CLSG offer withdrawals

[RSWest]

I don’t think it does the acquisition of an education at CLSG any favours at all to be compared to being first in the queue at Selfridges to get a cut-price plasma screen TV.

Clearly if schools don’t have exploding offers, then there is a tendency for acceptances to come in close to the deadline, which can cause some schools nervous moment. However, if they do choose to have them, and are popular, then the acceptances will tend to move the other way, closer and closer to the time the offers are made. By next year at CLSG, you’ll have to be hovering outside the school waiting for that acceptance email to swoop on the Registrars’ Office immediately it arrives (queues of sleeping bags in the Barbican, anybody?). That’ll mean it’ll come down to who gets their email firsts, who has internet access at the time and who can physically arrange to be there at 11am on THAT Friday morning to hand over the paperwork and a cheque for £6K. I don’t think that’s a sensible way to ration the school’s oversubscribed places.

Other schools manage perfectly well through careful balancing of initial offer numbers and waiting lists. If CLSG is really some kind of special case (and the nature of the site may mean they are), then perhaps they would reduce the level of ill-will by taking a more imaginative approach. If they simply offered very slightly over the number of places (say +5%) with a firm one-week deadline for acceptance, then I suggest they wouldn’t have that many places left on the waiting list, whom they could simply phone up in batches with a 72-hour limit. That way at least if you did get an offer on results Friday, you’d know it was really firm for a week and you wouldn’t have to risk breaking your neck rushing up the stairs to overtake other eager offer-holders at Barbican tube.

Agree - or allow acceptances only after a forced cool down period? Might also have the effect that people who prefer other schools would have moved on by then and made it easier to move down the wait list. But it would require a school more secure of its competitive position to think os an imaginative solution. If the idea is to just fill the places as soon as possible, current system works great.

[InvisibleHand]

I could live with a competitive system to get your acceptances in of some kind if they were designed in a way that was at least somewhat sensitive to managing the expectations of the girls. One of the nice things about the process was that all the communications were pitched at a level to speak directly to the girls. That includes the offer email which contains a nice personalised paragraph referencing how she did, interview etc. Having shown my daughter that letter (and not fully appreciating the implications of the exploding offer system, maybe through my fault, maybe not) it is bewildering to be in a position where that is snatched away. My daughter felt strongly enough to write an email of her own to the school (she has her own account), which she sent without before I had seen it. In fact, it was her own, very reasonable take on the unfairness of the process and a suggestion that the school do it differently in future. It speaks volumes that a week and a half later the school hasn't had the courage or decency to reply to her.

[ToadMum]

I could live with a competitive system to get your acceptances in of some kind if they were designed in a way that was at least somewhat sensitive to managing the expectations of the girls. One of the nice things about the process was that all the communications were pitched at a level to speak directly to the girls. That includes the offer email which contains a nice personalised paragraph referencing how she did, interview etc. Having shown my daughter that letter (and not fully appreciating the implications of the exploding offer system, maybe through my fault, maybe not) it is bewildering to be in a position where that is snatched away. My daughter felt strongly enough to write an email of her own to the school (she has her own account), which she sent without before I had seen it. In fact, it was her own, very reasonable take on the unfairness of the process and a suggestion that the school do it differently in future. It speaks volumes that a week and a half later the school hasn't had the courage or decency to reply to her.

Given that the HT of SHHS, for one, has waded in on Twitter to criticise the school (and it was either she or the head of a Surrey indie, I think, who suggested that parents should report CLSG for contravening ISC guidelines) - and according to reports elsewhere, some teachers at the school professed themselves to be quite distressed at what happened - it would be pretty brazen of the school not to try to sort itself out by the next admissions round.

[rala]

Channing too has done the same last week. For those who haven't confirmed their acceptances with a deposit, full offers were withdrawn and put on waiting list.

[MrsChips]

Us too Rala and I feel that they seem to be getting less flack than City for some reason, perhaps because they've got a reputation for being a 'nice' school while City's always seemed more cutthroat.

Did you want Channing? It was always a frontrunner for us but I let their system make our decision for us.

[ToadMum]

Channing too has done the same last week. For those who haven't confirmed their acceptances with a deposit, full offers were withdrawn and put on waiting list.

Presumably Channing don't want to risk admitting girls for whom their school is not first choice, either. As I have commented on another thread, two girls' schools who have decided that 'ladies' don't have to be 'gentlemen'

I wonder how many of those who 'cared enough' about their DDs to be on the doorstep early enough with a cheque in their hot little hands at CLSG have also done the same at Channing? Because of course, as someone else has said, if it is really about your DD, the price of the deposit as an insurance policy is worth it, surely?

[rala]

Yes, Channing was one of my daughter's favourites, but we didn't want to make the decision in a rush although there was a disclaimer in the offer letter. It is disappointing to have offer withdrawn, but it may turn out to be better in the end!
Considering it is half-term holidays etc. I do not know how these schools expect acceptances within 3-4 days of offer being made.

[mb74]

There will be some movement with Channing WL places. Note, not a great deal of emphasis on STEM at Channing until recently and lots of focus on humanities and performing arts. The Head Teacher struggled to find the Chemistry lab when showing parents around on the Open Day Junior school has had to completely revamp the maths curriculum due to less than impressive results. Depends on where your daughters interests lie.

[MrsChips]

Cor I didn't know that about science at Channing, I did know about lack of DT. You've made me feel a lot better.

I think we probably wouldn't have ultimately opted for Channing. I think part of me liked it all along because I felt it likely to be offered so I persuaded myself of its merits. We never came near to getting the bank transfer over to them whilst on holiday as we took it as fate.

Worth also pointing out that their required deposit is 3k as opposed to 1k at other schools.

[Sla212]

It's one thing to be thinking about the school & their expectations at this time of year but you will be aware that for many this whole process has been a journey of years & if & when you are fortunate enough to be the recipient of offers, most people know their order of preference & so they do accept pretty quickly.

A good number of children from my child's school sat all for all the indies & selectives last year....most did not get into all their choices....4 girls ended up going to Channing & significantly, for 3 of them, it was the only school that they got into....it was half term but they all said yes immediately, people are aware that these offers might not wait around.

Perhaps deep down Channing wasn't for you & that's why you hesitated?

Interesting my child was on call as a Yr7 to help at his offer holder morning earlier this week, it was a very low turnout as nearly all the places had already been allocated, it would seem people accepted early & didn't feel the need to take another look at the school.