Received this email from BCC today and copied some of the content for you. I left out the appeals bit as it was too long to add. Let me know if you want me to add that bit also.


Update regarding offer of Year 7 places.

You have submitted an online application for your child’s secondary school place. As you will be aware, secondary school places will be offered on Friday 1 March 2019. This update is to provide you with some useful information about the process and point you to additional support that will be available online.

1) Offer emails

As you applied online, you will be sent an email informing you which secondary school has been offered to your child. Emails will be sent on Friday 1 March and you will receive your email any time up to 5.15pm. You will also receive this offer by letter from Saturday 2 March.

Please do not contact Birmingham City Council before you have received the offer of a school place.

The School Admissions team will be unable to inform you which secondary school place has been offered to your child by phone or email. You must be in receipt of your email or letter before contacting the School Admissions team.

2) Accepting the offer

The email and letter you receive will name the secondary school your child has been offered for September 2019.

If your child has not been offered a place at any of the schools you applied for, this will be because the school(s) received more applications than there were places available and other children met the admission criteria better than your child. Details of school admission criteria are available at http://www.birmingham.gov.uk/schooladmissions

The offer letter will explain how to accept or refuse the offer that has been made. If your child has been offered a place at a secondary school in Birmingham, you should return the acceptance slip to the school. If your child has been offered a place at a school outside Birmingham, you should return the acceptance slip to School Admissions. The deadline for acceptances is 15 March 2019.

You are strongly encouraged to accept the offer so that your child has a guaranteed place for September 2019. By not accepting the offer, you could risk losing the place as this may be given to a child on the waiting list for that school. Accepting the offer will not affect your child’s waiting list position for any of your higher preference schools, or influence the outcome of any appeal you may submit.

3) Waiting lists

If you do not receive an offer of a place at your higher preference schools your child’s name will automatically be placed on the waiting lists for those schools.

Please note that waiting lists are compiled in the same order as the oversubscription criteria, eg siblings first, etc. Late applicants are also added according to this order, so your child’s name could move down as well as up a waiting list. Having a place on the waiting list is no guarantee that a place will become available.

Information on waiting list positions will not be available until 25 March 2019, when we have received acceptances from parents.

From 25 March 2019, you can contact Children’s Services on 0121 303 1888 who will let you know who holds the waiting list for the school you want (either School Admissions or the school itself). Waiting list advice will not be available before this to allow time for offers to be accepted and refused.

The Admissions Team will contact you if a school place becomes available for your child from a waiting list.

Hope Friday brings good news for us all!

Best of luck to you and your children.

Yes, good luck all! Is anyone else's child having a wobble? It looks likely that there won't be any other children from my DS's school going to our first choice of KEFW and the reality of this is starting to hit home. Clearly I have tried to make decisions about school choices that I think will be best in the longer term but I think Friday could be tricky and I may have to accept that it won't be celebrations all round...

Both DS1 and DS2 were the only ones from their Primary Schools to go to their Secondary School - this is not unusual in the case of Grammar Schools. They both made new friends and moved on. DS2 (who started Sep 18) still meets with his Primary friends at the weekend, and is able to play online on the computer with them during the week. He did have a wobble, saying he wanted to go to the local comp, but understood the opportunities the GS offered and seems to have settled well.

They are only 10, and although have some part to play in the decision making, ultimately you do have to choose what you feel is best at that age. Maybe it’s just me who’s odd, but how many of your primary school friends are you still in touch with now? I’m not in contact with any - we move on, and they will come to understand and appreciate this.

I’m sure it will all work out for the best, and good luck for Friday

Oh Bluejay, what can I say. The fact that I am still awake and writing on this forum should say it all. It's not even the night before allocations. Being in limbo is an awful feeling, specially with scores hoovering near the cut-off like our boys. Certainly having KES as an option must be fantastic. My son is still disappointed that we couldn't take up the full-fee paying place ( with 3 other children, it was not feasible). I have already turned into a bag of nerves.

Solihull residents, we rely on your updates!

Please don't forget to update us.

All the best

Do they hear today?

Yes, for some reason they start to get their e-mails the evening before. It gives a good indication of potential cut-offs.....

tends to be around 5pm onwards - just depends if any report on here

Received confirmation for grammar place just. There is no information provided other than the place confirmed ie no cut off info.

Good luck!