Feedback wanted on primary school waiting lists - namely St J&Cs

[Susan]

Hi

Just looking for some feedback on waiting lists for primary school places. I appreciate there are lots of factors involved and noone can say for sure what will happen, but just wanted to get an idea of what our chances are based on previous years.

We are now 16th on the waiting list for St Johns & Clements (our 1st choice and nearest school) have dropped from 12th place last week : ((

Jusy wondered has anyone managed to get a place so far down the list in previous years or should we just accept its not going to happen and move on

Many Thanks

Susan

[Caroline_S]

We were 6th on the waiting list for St John's last year and were not offered a place. Just before Christmas they contacted us to see if we wanted to stay on the list - by then we were number 2 so we took our name off. Sorry - that's not what you were hoping to hear, I'm sure. But I think it varies a lot - maybe we were unlucky last year.

[Susan]

Thanks Caroline for the feedback, I expect its a long shot : /

[JDR]

We had this a few years ago for St Johns and lived approx 200-300 metres away. We actually ended up at Bellenden for 2years and requested we were kept on the list. We transferred in in year 2 and she was happy there within a week. We now have 3 children there and are very happy

[landsberger]

It all depends on

a) the 12 people in front of you and what they do and

b) the number of late application ("lates")

The guidance directs the admissions authority - in this case the school governors - not to treat a late application any different from an on time one, although not all schools do (the Council does - it has to). A late could be for any reason - people too feckless to apply on time, or more commonly, people who have recently moved into the area. This is why you can move up or down, so it's a bit of a misnomer to call it a "waiting list", as such, more like a "priority order" list, as the date of application is usually irrelevant.

It all depends on the popularity of the school as well. If it is massively oversubscribed, the likelihood of waiting list movement is small. For 14/15, there were over 200 applicants for 60 places (I asked).

[Susan]

Thanks everyone