Hello all,

So I’m really starting to think we aren’t going to get offers for any of our independent applications. We applied to a range of independent schools. My daughter is at a good state school, and performing very well, often reported to be one of the best in the class so performing better than some of her classmates who have received multiple offers so I wasn’t expecting to be in this situation at all .

The question is, what options are there for us now?

Anyone have advice?

Thank you!

Presumably you did submit your CAF for a state school place as well as applying to the indies?

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Yes we did, but Indie was always our plan for yr7 onwards, I just don’t understand what has gone wrong.

Has she had interviews at these schools? Sometimes children may be academically able but do not present in the way that attracts a school (and different things attract different schools.)

Some independents are very competitive so she may have fallen foul of a cohort that is better than her - did you apply to a range of indies? Some are less competitive - if you haven’t applied to them, they might consider her. I don’t know where you are in the country - you could consider boarding but that would be very expensive!

What is your catchment state school? What are your concerns about her going there?

She has had only 3 interviews, she is quite young in her cohort and not overly confident. I didn’t get a good feel from her about how they went.

We are not guaranteed a good state option although we should hopefully have a place at a local church secondary which is rated highly, but I think it’s hit and miss, dependent on the intake). My biggest concern is lack of extra-curricula activities at state. She is not the sort of person to go looking for things outside of what she knows or her comfort zone, again I think lack of confidence is the issue, honestly she would like to just sit and read or write poems or colour all day if it was her choice. I feel like she hasn’t really found anything she really loves to do yet, hence I feel a school to drive her on a little or encourage her to try different things is the best option. This was why I was convinced Indie would be the best option.


My husband won’t even consider boarding as an option.

I assume we can contact schools for places as they come up, has anyone pleaded the case with a school on not having any offers??!

So are you sure your daughter definitely hasn’t received any offers? I ask as I’m still waiting for all 3 independent schools which won’t be released until next Friday. I’m sure you’ll get onto the waiting list if your daughter made it to interview stage so don’t worry. Did she sit any grammars?

So are you sure your daughter definitely hasn’t received any offers? I ask as I’m still waiting for all 3 independent schools which won’t be released until next Friday. I’m sure you’ll get onto the waiting list if your daughter made it to interview stage so don’t worry. Did she sit any grammars?

No we are waiting to hear from 3, the others we applied to were not successful, hence confidence is low for offers. She got to second stage of TGS, but again since we haven’t done so well for indies, I am not confident of that coming off.

Would your daughter be happy participating in the extra curricular activities that an independent school may offer? Could you not look into activities that she could get herself involved with either in the evenings or at weekends if she does end up going down the state secondary route?

Yes, we try this already as our state primary has very poor extra curricular options, but my husband and I are both working all week and we aren’t around and able to transport her to fit things in, so unless they are local it’s tricky to find stuff. Also because of her low confidence, she is reluctant to go to things where she doesn’t know someone especially if it’s new.

I wish I’d taken her out of her current school to indie in Y4 but she is so happy there and has a good group of friends that It would have been very tough on her. I can’t help but feel I have completely let her down.