I get the feeling Crypt seems very popular this year, which is great except my son has a low ranking. I know they went down to 840 last year but they might not go that far this year if everyone is putting them as first choice??

Guess it’s hard to know until allocation day...

It's always really hard to predict, Crypt said last year that they'd had a large amount of interest from girls for their 2019 entry and expected to increase on the number of girls admitted in 2018. However, they actually took fewer, about 20% less girls than in 2018.
Ribston seemed extremely popular last, the open evenings were jam-packed, but they still went lower down the ranking than DRHS.

There are also out of area people who share with Gloucester and other areas then decide where to go and those that will chose a private option. We'll all just be keeping fingers crossed till March.

Thank you for the reassurance!

I thought I would submit the CAF (which I did this morning!) and then forget about it, but it’s still on my mind!

I liked Crypt and would have been very happy for DS to choose it. In the event he preferred Tommies (so that's one of the Top 150 places freed up!). I will cross my fingers for you in March!

Having said that, realistically he is unlikely to get a place on Allocation Day, but hang on in there and keep checking in with GCC after that to find out where he is on the waiting list. At least he has qualified. There will be a fair bit of movement after all the appeals have been heard as children with a place at Crypt could be appealing for Pates, Tommies, Denmark Road and possibly Marling or Stroud High School - and children at any of these appealing somewhere else would also cause movement on their waiting lists, which could potentially have a knock-on effect and free up a place at Crypt.

The downside is that there will also be some movement in the wrong direction after the results of the late test (taken in March) - they slot qualifying candidates into the waiting list according to their ranks.

You may be waiting until July or even into the start of the new school year (some don't show up on the first day - usually the ones that have gone to an Indie and forgotten to decline their GS space). And there were still girls starting at Ribston last year mid-way through Year 7 (presumably also from the waiting list).

You have to decide then whether you want to uproot him once he's had the induction day or even started at a different school, but you can play that by ear.

And of course, don't forget that you can appeal - and because he qualified, you're appealing on oversubscription criteria - they've already confirmed they think he is of the right academic standard. That can only be a good thing!

Good luck and keep us posted.

The question of how Crypt can improve the girl:boy ratio is always going to be a challenge given that there are more schools the girls can go to. You essentially have two overlapping and equivalently shaped distributions and typically more will move out of the one than the other - leaving the remainder in favour of the boys.

Thank you so much. I have been gathering appeal paperwork in preparation as well as I know he almost certainly won’t get a place on allocation day but would be lovely if he got it through the waiting list! He has his heart set on going but I’m trying not to get his hopes up...!

You're welcome. It's very hard. We'd have been in this position for Pates if DS had ranked 5 higher - in retrospect maybe it's good that he didn't as we have some certainty over where he is going.

I think you have to be realistic with your DS and tell him that there is a very slim chance he will get Crypt and if he does it may not be until term starts. Get him used to the idea of whatever school he's likely to get and paint Crypt as a hope he can keep at the back of his mind and if he does it will be a nice surprise, but focus on the positives of the other school. And then put everything you can think of into the appeal, but probably don't make too much of a big deal of that to him so he doesn't get too excited in case it doesn't work. I really hope he does get a place one way or another though!

Looks like Crypt is still DD's number one choice, fingers crossed she will get it and other girls will choose it too.

I think DD's is definitely Ribston - we had a tour by a very passionate Y13, who hope to become a PE teacher back at Ribston one day.