Hi
Our local authority gives school allocation on 2 March. Habs and St Albans school need acceptance by 3 March. If one delays acceptance of private schools til 3 March, are they likely to withdraw offers?
I ask because I've heard that private schools over offer and if you delay, you risk losing out!
Any advice welcome.

What does your offer letter / pack from the school concerned actually say? Yes, private schools over offer, but this is because they know that a (possibly quite large, if in London) proportion of those offered places will also have offers from one or more rival establishments. But I think that even the schools which did / do employ 'exploding offers' make this clear somewhere on what they have sent to parents? If the school says, Respond by March 3rd', with no caveat that even before this date, it can choose to rescind offers, then the place should still be available.

You have got another four weeks to think about it, though, plenty of time to formulate plans for the range of possible outcomes vis à vis your potential state offer? Is there a lot of doubt as to how realistic your first state preference is?

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Outside of a dog, a book is a man's best friend. Inside of a dog it's too dark to read.Groucho Marx

Habs don't do "exploding offers", if they make an offer they honour it provided you accept before their closing date. I am not sure about St Albans but if you check with both schools i am sure they will tell you.. I think they have all deliberately moved their offer day nearer to state allocation date for this reason most people understandably want to see all their options before making a decision..

Toadmum
Sorry I didn't write clearly! Offers are made on 14 Feb and according to a friend,it's first come first serve.
Guesswho, thanks so much for the habs information!
Any SAS experienced parents?

Sorry, I misread.. I thought you said offers were made on 3 March but you meant acceptance deadline is 3 March? I would definitely call the schools and ask their advice. They will be well used to this issue! Best luck

Guesswho, indeed I meant acceptance deadline is 3 March.
Does SAS do exploding offers I wonder?

STAHS didn’t have exploding offers last year, nor did Habs, but it’s best to double check. Last year it was just Highgate, Channing + CLSG that operated that way. The schools over offer as many children will get multiple offers. Good luck.

2nd March is National Allocation Day.

It is not just your local authority.

It is the whole country.

HABS and St Albans have timed your deadline to give you a chance to receive any state school offers before you decide about private school offers.

Habs and St Albans will honour your offer until 3rd March.

They do not and never have done exploding offers. It would be foolish of them as many of their applicants are awaiting state school offers, especially HBS, QE boys, DAO and Latymer.

So you need to make your decision now on which school you would choose if you got all state and private school offers.

Then your decision on March 2nd will be straightforward.

DG

I assume you mean, as I did in my post, what the OP's plan would be if it would differ according to the state school allocated? Her DD will only be allocated one state place on March 2nd, the one which she ranked highest on her CAF out of all which could be offered. This could be anything from the first preference school to the nearest undersubscribed school, depending on how realistic the preferences listed were.

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Outside of a dog, a book is a man's best friend. Inside of a dog it's too dark to read.Groucho Marx

State school applicants were required to choose their state school preference by 31st October so the state school preference has already been made. DG