Labour reviewing school admission criteria

Yeah it’s crazy how many people drive. Our walk to primary was 30 minutes, but we’d past this house that was 5 minutes from school, they’d pull off the drive as we walked by and they’d be pulling back on it as we walked home! It’s ridiculous how lazy some people are!

Or you’ll just get levelling down and all dc will find disruption and lower goals.

Its easy to say its selfish not to like it. But its also a pragmatic view.

If you have several schools in close proximity, a joint catchment area with some random allocation makes sense. So central London or Manchester etc.

It doesn't make sense in areas of poor public transport or where schools themselves are spread out.

More money for Pupil Premium could help a lot. Pay teachers more to work in struggling schools to attract better teachers

My family are academic and I am a foreigner. I look forward to putting my child in a good school with academic kids. If mouthy little Tyler or Chantelle who disrupt the class constantly gets moved to my kids class, I will consider moving my kid to a better school and it will be a loss. Schools only do well with students and parents who do care about education and value it.

However, legally the Council would have to have the ability to direct all schools (including church schools, academies) and not just LA controlled schools, to offer the same proportion of priority places. Not sure how this would work. Whether it would change yearly or be up to eg 25% of demographic. So 25% FSM places living within 3 miles. They will have to pick a percentage that won’t change the whole nature of the school. Teachers choose to teach in certain schools. If the culture is changed overnight, they leave. That often happens with new head changes too.

The issue perhaps here is that an outstanding school is possibly outstanding because parents are majority wealthy (can afford the expensive houses in catchment) and support the school financially - our local infants (the outstanding one) has teslas etc parked outside at pickup …. It always raises loads of money when it has sponsored dances, fetes etc and always affords good school equipment as a result.
I wonder how long outstanding schools will remain outstanding if the intake rules change..

It’s the same where I live. Most of the children at the school live in a very small local area but so many drive anyway. The family two door up from me drive to school. It’s a 6 min walk. And no, there aren’t any hidden disabilities, they aren’t rushing to get to work, they are my neighbours, I know them. They are very open that they can’t be arsed to walk with some of the trouble makers (which is true, there are kids swearing and running about the roads, parents shouting and swearing, it’s not some lovely little walk to school).

But the parking around the school is so bad, they have to leave way before we do and sit outside waiting for the gates to open and end up parking almost the same distance on the otherside of the school on really busy days 🤦🏽‍♀️ All that happens is, everyone gets there at 8am and 2pm and just sits in their cars waiting, so even then, spaces are limited.

I would have children go to their local school, but give schools in deprived areas enough funding to reduce class sizes from 32 to 26 or something if that sort.

I think many responses here are quite selfish. The country is in a mess after the former government and there is very little money. Something needs to be done.

we need to improve social mobility and this does not happen if we let people with money be able to buy their way into catchment areas where they are in a little bubble with each other.

good and outstanding schools should at least have a large quota of children on FSM. That would ensure that those children also have better opportunities as they will be surrounded be high achieving children and benefit from that.

if an inadequate school had more determined parents, that school would improve as well.

This would be a good idea where I live. There are two sought after co-ed comprehensives that all pushy parents move into catchment for (1 mile only), during Year 4/5 and that many with kids with SEND, fight to get EHCPs in time, to get priority admissions there, and free transport. Meanwhile, the FSM rate is lower than the wider area and quite significantly so.
I do not think it would be a big deal for the schools to have some additional priority places for FSM, as long as those are kids within 3 miles and the council does not need to fund the transport. It would be the FSM kids from educationally motivated homes that would choose the schools, and so the kids would do well there.
In London, the academies with poorer demographics, but still doing well, those are poorer demographics albeit with motivated parents (often immigrants). That is why the schools do well. A school needs parental support. I doubt they could force anyone to go miles away so giving some children with poorer economic backgrounds a choice, without having to pay up for catchment, would be a good idea. I assume it will just be a few priority places.

It will also cause chaos for working parents. I've chosen to live 5 mins from school because I've got to get to work, i don't have time for a lengthy school run because someone thinks a poorer child from 5 miles away should be shipped over here. I'd have to reduce my hours and pay less tax. Meanwhile how is the other kid meant to get here? Their parents are probably working long hours in low wage jobs and have the same issue.

This is bonkers. If the local school isn't good enough, address that issue. Improve the school.

You couldn't do this where i live. The village is quite affluent and the one primary school has basically just enough places for the kids who live there.

If you gave some of the places to poorer children from the nearby towns, the local council would then by law be required to provide transport as village children would be given places at schools 3 miles + away. It would cost a massive amount.

The parents round here all drive their little darlings to school anyway.

What a mess. Good luck getting students through traffic here, the chugging fumes and no local schools.

It’s only an mn post so no hoping necessary.

You are assuming there are busses to catch - that go in roughly the right direction.
A bus pass is no use if there are no busses!

Well, you’d better all hope I’m never in charge! I would abolish faith schools, then introduce fair banding, school admission by ballot and means tested free transport for everyone of school age.

Just to say re my first post. That to be given a free travel pass applied to all children at all schools in the local authority area. Irrespective of the financial situation of parents.

As long as the journey was over 3.miles as the crow flies.

IMHO, schools in wealthier neighbourhoods are good because parents actually do some decent parenting (teaching good manners, accountability and expectation setting), children are fed nutritious meals at home and the parents are heavily invested in academic outcomes of their children (pushing to achieve, private tutoring etc). This is what makes those schools good, not just being in some neighbourhood.

Going back years. Do local authorities still give free bus passes to children age 11 and over who have to travel more 3 miles to get to Secondary school?

If so travel problem and cost solved.

Yes, but for some reason, people won’t see that.

The people I live around aren’t unhappy with their lives. When I first moved here, one of the mums in dds class couldn’t wait to show me a clip of when she was on Jeremy Kyle.

There is such a misconception that people are miserable and they want to “better themselves”.

When I first moved to where I am now, I had always lived in a middle class bubble. I used to snobbish wonder why they wouldn’t accept help. Now I look around, and they all seem happier with their lives than I am with mine, I think I’m the mug to be honest.

There’s a group of people in society they’re trying to reach that just can’t and won’t help themselves. Doesn’t matter how much money you shovel in their direction, it makes no difference. Neither the parents nor the children take education seriously and it’s a waste of everyone’s time and resources trying to drag them up to standard, it’ll never happen.

If this is a real policy then it makes zero sense. Labour should focus on tackling the problems in poor performing schools before just moving children around.
I feel that there are other measures that should be dealt with first. e.g updating the curriculum, sort out SEN resourcing and fix the issue with lack of discipline.

There are a group of people who do not want help, it requires too much effort to change. Aspirational parents (rich or poor) will try to find a way, that is why you can have outstanding schools in deprived areas e.g. Tower Hamlets

Also using the measure of FSM is likely to miss a large group of working people who do not qualify for FSM but are just about managing. Why should they miss out?

Thirdly, how are they planning to fund the additional transport costs for bussing children around. Not all regions are funded like London.

Social engineering at it's worse. I really, really, hope they do not implement this.

Another Labour class war - they need to be more concerned about how they are going to pay to educate all the children that have been displaced from private education. I’m so bored of paying the amount of tax that I do and then they take my money and treat me like I’m in the wrong for earning money - it’s like I should apologise for my existence. I’m also an employer with 30 staff who can’t afford to recruit anyone else because they’ve fucked me with the employers NI rise - this government are going to put us in to an employment recession so school places will be the least of their worries. The amount of NI I am now paying (per annum) is at least 1.5 more people I can’t give a job to and I’m not getting any more for my money than I was prior to April. If they carrying on fucking over all the business owners they will run out of other people’s money.

My kids all went to grammar schools with no tutoring and so did I and my siblings. My parents wouldn't have even thought about tutoring

I and both my siblings went to our local grammar. My primary school practised the Kent tests a bit ahead of the 11+, that was the extent of the tuition we got. They didn't make a big thing of it, it was just something we did.

Arguably, if kids need extensive tutoring to pass the 11+, they are not actually grammar school material.

In my friendship group at the grammar school, there was one girl who lived on the council estate, some who lived in rented houses, some whose families were owner occupiers. One of the dads worked at the docks, two were police officers, one was starting his own business. Not sure I ever knew what any of the others did.

Urgh. Keir Starmer wrecking things again because of the giant chip on his shoulder. He is screwing people who contribute and indulging those who play the system (super rich and benefit scroungers)
I can’t wait till he is gone