Selective school offers: accept, decline or keep waiting?

Three rules decide it for almost every family. Once you know them, keeping the offer while you wait is usually the safe move.

Waiting on a higher choice? Check this cycle's Selective reserve bands, updates and decision rule.

1. Declining is final

   You can accept an offer now and decline it later. Declining is final^{2NSW Education · 12 October 2026 · Published}: once you decline, you can't get the offer back.

2. A new offer replaces the old one

   If a higher-choice offer comes and you accept it, your first offer is declined for you. ^{2NSW Education · 12 October 2026 · Published} You never hold both places at once.

3. The reserve decision date

   It's 3 December 2026, 3 pm (Sydney time)^{1NSW Education · 12 October 2026 · Published}. After it, a child who holds an accepted offer leaves every higher-choice reserve list. ^{2NSW Education · 12 October 2026 · Published}

Everything else, from the trip to friendships, is about which school suits your child. The comparison below sets out what each choice does.

Answer three questions: your offer, whether your child is on a higher-choice reserve list, and which school your child would rather go to. The helper also reads today's date. Nothing is sent or stored.

Every case, in one table

The helper reads the first row that matches your answers.

You choose between the two, by the new offer's due date. Accept it and your first offer is declined automatically; decline it and you keep the first. ^{2NSW Education · 13 October 2026 · Published}

1. An email arrives

   The Department emails you to log in and see the offer in your dashboard. ^{2NSW Education · 12 October 2026 · Published}

2. Choose by the due date

   Accept or decline in the dashboard, or the offer is lost. ^{2NSW Education · 12 October 2026 · Published}

3. If you accept

   You get a new enrolment email, and the earlier enrolment is cancelled automatically^{2NSW Education · 13 October 2026 · Published}. Complete it within 2^{2NSW Education · 12 October 2026 · Published} weeks.

Year 7 reserve offers come by email, so watch your inbox and junk folder. Phone offers are a Years 8 to 11 process, answered within 24^{5NSW Education · 12 October 2026 · Published} hours.

These are worked examples, not real families. None of them can say whether a reserve offer will come.

It sets the rules and leaves the choice to you. These are its points, in our words.

Other families' stories about how far a list moved aren't official evidence. The Department doesn't publish movement by school. ^{2NSW Education · 12 October 2026 · Not published}

Can we hold two Selective offers at once?

No. At first your child gets one offer, from the highest choice they qualify for. ^{2NSW Education · 12 October 2026 · Published} Accepting a later reserve offer declines the first one. ^{2NSW Education · 12 October 2026 · Published}

If we accept an offer, can we change our mind?

Yes, until you decline it: declining is final^{2NSW Education · 12 October 2026 · Published}. After the reserve decision date, holding the offer also takes your child off higher-choice lists.

Can we decline to get a lower-choice school instead?

No. Declining doesn't move you to a lower choice^{4NSW Education · 12 October 2026 · Published}. Only list schools you'd accept, so this never matters.

Will the Department phone us about a reserve offer?

Year 7 reserve offers come by email, to view in the dashboard^{2NSW Education · 12 October 2026 · Published}. Check your junk folder if you're waiting.

Does accepting a Selective offer cost anything?

No. There are no school fees to enrol ^{6NSW Education · 12 October 2026 · Published}, and selective schools charge no attendance fees except boarding. ^{7NSW Education · 12 October 2026 · Published}

When do selective offers move?

When other families decline. A decline passes the place to the next child^{2NSW Education · 12 October 2026 · Published}. How far each list has moved is not published^{2NSW Education · 12 October 2026 · Not published}.