to be fuming that one of our local oversubscribed schools was half empty when I looked around it this morning?

[thedollyridesout]

When I challenged the Head about the number of empty rooms vs pupil admission number he said that the school number was set at the maximum capacity of the school hall to enable the whole school to meet together.

AIBU in thinking that that is a rubbish reason?

This school has fantastic facilities and I am sure it could easily accommodate more pupils.

I think YABU I doubt they turn people away for the sake of it. Perhaps the reasons it is so good is that they dont take more than they can handle?

I do sympathize though my daughter didnt get into either of her top two choices and I am less than happy with the school she is in!

Is your area still snowy? Maybe there would normally be more in.
I think assemblies can be really useful and a great benefit to the dcs, but there is no reason they couldn't do 2 year groups per assembly instead of the whole school. That does seem quite odd as a reason.

He did acknowledge that there were a lot of empty classrooms and even appeared slightly embarrassed about it

Apparently the whole school meets 3 times a week and that is 'essential to the ethos of our school'. He hadn't actually mentioned the ethos of the school up to that point .

I should add that it is a VA school and by his admission, comfortably off financially.

They have a four form entry with 31 per form. This number has been increased from 30 in recent years.

I have just done a quick tally and the pupil:staff ratio is 25:1 which seems completely fine to me - better than fine in fact.

The daily act of collective worship is still a legal requirement. Some schools get round it by having KS1/KS2 separate, but that has been questioned by OFSTED.

Forgot link www.teachernet.gov.uk/management/atoz/c/collectiveworshippolicy/

But Pixie, this is a great school with fantastic facilities - it's exactly what I want.

Is this a secondary school ? Were the pupils in the labs/workshops/kitchens/dt rooms/gym. When I was at school these rooms were never used as form rooms so there were always empty classrooms - didn't mean the rooms were never used - just not all the time. As you say it has 'fantastic facilities' maybe they are using them!

It is a rubbish reason, not even sure if it is a valid reason for oversubscription.

I thought the oversubscription criteria had to be set on how many pupils in a class.

I thought all secondary schools had lots of empty classrooms - it is because of the wide variety of subjects taught, surely?

It is a middle school. A lot of the empty rooms were specialist rooms come to think of it.

They are at the very bottom end of their legal requirement according to the Head (ie any less and they would be breaking the law).

I don't think that that is necessarily something to be proud of if a school is heavily oversubscribed.

I am wondering if there might be possible grounds for appeal here?

No trip. What are the guidelines? I thought that 30 was the ideal but I'm not sure about an upper limit. Does anyone know?

Most definitely grounds for appeal.

I could dig out a copy of my appeal (which was successful) for the grounds of appeal and list if thats any help?

I'm a bit confused. Do you mean you think they should be a five class entry? That is really the only way to up their numbers. That decision is surely made by the LEA. If other schools in the area have places available, then they won't increase the number of classes because they have enough total places available.

Is it a middle school - years 4-7 inclusive or a junior school, years 3-6 inc?

I ask because Surrey moved from first & middle schools back to infant and junior and as a result many of the now junior schools have empty specialist rooms because they used to need them when they were middle schools.

Ours has now changed again to a primary and having a small hall is a nightmare when you have dc in infants and juniors as anything that involves inviting parents means that you have to go twice!

Thanks claw. I've got lots of general info on the appeals process. What did you appeal on?

MiissAnneElk - the school was over subscribed by 45 (PAN 124). Five class entry is one alternative that would make more than just me happy. Failing that, I would be happy if they could squeeze just one more in .

Years 5-8 so not under the same restrictions of class size AFAIK.

So they are a proper middle school and therefore need specialist rooms - these aren't suitable for general classroom teaching!

I certainly wouldn't want my 8 year old having to move classrooms every lesson like the do in secondary school which would be the only way they could accommodate extra classes.

But that 'one more' might not be you surely - unless you know that you are next in the list.