Waiting Lists

Independent Schools as an alternative to Grammar

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Elena123
Posts: 7
Joined: Thu Sep 18, 2014 3:15 pm

Waiting Lists

Post by Elena123 »

I am slightly confused as to how the waiting lists, particularly for North London Consortium schools, come into play.

My DD is on the waiting list at FHS and the registrar says that although she is "well placed" on the list, there has been no movement yet and perhaps there won't be for another week as parents are taking a long time accepting offers.

We have a firm offer from another school outside the consortium and we have to accept the place by the 4th March.

This puts us in a really difficult position as we really like FHS but can't risk loosing our secure place.

My DD is from a state primary and only sat entrance examinations at 2 schools (and only one in the consortium)

This process is excruciating :cry:
CPM1771
Posts: 130
Joined: Tue Jan 31, 2012 2:10 pm

Re: Waiting Lists

Post by CPM1771 »

I agree with you, it is very painful. All the shools will have over offered and are simply waiting to see whether the assumptions they make have come true. The reason why movement comes late is that is that most of the schools will need a significant number of offers rejected before they will use the wait list. It simply depends on how they use their offer system and wait lists - and hardly any of them will tell you. This differs hugely from school to school. For the most part if they thought there was no chance of a place they would tell you. However they need to keep certain numbers hanging on incase they were incorrect in the number of offers they made. Essentially they don't want to put you off too soon because they will obviously want to make sure their spaces are full. There is nothing to do unfortunately except wait ! You then will probably have to make a choice about whether you are prepared to lose deposits etc. to ultimately get the school you want.

Great that you have a back-up, but I agree that it's very hard to move on until you know the situation.
Ladymuck
Posts: 1240
Joined: Wed Jul 01, 2009 2:04 pm

Re: Waiting Lists

Post by Ladymuck »

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