11 Plus Exams Forum

Dear Lurkers and all,

Please do let schools know if you intend to give up a place at a Grammar school promptly . Some schools would like to offer places from the waiting lists but cannot do so until parents write in or ring the school to confirm they no longer require the place . If you hold on to places until the summer some parents will incur unnecessary costs in purchasing school uniforms only to receive a call two days after the start of term informing them they have been offered a place .

This happens a lot. I hear that Beths offered 8 places on the first day of school last September.
I think that people assume the schools are closed during the summer, but are they? At least the admissions department is open at Beths.

My best advice would be buy the items in common. Having said that, most parents would have the whole uniform by September, so those holding onto more than one place could keep this in mind.
Salsa

Schools will all be open on results daya at the very minimum. Usually they are open a lot more than this for maintenance or redecoration which can't be done in term time.

Personally, I'd like to see fines for parents who hold onto places for no good reason - there really isn't any excuse.

salsa wrote:This happens a lot. I hear that Beths offered 8 places on the first day of school last September.
I think that people assume the schools are closed during the summer, but are they? At least the admissions department is open at Beths.

My best advice would be buy the items in common. Having said that, most parents would have the whole uniform by September, so those holding onto more than one place could keep this in mind.
Salsa

Not sure how much many of these people would care about those waiting to hear from the schools they themselves have no intention of sending their DC to, even though they have accepted / failed to turn down a place there? Too many people have no interest at all in the welfare of anyone outside the confines of 'me and mine', nor see any reason why they should have.

And anyway, even if you think that there will be no-one to inform at the school from July to September, there will certainly be someone to tell or seek advice from at the LA. No excuse for not spending a few minutes on the phone or sending a couple of emails.

We did let know and it got ignored!

I phoned the school, the lady told me to email to confirm, which I did.

2 weeks later they turned up at DD's school to interview her and had to be turned away by the Head!

They then phoned us back again asking what's going on.

Ridiculous.

Not seen much on here about any offers from the waiting list . Have you been lucky enough to receive a phone call in this last week of term ? Will be time to buy uniforms soon and not sure if I should wait till close to the start of term in case we receive an offer from the waiting list .