ToadMum wrote:
expat wrote:
CLSG, Channing and Highgate have used exploding offers for the last few years. I haven't heard that SPGS has done so. But the advice we received from our independent primary was that almost all independent secondaries reserve the right to withdraw offers if they are too oversubscribed; our headteacher strongly suggested that we prepare to make our decision as soon as we had the details of the offers. Unfortunately, you may be leaving yourself at risk of disappointment if you plan to use offer-holders' days to get more information or to have a last look around. At CLSG the offers exploded before their offer-holders' days each of the last two years, as they also did at Channing last year.
Didn't the matter attract some rather pithy comments from ?the head of one of the independent school associations / the HT of another London indie last year?
According to our headteacher, these schools have been told off by the HMC repeatedly but no further action has been taken. Apparently, CLSG's position is that they are not breaching any agreements because they do not require acceptances before the first Monday in March, and that all schools must have the right to rescind offers if the number of acceptances exceeds the school's capacity. Of course, nearly every other school makes offers anticipating a number of acceptances consistent with the number of children they can educate. CLSG makes offers fully expecting far more acceptances than the places they can actually provide. Hence their need to rescind offers before the official deadline every year.
So it seems that CLSG, etc., are abiding by the letter of the agreement, though not by the spirit. I have to wonder about the social fitness of governors who approve this sort of arrangement. I wonder if they're all investment bankers.