Hi,

Sorry if this has been answered before, I tried looking but could'nt find.

Our Eldest Son , cleared the Bucks exam and we are 2.6 Miles away from BGS, but not in catchment. Last few years after the introduction of Pupil Premium as a additional criteria,the distance for pupils outside the catchment has dropped a lot. Think it was around 3.03 Miles for 2019 allocation .

We found a place we can move within 2 weeks but its going to become really difficult for my little one along with a big hole in our pockets.

Any thoughts ? Is it worth moving ? or take the chance and stay at the current place ( Slough SL1) ?

Cheers

Hi

It’s hard to say for sure, especially since BGS have added some new things to the admission policy again this year, but I think you are in with a very good chance from your current address. The first round of allocation last year went out to 3.043 miles and the second round (in April) went to 3.242 miles. The statistics for subsequent rounds have not been published but I suspect there was further movement then. There must be a lot of applicants living between your 2.6 miles distance and the 3.242 miles that was the furthest allocated distance we know about who were successful in getting a place last year.

I suppose you need to ask yourself whether you would be ok with the school your DC would likely be allocated on 1st March if you didn’t get a place at BGS and whether you’d be okay with perhaps not being allocated a place until a later date in the allocations process.

Thanks a lot for the reply Burnhammum. Iam going to talk to my son today and see how he feels and then decide.

It's a tough one, it seems crazy to move, say, half a mile if it then turns out you don't need to! My gut feeling is that at 2.6 miles you would be fine, if not on March 2nd. However, I would have said last year that 5 miles was more or less guaranteed, so I would have been wrong. The head was wrong last year when he told people from Langley that they were more or less guaranteed a place.
No-one can tell you, unfortunately.

Thanks Scary mum. You are absolutely right . Son really likes the school but he is not too fussed if he doesn't get it as well. Iam going to try and go for their open mornings again in a couple of days , just to get a feel for the school .

Hi we live in Langley ( so just over 5 miles out) and were told last year by the head that we were pretty much guaranteed to get in. My daughter didn't and we are currently 39th on the waiting list in October so probably won't even get in in year 8 which we thought we would. We believed burnham wasn't an issue and unfortunately didn't make the right choices ( ie. didn't put down appealing for the Slough grammars ( except at Bernard's due to Catholic). The waiting list only ended up Moving by 1 person each round so hardly moved at all. If you really feel strongly about a grammar school then I would strongly consider moving now but being under the 3 miles you should hopefully be ok just make sure you have a back up you are happy with.

Hi just had the allocation come through from slough Council.

My order was
St bernard's - planning to appeal as he missed by a small Margin
BGS
Slough option1
Slough option 2
Bucks option 1-outside catchment
Bucks option 2-outside catchment

We stay like 2.6 miles from bgs and was hoping we
Get thwt but it's not.

Should I wait till tomorrow to see when bucks allocation come thru? Or it should have come already?

Not sure what do now? Should I go on waiting list?

You only get allocated one school and it will be issued by your local authority.

Which of your preferences were you actually offered?

_________________
Outside of a dog, a book is a man's best friend. Inside of a dog it's too dark to read.Groucho Marx

Were you sure you would get on of these schools? What school did you get allocated? (I’m assuming one not on your list.) This is why we always advise that at least one choice on the CAF that you are sure you would get and would be OK with.

Most schools/LAs will automatically put you on the waiting lists for higher preference schools you didn’t get, but it’s always a good idea to check this is what happens. Some WLs move a fair bit others hardly at all.

We don’t have much data about how many appeals are successful for the Slough GS, so if you go for it, please let us know how you get on.

(As Mitasol says, you get one allocation for one school via Slough LA, so you won’t hear from Bucks, apart from possibly being told where you are on the waiting list.)