Email from heads of Sutton and Wilson's schools

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pooziepuzzle
Posts: 40
Joined: Tue Oct 21, 2014 3:06 pm

Re: Email from heads of Sutton and Wilson's schools

Post by pooziepuzzle »

I think they all used to give some indication before offer day if you were a top scorer. Certainly even after offer day the schools try to lure the top scorers. I know Wilsons last year wrote to boys who were offered a different higher choice school saying if they put their name on the Wilsons waiting list they would get a place!
tiffinboys
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Joined: Fri Nov 11, 2011 11:00 pm
Location: Surrey

Re: Email from heads of Sutton and Wilson's schools

Post by tiffinboys »

pooziepuzzle wrote:I think they all used to give some indication before offer day if you were a top scorer. Certainly even after offer day the schools try to lure the top scorers. I know Wilsons last year wrote to boys who were offered a different higher choice school saying if they put their name on the Wilsons waiting list they would get a place!
Wilson letter was after the offer day, not between the results and the offer day. I am all in favour of giving results with scores and rank too. We would then know better how we stand.
loopylou
Posts: 403
Joined: Wed Feb 24, 2010 9:08 am

Re: Email from heads of Sutton and Wilson's schools

Post by loopylou »

A reoccurring problem is that parents don't always know how the equal preference system works in practice.
Even in other regions where they get far more information than we do, rumours persist that if a parent doesn't put a particular school first then they have less chance of a place than somebody who does put it first.
Schools can compound this worry when they correctly advise parents to list them first if they are the family's genuine first choice because they are much less clear in emphasising that, if your son has a top score for Wallington, he can have a place no matter where you list Wallington on your form. The only thing that would prevent him getting an offer from Wallington with a qualifying score is if you have listed another school even higher on your form that he also has a qualifying score for.

So in the year that Wallington sent out letters telling top scorers that they had a virtually guaranteed place, a lot of people were disappointed in March. They wrongly assumed from the letter that they had to list Wallington first to preserve their place. Then in March they found out that their son had also scored highly enough to have been offered Tiffins, SGS and Wilsons as well but of course none of those schools made them offers because, according to the form they had filled in, they preferred Wallington to all other schools.

That's when the waiting list shuffling started. When people, who had misunderstood Wallington's instructions and placed it first, realised that actually they could have had a place at Tiffins instead sought to be added to the Tiffins list above all those on a score that hadn't allowed them to receive an initial offer. It was very stressful for all involved and, on a smaller scale, that scenario still plays out for some people every year who refuse to believe that all they need to do is list schools in order of preference. No special tactics are needed and, if Wallington isn't their genuine first choice, they can list other schools above it and not run any risk of losing a Wallington place should those not work out.



I'm not criticising parents at all - schools should make it much clearer but it is a competitive world and they want to hook the best candidates - all schools not just Wallington.
In a lot of ways the equal preference system is counter intuitive. A person who lists a school 4th can have priority over a person who listed it 1st. Every year parents in areas where they have ranks and scores still get it wrong because they don't use the information as intended and wrongly assume they have to list schools by order of certainty not order of preference.
Every year many come to this forum from regions that send out exact scores and are told that there's no risk to listing a long shot first and a dead cert second but the fact that the same point is made year after year shows parents really don't understand the system and schools make it worse by hinting that dead cert places are in danger if parents disloyally list another school first. Schools don't even know where parents have listed them.
pooziepuzzle
Posts: 40
Joined: Tue Oct 21, 2014 3:06 pm

Re: Email from heads of Sutton and Wilson's schools

Post by pooziepuzzle »

Yes my comment did say letters last year were after offer day. Sorry if I was confusing as I was talking about two different things. Schools used to give indication before offer day then I went on to talk about letters last year after offer day, as stated.
Kingston mum
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Joined: Sat Nov 15, 2014 3:47 pm

Re: Email from heads of Sutton and Wilson's schools

Post by Kingston mum »

We had a talk at the primary school given by the RBK council representative and she explained clearly how the Pan London application system works.
You have to put your schools in the order of preference, the schools don't know your order and you will get the school you have achieved the score for. If the school you got offered it's not your first choice you get put automatically on the waiting list for schools you have listed above the one you got. So if you put Tiffin, SGS, Wilson and WCGS and you got the qualifying score only for WCGS then you get WCGS and you are on the waiting list for all the others. You have the same chance of getting WCGS if you put it last on the list as somebody that puts it first all depends on the child's score.
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