Good afternoon everybody.

I need your urgent advice please.

For some reason we have not submitted the secondary school admission application for my son in time.

What I have done is that I have only chosen the preferred schools and thought this is only what I need to do.
Using my mobile phone I did not notice that I need to click submit after choosing the schools.

The closing date for online applications was the 31st October.

Now, when I go to my account page, it tells me that the application is not submitted in time, and therefore it will be dealt with as a late application. That will mean he will be unlikely to be getting to any of his preferred options.

My son sat the 11 plus test and his score will very likely enable him to get a place in a grammar school.

We are shocked and don't know what to do.

Your urgent help/ advice is much appreciated.

Many thanks
KR
Emad

I am sorry to hear that this has happened - they are pretty strict about the deadline, the only thing I can suggest is that you make sure that you are on the waiting list as soon as the allocations are out in March - if your son has a good score then hopefully he will have a chance through this route

You can make a late application I believe https://assets.ctfassets.net/knkzaf64jx ... m_2020.pdf

https://www.essex.gov.uk/apply-for-a-se ... hool-place

Click on this link and the pdf is there

It looks like the late application will be added to WL in March in the same way (this is from last years document)

Which grammar schools did you apply for and what score did your DS get? Which area are you applying in? The new secondary schools which opened in Chelmsford, Harlow and Colchester this September have taken some of the pressure off places there. Your nearest undersubscribed school may not be as awful as you fear and if your DS is ranked high by the admissions criteria of the schools you are applying to, he stands a good chance of getting a place at one of your preferences sooner rather than later.

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Thanks for your reply’s guys and girls.
My son scored 349 in the 11 plus.
Colchester royal grammar and The Gilbert were his first and second preferred options.

Is there anyway out of that please.

Read somewhere it says if there are some extreme circumstances the local authority might accept delayed online applications as in time ones.

Any thoughts about that please.

KR
Emad

Some LAs will except extreme circumstances as a reason for delaying. This would be something like a hospitalisation of the parent, if they were a single parent for instance. They would probably want evidence of this as well.

As others have said, your DS could well be high up on the waiting list depending on scores, distances etc.

Try not to panic. Put in a late application with your schools in your true order of preference. So 1. CRGS, 2. The Gilberd etc (do make sure you put your catchment school down too).

You will not be allocated your first choice school on 1st March but you will be put on the waiting list. So if the last boy into CRGS (who put an on-time application in) scored 345, the likelihood is your DS will be 1st place on the CRGS waiting list with 349. Grammar school waiting lists, and in particular CRGS, move by quite a few places each year, so your DS may be offered a place within a week or so of 1st March. However, each year is different.

Late applications, although not ideal, happen. Friends of ours missed the deadline as they had a close family member passing away and that took over their life. They got in after going to appeal with their extenuating circumstances. Hopefully, your DS will get a place without that stress.

Unfortunately Tinkers is correct - the LA have a deadline for a reason - it’s an absolute target, not an aim.

Just forgetting to press submit is not an extreme circumstance and unlikely to be seen as one, even if you could offer evidence for it (which they would require to support an extreme circumstance application.)

As your son has scored well, he should be at or near the top of the wait list, so fingers crossed he will get an offer. You could have a read of the appeals section as, just in case he does get a rejection, you could appeal and explain that you missedthe submit button.

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