We fully understand that awaiting the outcome of your application for a secondary school place can be stressful, especially as allocation day approaches.
To try and alleviate some of this anxiety, we have put together some FAQs that we hope will help you better understand the allocation process for places at Yavneh College.
When are offers made?
The first round of offers takes place each year on 1 March. You will be told by your Local Authority which school your child has been allocated on that day. If you have applied online, you will be notified as to when the system is available for you to view your offer. If you did not apply online, a letter will be sent out to you on 1 March.
Please do not contact the school on 1 March, as we will not be able to advise you if you have been offered a place at Yavneh College or any other school.
Who makes the decisions – the school or the local authority?
The formal offer of a place at Yavneh College comes from Herts, via your own Local Authority. Herts act on our behalf and administer the system. Yavneh College sets its own admission arrangements and instruct Herts in which order to offer places, in line with our admissions criteria.
I got offered a place at Yavneh College, which I want to accept – what should I do next?
Please login online and follow the instructions prior to 15 March 2022.
I was allocated a place at Yavneh College, which I do not want to accept – what do I do next?
Please login on line and follow the instructions to decline the place, as soon as possible so that the Yavneh College place can be released and offered to someone else. You must also notify your Local Authority of your decision.
Please do not hold onto the place if you are not going to accept it.
Will there be a bulge class for year 7 entry, September 2022?
There are currently no plans to open a bulge class for entry into year 7 in September 2022.
I wanted a place at Yavneh College, but was offered a lower preference school or a school I didn’t even apply to – what should I do next?
We can only offer 150 places and there are far more people than that who have applied to the school.
We do not know the order in which you have put your school choices – only Herts know that. If all the schools on your list are heavily over-subscribed (which could include Yavneh College, JFS and JCoSS), there is a chance that you will not get any of them.
You should contact the school where you have been offered a place and your Local Authority to explain your circumstances and seek advice.
You will automatically go onto our Continued Interest (CI) list, unless you tell us otherwise. If you still want a place at Yavneh College, you can submit an appeal (see below).
How does the CI list work?
Yavneh College maintains a CI list for places that become available after 1 March. The first round of offers must be accepted or rejected by 15 March 2022.
The CI list will be ranked according to the oversubscription criteria, as set out in our admission arrangements. Should a place become available it will be offered to the highest placed applicant on the CI list. Your child’s name will remain on the CI list unless you tell us otherwise.
When are the “rounds”?
After offers are made on 1 March, there is generally some movement as families do not always accept the place that they have been offered. For example, whilst they might have been offered a place at Yavneh College, they might choose to send their child to a private school.
As a result, there may be some places that arise after 1 March and these places can be offered – these are the additional ‘rounds’ of offers and this can continue for several months after allocation day.
The rounds are co-ordinated by Herts and they make a new round of offers every two weeks or so, if there are places to offer. Historically, a few places become available in this way each year, but this cannot be guaranteed.
If you are offered a place for a school you ranked lower than Yavneh College and are happy to accept it, but still wish remain on the CI list in case a place becomes available, you should let your Local Authority know. Your child can stay on the CI list for as long as you wish.
Why do some people who put Yavneh College second get places ahead of people who put it first?
The system gives your child a place at the highest school on your list that has a place. We do not know the order in which you have put your school choices – only Herts know that.
Herts will offer places in accordance with the list supplied to them by Yavneh College, using the admissions criteria for oversubscription and distance measured from home to
school by Herts. If there is someone that lives closer than you, but has not placed Yavneh College first, they may be offered a place before you, even if it was not their first choice.
What happens if there are children who get Yavneh College who really want JFS or JCoSS and vice versa – is it possible for the schools to administer a swap system?
This is not possible because all schools have different admission arrangements and it is not allowed in any event as each school can only offer places in accordance with their own admission arrangements.
I want to appeal for a place at Yavneh College – what should I do next?
Everyone has the right to appeal for a place at their first choice school.
You should log on to your online application and click “register an appeal. If you did not apply online, you must contact your home Local Authority for advice. Appeals must be lodged by 4pm on 25 March 2022.
Appeals will be to be heard by end of June 2020, excluding half term, and Shavuot.
Your position on the CI list has no relevance to any appeal and the appeal panel will not be told where you are ranked on the CI list. If your appeal is unsuccessful you will remain on the CI list unless you tell us otherwise.
Appeals are designed for cases where you think the system has operated unfairly or where your child’s situation is so acute that only Yavneh College can meet their needs. It is not designed for cases where you simply do not want the school you have been allocated or where you disagree with the school’s admission arrangements.
Each case is heard by an independent appeal panel and considered on its merits, but appeals are unlikely to succeed where the grounds are simply that you wanted a Jewish school and have not got one, or that you have been allocated JFS/JCoSS but wanted Yavneh College or that you or your child is really distressed at not getting the school you or they wanted.
Statistically the proportion of appeals that are upheld is small.
