some friends did opt for Handsworth Girls and are incredibly happy there) all her friends were saying they wanted Five Ways as their second choice. (I think what kids say and what parents opt to do - can often be quite different). Anyway by the wee hours we knew 234 wouldn't cut it and had no news about 235. Birmingham City Council had not updated their on-line secondary transfer system.

However - I knew that they would update the system around 8 a.m. on National Allocation Day (March 1st) - so my plan was simple - log in around 8 a.m. and find out - which worked a treat.

OFFER'S DAY:

My first piece of advice to all of you who have gone through the Birmingham City Council system is dust off your Username/ Password - maybe try and log in just to make sure it still works in the next few weeks - and then write it down on March 1st on your Calendar (or on a post-it stuck to your computer/ lap top) - and check it out before the school run on March 1st. (My recollection is the system was updated around 8 a.m.).

My second piece of advice is remain calm - when we read King Edward VI Camp Hill School for Girls the actual 'OFFFERED' statement had wrapped around oddly so we couldn't see it on our screen initially (I didn't know to scroll along).

So seeing nothing - we read our next choice - local non-selective comprehensive which said 'HIGHER CHOICE OFFERED'.

OK it was 8 a.m. and I'd been up until 1 a.m. ish with Papa Trout wittering on about whether she'd made it in or not - so was a bit on the tired side & very nervous - but the point is if you read on a lower choice on your secondary selections and see HIGHER CHOICE OFFERED - look at the choice above and use the scroll keys. Ultimately we saw the magic words OFFERED next to KECHG.

General advice to everybody

Each year somebody will start an entry/ offers discussion - it is really helpful if you have a borderline score (close to previous years cut offs or slightly below) to post - X grammar school offered place on *** score - so other parents can gauge whether they're still in with a chance. If you know other scores for schools, sharing that information can be a huge relief to other Forum members.

There will always be a lot of first time posters who post (or do I mean boast) about their child getting in - etc... This can result in 'comment' from long standing posters - but as one of these folks was a good friend who ghosted this site for two years but never mustered up the courage to join - don't be too hard on them. I think we all know it isn't easy to get into these schools and parents are justifiable relieved and proud that their child has made it into a grammar. So try not to be too hard on first time posters on March 1st & thereafter - if you can.

If you haven't made the cut off - there's lots of advice on the Forum - but the first thing to do is talk to Birmingham City Council to find out where you are on the waitlist. (If you are outside Birmingham - I'm not sure what to recommend - but perhaps some others (Petit Pois/ Um/ etc...?) might have advice. Again posting positions on the waitlist with your child's score will be hugely helpful to all members of this Forum.

Whatever else - remember that your daughter or son is still the same fabulous kid they always were. Hug them because they went for it - be proud that they tried for the eleven plus (which is daunting). Praise them for coming so close. If it's quite close be honest that it's a slim chance, but be hopeful. If you read the various waitlist stories - you'll see that many parents have had good news a few months after national allocation day - sometimes even after Christmas of Year 7. If you know it isn't going to be possible - please don't lose heart.

If it's definitely unsuccessful - please believe it isn't the end of the world - although it may feel like it initially. My little fish was unsuccessful for Sept 2014 entry - but she has gone on to shine at her ordinary state comprehensive and we've come to realise that being a big fish in a small pond - rather than a minnow in a grammar school pond - may have been the best thing for her. Sometimes things work out for a reason. Little fish is happy at her state non-selective Comprehensive and small fry has settled in really well and KECHG and is starting to thrive there.

MARCH 1st - 3rd+...

The days after results can be hard on both the successful and unsuccessful. My advice is if you are successful be humble and if you aren't successful (although I know it hurts) try not to be angry or resentful. I've had to be both happy for those who were successful when my little fish wasn't and supportive of those who were unsuccessful when my small fry was. Having been on both sides of the fence, please try and be as kind as you can at this time. It's awkward for everybody - but you will all get through it.

Wishing you all good news!

OT

PS - if you do get into a grammar on allocation day - start talking to people who are already there about what the uniform actually cost (at KECHG for example they require coats to be navy or black/ rain coats to be navy - which meant I had to buy all new, despite having perfectly useful multi-colour raincoat/ winter coat) + there may be 'bonding' trips at the start of the school year (not including whether you want to get them a mobile phone or not). It can be hard with all sorts of Y6 Leavers trips/ expenses - but my advice is try and set aside an extra £300 for all this - we did for KECHG and found even that wasn't quite enough.
Last edited by OldTrout on Tue Jan 31, 2017 12:10 pm, edited 1 time in total.
mum1115
Posts: 127
Joined: Tue Sep 16, 2014 1:05 pm

Re: Less than six weeks til offers day!

Post by mum1115 »

Thank you Oldtroat.
Such a very useful post. 2nd time around for us but a great refresher.
This time around I think our family is going to be glued to watching for a likely cutoff score for CHG as our DD is 234. I hadn't realised some folks knew the allocated school before others just before 1st March.
OldTrout
Posts: 386
Joined: Tue Jun 04, 2013 1:21 pm

Re: Less than six weeks til offers day!

Post by OldTrout »

mum1115 wrote:Thank you Oldtroat.
Such a very useful post. 2nd time around for us but a great refresher.
This time around I think our family is going to be glued to watching for a likely cutoff score for CHG as our DD is 234. I hadn't realised some folks knew the allocated school before others just before 1st March.
Sorry mum1115

I just realised that after midnight on Feb 28th - would be March 1st. So people do find out on Allocation Day - just some earlier than others.

Basically my recollection was that Sutton Coldfield updated results on their system or e-mailed just after midnight on March 1st but Birmingham City Council waiting until around 8 a.m. to update their system.

Our letters (both from KECHG and from Birmingham City Council) both arrived on March 1st - however, I do know some people got letters the next day. I think like the results letters - it can sometimes take a little bit longer. But this may only be Birmingham.

HTH

OT
imranb
Posts: 108
Joined: Thu Jan 14, 2016 4:56 pm

Re: Less than six weeks til offers day!

Post by imranb »

OldTrout wrote:Hi all:

However, I thought I'd post from a Birmingham perspective on what OFFER'S EVE and OFFER'S Day were like for us last year:
5 Stars for this Post! Thanks a trillion OldTrout.
mum1115
Posts: 127
Joined: Tue Sep 16, 2014 1:05 pm

Re: Less than six weeks til offers day!

Post by mum1115 »

Thanks OldTrout.
Could be keeping a keen eye out then overnight. 2 years ago our online allocation only showed at 2pm, although that was a sunday.
um
Posts: 2378
Joined: Sat May 30, 2009 1:06 pm
Location: Birmingham

Re: Less than six weeks til offers day!

Post by um »

Thanks for the post OldTrout :D

A general offer discussion and a separate waiting list record and discussion will be opened up closer to the time.

And you learn something new every day... my dd is at CHG and has a grey coat :lol: - she hasn't mentioned it was in breach of the uniform :oops:
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