Not much enthusiasm for the WLFS here ? which is fine, not chippy, honest. For those that are interested in applying for a place in 2013 and beyond, you should bear in mind that we only admit 45% of our pupils according to straight line distance. 10% are admitted on musical aptitude, 30% via a lottery within a three-mile radius and 15% via a lottery within a three-to-five-mile radius. So even if you don't live close to the school, it's still worth applying for a lottery place.
I notice the posters here almost all assume that taxpayer-funded secondary schools give preference to in-borough residents and express surprise when it's pointed out that some school or other doesn't. In fact, no taxpayer-funded secondary school in England is allowed to give preference to in-borough residents. (Attending in-borough primaries is a separate issue.) That's been true since a landmark legal case in Greenwich. (Google "The Greenwich Agreement".) So don't assume that because a school is in a different borough to the one you live in that you won't get in. If you don't get in and subsequently discover that the school has discriminated against you because you're not resident in the same borough, you will have grounds for a successful appeal.
In addition, anyone with a child at a fee-paying school who's thinking about applying for a place in Year 7 at a taxpayer-funded school in 2013 should know that the deadline for doing so is October 31st, 2012. I've come across quite a few parents who don't know this and by the time they start thinking about taxpayer-funded schools for their DD or DS they've missed the deadline.
Another thing they're often not aware of: If your DD or DS is "out of year", i.e., either younger or older than is normal for a child in their year group, they shouldn't expect to remain either a year ahead or a year behind when transferring to a taxpayer-funded secondary. Most secondaries ? particularly the oversubscribed ones ? won't accept applications from out-of-year children. So if your DD or DS is a year behind, for instance, he/she will be rejected by most taxpayer-funded secondary schools if you apply at the beginning of Year 6 as too old for a place in Year 7 the following year. You'll need to apply when your DD or DS is beginning Year 5 at the fee-paying school. I'm always amazed that 99% of heads of fee-paying schools don't inform parents of this when they suggest moving their child up a year or keeping them back a year. The end result, whether intended by the head in question or not, is that you're then locked into the private sector through to 18.
This applies to some children at Jacques Prevert, too, who are sometimes out-of-year even though they're in the correct year from the French point of view. We've had to turn down applications from children at Jacques Prevert who, though they're at the beginning of the French equivalent of Year 6, are too young to apply for places at our school.
One last point: The West London Free School Academy Trust is applying to open a primary in Hammersmith in 2013. If you're going to be applying for a place in reception for your DD or DS in either 2013 or 2014 and think you might be interested in our primary, you can register your interest here:
www.westlondonfreeschool.co.uk/primary-school.html
If you fill in this form, we'll get back to you when the time comes to apply. Similar sort of ethos to the secondary: Core of traditional, academic subjects complemented by music, art, drama and sport. Most distinctive characteristic will be lots of specialised subject teachers so an above-average number of lessons will be delivered by subject specialists rather than class teachers, with the percentage increasing as your child moves up the school. All children at the primary will automatically qualify for places at the secondary and the sibling policy applies in both directions, i.e. we'll give priority to sibs whether they're applying for the primary or the secondary.