Does anyone have experience of this admissions policy or similar?

[tethersend]

... For an as yet hypothetical situation...

I live in the glorious borough of Tower Hamlets, which is changing its school admissions policy and introducing catchment areas. I was very pleased at the thought of this- however, two things have taken the shine off:

1. We are at the edge of a catchment area; the boundary is at the end of my road.

1. In the event of oversubscription (a given here), they will allocate places not by random ballot as planned, but by nearest alternative school. To me, this seems to be a return to allocation by distance, but with even fewer choices than before.

So, effectively, I had three possible schools my DD could attend- now I have one, and it's awful.

My preferred nursery is around the corner, and we have been offered a place for DD for September, but knowing now that we will be out of catchment (despite being 450m away) for the school that most children go on to, I am reluctant to send her there as it will mean a whole new group of friends will need to be made.

I am within catchment for a really nice school 0.8 miles away, and have also been offered a place for DD at the nursery; however, the awful within catchment school is closer than this one, so it looks bad.

I don't know which nursery place to accept- the fantastic nursery with no chance of a peer group to follow or the nice nursery attached to a school we will likely not get into.

My ideal situation would be for her to attend the nice nursery and then the attached school. Would we have any grounds to appeal at all? Not hopeful.

I should add that DD is currently at another pre-school and is in Early Years Action with an IEP for her social skills and what may prove to be selective mutism. Would this make any difference?

Any advice at all would be most welcome.

Am happy to PM names of schools and catchment areas if that helps.

Thanks in advance- sorry for the stream of consciousness post!

Can you clarify what you mean by "nearest alternative school"? It would seem counter intuitive to allocate places to those nearest to an alternative school as that would pretty much guarantee that those living closest to the school would not get a place.

If your daughter gets a statement of SEN you will be asked what school you want her to attend. There are only very limited grounds for the LA to refuse your choice. So yes, her problems could make a difference.

Thanks for reply.

DD very unlikely to get a statement.

'Nearest alternative school' applies in the event of oversubscription only- so places will be allocated to children within the catchment area who have no other school nearer to them IYSWIM.

This seems to effectively render the catchment areas meaningless, as all schools in the borough tend to be oversubscribed; this rule will mean that they only take children living nearby. In fact, they are worse than meaningless for us, as they have prevented us from applying to two of our three nearest schools

Can you find out exactly what the admissions criteria are? Round by us some schools will prioritise children who are attending the nursery attached to the school. Are you still allowed to indicate a preference for a particular school? If it's not oversubscribed you should still have a chance of getting a place surely even if you don't live within the catchment area. Or have they removed parental choice entirely? As the PP said, if your DD gets a statement for her SEN, you will get first choice of school, but just to warn you, statements always used to take at least 6 months to come through after the assessments and the decision was made to go ahead with statementing, although this was a few years ago and things might have changed.

Took too long to reply sorry! That sounds like a daft system.

That's ok tabby- I really can't fathom the logic behind it... It was touted as a system designed to shake up admissions so that schools were admitting from an area wider afield than they currently do; yet with this one caveat, they have ensured that exactly the opposite will happen.

Or am I interpreting it wrongly?

It sounds like a fancy way of allocating places according to who lives closest. Thinking about it though, if your DD has been offered a place at the nursery, wouldn't she have a good chance of getting into the school anyway, due to numbers of kids her age within the catchment area IYSWIM? Or are there more children in the nursery than in reception? You might have grounds for appeal if she doesn't get it, although infant classes can only have a maximum of 30 children per teacher.

SchoolsNightmare-

"So if your DD had a letter from her GP and consultant or specialist saying she must stay at the school where she attends nursery because any lack of continuity would be potentially damaging to her condition and set her back, you could get the school of your choice without having a statement and without relying on catchment areas."

This is interesting, thank you... DD is currently being seen by the borough's EY advisor and the health visitor, so will await the outcome of any assessments etc.

Unfortunately, TH has now decided to go with Nearest Alternative School as a tiebreaker instead of electronic ballot, which at least would have been fairer. I spoke to them this morning, they have not yet updated their website to reflect this.

They just seem to have undermined the whole point of the policy- which I actually think is a really good idea- with this tiebreaker option.

I agree tabby, it seems like it's back to square one and everyone will have to attend their nearest school and nothing will change. Apart from some nearest schools are no longer an option. Attending a school's nursery has no bearing on their chances of gaining a reception place unfortunately- and yes, nursery places are much easier to get than reception places here.

I hate this. It's making me really sad. I think I might be becoming one of those parents

Do you know if any other boroughs have adopted a similar policy?

And thanks for the advice WRT paper trail- thankfully this predates the change in admissions, so should be some sort of case.

Bumping in case anyone has experience of a similar system... might try and change title.

Changed title bump

Thanks again SchoolsNightmare, I will have a look at Ealing. Interesting that Richmond are changing to the system TH has just scrapped...

I'm puzzling over how the tie-break will actually work. Presumably, instead of being ranked by distance to the school in question, the chidlren will be ranked by distance to their nearest alternative school.

I have certainly heard of LEAs where the admissions categories go

looked after children
social/medical need
siblings
children for whom it is the nearest school
other children in catchment
other children not in catchment (Or in some places these last two would be replaced by "all other children, according to distance to school". )

The purpose of the "nearest school" category, where it is used, is to try to give children at least one school where they can be pretty certain to get place. What TH are canvassing is something slightly different, ie "children for whom the next alternative school is farthest away".

The London borough which I knew used the "children for whom it is the nearest school" category, I have just discovered, no longer does.

If you're speaking to TH you could ask whether they have done any modelling of how much difference the new criteria might make. A lot is going to depend on the geography of the LEA, I think, and the degree to which "nearest to this school" and "farthest from alternative school" catch (or not) the same children. If (like schools around here) reception classes are often three-quarters full of siblings, leaving very few places available in other categories, I suspect it won't make much difference because those few remaining places would go to children living on the school's doorstep, under either system.

On the specifics of your daughter's situation, I have to nitpick over SchoolsNightmare's comment that

The information does say that medical and social needs come before catchment so any child accepted as having a strong social or medical need can attend the school that their medical professionals agree is the best one for them.

The medical/social category doesn't quite work like that. Applications under this heading are usually referred to a med/soc panel, which considers whether the child has a medical or social need which that school is better able than other schools to meet. That isn't the same thing as it being the best school for the child. So, for example, the panel will be looking at whether that school has some special provision, such as a unit for visually-impaired children for a child with poor vision.

From what you have said here, I am not confident that your daughter's selective mutism (if that is what it proves to be) would fit within the definition of a social/medical need, as the need seems to be about being with familiar people rather than any specialist provision which the school can offer. Where needs are not statemented, they usually have to be very well-defined and beyond what a school could be expected to manage; otherwise, schools are expected to be able to cater for children with a wide range of needs and conditions. Staying with a peer group doesn't usually fall within medical/social need and wouldn't be winning grounds at an appeal, especially if (as in most London primaries) it's an infant class size appeal.

Thanks PanelChair; although does not sound at all hopeful.

The boundary of the catchment areas could not be any closer- it divides my road in half, meaning DD cannot go to the same school as our neighbours. We are now out of catchment for our nearest school

It just really, really, sucks and I am so upset. All my plans WRT nursery places to minimise difficult transitions are now out of the window.

Good luck with your appeal, SchoolsNightmare; location is a significant difference to my mind, and one which another school can't provide. But I know that it doesn't always work like that...

SchoolsNightmare, yes, the EY advisor is advising that we have as few transitions as possible; I think if I can follow this up with other professionals it will be our best chance, even though it is a slim one. I think I will accept the nursery place at the school and just start compiling evidence.

I really didn't think that I would have to do this to secure a school place for a school which was not my first choice.

Thank you so much for the advice.

SchoolsNightmare ? First of all, remember that there?s a difference between getting into the med/soc category for consideration of the initial application ? as I mentioned earlier, that?s usually a decision for the med/soc panel ? and satisfying the appeal panel that your child needs a place because of a medical/social issue.

A child with mobility problems who needs to be at a school within the distance they can manage to walk could be accepted as a social/medical need. Much depends, as ever, on what the professional's letter says. A letter saying "Ms SchoolsNightmare really wants her son to go to this school" won't help much. A letter saying "Master SchoolsNightmare has [medical condition] and can only easily walk x metres. This school is the only school within x metres so in my professional opinion he needs a place at this school" might well convince the panel, especially if it is one of several different arguments in favour of admission. However, you need to bear in mind that (depending on your circumstances) the LEA could well be arguing that your son could easily get to the allocated school by bus. This is a secondary appeal, isn?t it?

The distinction I?m trying to make is that there needs to be a demonstrable link between the need and what the school offers. Generally, as I said, that will be some sort of specialist provision but (probably most often for children with mobility issues) it could be proximity to home or (say) having flat access and no stairs.

What it isn't, though, is a general facility for children with a medical condition to get into their first choice school, when the preference is not related to any need the child has but is a preference based on (say) the school?s academic performance.

Tethersend ? Assembling evidence from EY professionals is good. Your problem is that the ?my child wants to stay with friends from nursery? argument is (over)used at initial application and appeal and is not usually enough to put the child in the social/medical need category and/or win an appeal. LEAs and appeal panels know that most children cope with the transition to school and soon make new friends. You need to demonstrate why your child?s needs are greater than that. The opinion of the EY adviser sounds like a good start.