Bishop Gilpin parents - And you call yourselves Christians?? (MERTON SCHOOLS)

[NutellaWithEverything]

Name changed because I need to rant about my DS not having been offered a school place and don't want to be outed. I am in Wimbledon and my nearest school in Bishop Gilpin. My DS has not been accepted to start in Reception this September coming even though it takes us three minutes to get there. Yet, they take in children from the other side of Wimbledon even though they have to drive through town to get there. And why?? Because they go to the right churches. So last November there was a request from the Council to add another Reception class but parents voted against other children from their own community benefiting from attending a good school. They felt it would be in the detriment of their school's community feel!!!!! AM I THE ONLY ONE WHO THINKS THIS IS SELFISH, SHORT-SIGHTED, UN-GODLY AND JUST PLAIN WRONG?????????????????

On the plus side, loads of places will come up at the end of KS1 when they go off to prep schools. I think they're undersubscribed by quite a few places in KS2 (or were when I looked around). Good luck with the waiting list.

I know a few people who got into St Michael's with references frrom 'friendly' vicars about involvement in the church life and attendance. One family is Catholic ffs. But the local Catholic school isn't anywhere near as good, so there you go. The whole area is a joke.

so find another school..

dementedma, you obviously don't live in Wimbledon

could not agree more you do not have to go to church to be christain you are what you are but insulting others i belive is not a christain act!! what ever that is ment to mean

anyway they have to put your children somewhere so wait and see no good moaning about something you cannot change really :)

teaforone, if there is no point in moaning, why have they invented this thread?

Of course YANBU, I like convienence and it seems silly that you are going to have to travel further away when there is a school on your doorstep.

I hope that you find somewhere where you son will be happy and successful.

teaforone, if there is no point in moaning, why have they invented this thread?
lol YOU invented this thread or am i missing somthing!

"Faith schools, if state-funded, are obliged to accept a percentage of neighbourhood children"

Well, that's never been mentioned in all the training I've done over the last decade as a governor of a C of E school and member of the admission appeals panel. Which Education Act is it, Springchicken?

no, I don't live in Wimbledon. Where I live, the local kids go to the nearest school and that's that. Unless the nearest school is a faith school and you are not of that faith, in which case kids of the faith get priority and you go to the next-nearest school. Seems quite straightforward.

I think she meant 'topic', try and think laterally.

I have just read Bishop Gilpin admissions policy. Out of 60 spaces 30 of them are set aside as community places so even though they are a faith school they are also catering for the local community.

So yabu and it is just though luck that you didn't get a place and i am sure you are not the only person local to the school either of that faith or not who didn't get a place.

I've just looked the school up. It's VA and has a maximum 30 faith places. (of 60). So unless they've made a mistake in your application (giving you grounds to appeal) there were 30 children who were community place siblings or simply nearer the school than you.

Minuting of the consultation about school expansion is also on the website - some of the objections are big logistic issues (need to split site, lack of space).

Are there any other schools on better sites for expansion? Are there bulge classes anywhere nearby that might help you?

OP I don't understand why you are more angry with Bishop Gilpin and the fact that it is a faith school and has not offered your DS a place than you are angry with the Borough of Merton which has a large number of local primary schools, none of which appear to have a vacancy for your son. This is a Merton issue, not a Biship Gilpin issue. Bishop Gilpin may not have the infrastructure or overall space to deal with a three form entry school. Furthermore as you are not a practicing christian, you cannot reasonably expect a place to automatically be found for your ds just because the school is closest to your home - there will be children living closer who are eligible for the open places.

Bishop Gilpin is a church school and therefore there are more foundation places available than open places and the foundation places are already oversubscribed by practicing christians.

It was ridiculous to assume you would get an open place just because you live three minutes walk away - there is strong competition for those places.

On the funding front I don't believe a church school receives as much funding from local or central government as do non church schools. The church schools are responsible for maintaining the buildings and the overall fabric.

If people don't like church schools they don't have to send their children to them but if they do like them and want their children to go there then they need to fulfil the admissions criteria.

Nothing in life is an entitlement OP - so my apologies but YABU, VVYABU.

Well its not a question is it
Not asking if she is being unreasonable because she has not got anything to be unreasonable about if she is asking if it is unreasonable to moan no its everyones right to have a little moan but there is nothing anyone can physical do about its life find a different school what is moaning going to do about it....nothing.......
It is a faith school but its full so she cannot get in thats the answer no room you should have put down a second choice or in some places a third ..

In most cases there will be more places for practicing christians but it is not the case with Bishop Gilpin. If you read the admissions policy they split the 60 places available 50/50. By doing this i bet there is also practising christian children who wont get a place.

It is obviously frustrating for the op that her dc didn't get into BG but the real issue is a Merton one. The next school, or anything reasonably close and/or decent will also be massively oversubscribed. Children in her area are overwhelmingly likely to go private because of a lack of places locally and the council will be relying on this.

The bulge year at Wimbledon park is unlikely to help her because that only means that it will take children up to about 450m away.

Teaforone, absolutely no, not at all. I'm an atheist myself. Faith schools in general have a shitty track record for finding ways not to admit DC from poor or chaotic homes, or DC with special needs - faith schools often have the lowest percentage of DC on free school meals in the area - the point is that faith schools select on the grounds of 'being prepared to pay lip service to the superstiton' ie make extra effort, which is what some parents will do to ensure a place - and parents who don't speak much English or who are skint or who have to work at weekends or who do have disorded lives, are the ones who won'[t be able to put on the weekly performance of church attendance.

The 'living on the doorstep' thing is amazing, really, considering those 100 metres have to be done in big cars, preferably 4x4s.

I suspect a lot of the 'open' places would go to siblings of church place children because they would have preference over distance in the open category, leaving very few places for children physically close to the school. The parents then wouldn't need to jump through the hoops required for a church place second time around.

And once the second child is in too....RELAX, lie ins on Sunday mornings!

"I don't understand why a non church attender would want their DC to go to a church school. Surely the ethos of the school would be contrary to your own?"

I come from a non-religious family but spent two years at a convent school when I was a child.

I don't remember having any problems fitting in or getting a good education at he school. I didn't take part in mass and felt a bit left out, but it wasn't a serious problem.

Faith schools follow the same academic curriculum as non-faith schools.

Choosing children on the basis of their PARENTS' religious beliefs is unfair and illogical.

You suspect wrong as if you look at the forms available on their website you will see that sibling is only on the foundation places.

Can I point out that many church schools require the church attendance to be kept up for younger siblings. Ours certainly did and dd did not get a place automatically. Admittedly she was higher up the list than a non sibling who met the rules for church attendance but if we had not met those rules then she would have slipped behind a church applicant and would have joined the queue with the open place applicants and the place would have been awared based on distance.

Still, once a child is in, he's in, won't be thrown out because mum & dad have suddenly decided they have better things to do on Sundays.