CLSG offer withdrawals

[hbsseal]

"If you think about it what CLSG have done it is to offer to their entire waiting list straight up in a bid to get as many firm offers, in any way possible, as soon as possible. If one of their biggest fears is (as we are being told) is having to accept low-ranked candidates after 6th March because those higher up have gone elsewhere, then they are in effect already doing this by the lovely system they have pioneered."

This is why I think what CLSG have done does not help them in any way. It is not just awful for parents and children, but a bad practice for all parties involved. This is simply a badly thought through idea with no positive outcome. I wonder if departure of the Registrar caused this although I gather it was tried last year too.

[tiffinboys]

Looks like Councillors from City of London have too much influence in running this school, than the educators.

[firefox]

Quite honestly there is little or no difference between the "offer holder days" and the Open Mornings & school tours that any sensible & prospective pupil has already been on....if you don't already know what you need to know by then I'm not sure when you will know.

We received an offer on the Friday & attended the offer holder morning the following Tuesday last year....I knew people who had already turned down places by then & I was aware that 75% places has been accepted. By Friday (ie, a week after offer day) a friend on the waiting list was offered a place.

I know people several people last year with several offers who didn't attend offer holder days - people know what their decision is, they've been thinking about it & all the
permutations for weeks/months/years. Everyone had made their decision before March 5.

City might say you have until March 6....so do all the indies, but in reality you don't....I suspect that nearly they were pretty much full & had gone to their waiting list by March 5 (the closing date last year). Things just happened quicker at City, exactly as they did last year.

Every year if you want the school & you get an offer, respond immediately....and go to the school if that's what they want....I really don't see why people think that's such an outrageous request.

Like all London schools City will always be oversubscribed - and to be honest, the only people who really know what it's like, pastorally and otherwise, are the children & their parents who are currently at the school. This won't put anyone off applying.

So I "respond immediately" and there are 80 other parents who also "responded immediately" and hence I'm put on the waiting list. Can't you see the road to madness that this will bring? I can honestly see fist fights occurring and the school having to employ security if this carries on.

[RedPanda]

Publicity is publicity. There is no such thing as bad publicity, it seems.

That has never been true and it's not true now. There's also an article in today's Telegraph. It's a deserved nightmare for CLSG.

Maybe tiffinboys has a point in a sense. I read an article in the Independent that reported people spend 3 times longer choosing a sofa than they do choosing a house.

I still think enough parents will look past the publicity and apply regardless. On top of that, there will always be enough people like Choco who accept the system they are given regardless of the extremities of it. No offense to Choco. As I have said before, he/she understands the game better than most of us.

More fool us, to paraphrase Shakespeare.

[RedPanda]

It has also allowed us to find the other side of the equation. The other school has gone out of the way to assure us that they have no intention to do anything 'naughty' as City, insisted that there was no rush, and suggested that we should take our time to make a considered choice. A complete contrast of sorts, still a top independent (so we cannot broad brush them) but friendly and sensitive.

Still?

And there it is. It is subtle, but it is there. Even after everything that has happened to you, you are accepting of City's status as a top independent. Others will think the same way in the future and the applications will continue. Nothing will change. City really are doing nothing wrong.

BTW - I don't think you are any different to most people. I spent far too much time choosing my sofa

[hbsseal]

Yes, I acknowledge that I have not put City outside the top independent bracket despite these fiasco, but only lower down the list.

It would be harsh to put 100% weight on one event, in the same way it would be wrong to not acknowledge that the school does not come across as the most caring. This event means that it is no longer our first or second preference. We are still going to attend offer holders and raise this issue with senior members of staff to hear what they have to say about it.

[ToadMum]

Yes, I acknowledge that I have not put City outside the top independent bracket despite these fiasco, but only lower down the list.

It would be harsh to put 100% weight on one event, in the same way it would be wrong to not acknowledge that the school does not come across as the most caring. This event means that it is no longer our first or second preference. We are still going to attend offer holders and raise this issue with senior members of staff to hear what they have to say about it.

I suspect one can guess, but it would be interesting the hear, anyway.

[mb74]

Hbsseal

From what I can glean from your posts, your daughter might not currently be an offer holder (offer, then retracted after 72hrs, re-instated, removed again and then told previous email was a mistake. Have I got that right?).

Have you considered the possibility that you might not even be allowed to attend the morning? I’m really interested to hear what the school says but will be staggered if they demonstrate even the one grain of remorse for what they have put you and other families through.

[hbsseal]

If we are not allowed to attend after receiving a confirmation it truly would bring the analogy of people rushing to buy (and thrown out by security guards for causing pandemonium) flat screen TVs on Black Friday home

[mb74]

I can just see the photos in the Evening Standard and Telegraph now of you being escorted out.

“£17,000 Top London school throws out mother for attending offers morning. CLSG says that they have a transparent process despite offering, withdrawing and then re-offering the place. CLSG state that the mother concerned did have the option of camping out in the Barbican overnight but chose not to”.

Tongue fully in cheek but not too far from the truth I fear.