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MNHQ

School admissions - check out Mumsnet local

24 replies

RebeccaMumsnet · 24/09/2014 13:45

Hi all,

It's the time of year when those of us with DC due to start primary, junior or secondary next September have to make the tricky decision on which school to send them to.

We've teamed up with Schoolguide.co.uk to provide listings on Mumsnet Local for all the schools in your area - complete with links to Ofsted reports, maps and pupil/teacher ratios.

To take a look at the schools near you, go to your local site, click on Childcare & Education in the green navbar and select the sort of school you're looking for - alternatively, enter the name of the school you're interested in into the quick search on your Local homepage.

Please do go and have a look, and pay it forward by adding reviews of your DCs' schools to help others with the mind-boggling decision.

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MNHQ

YetAnotherHelenMumsnet · 24/09/2014 21:53

Hi all,
Just to say, we are taking note of your comments, and will report back.
Thanks.

MNHQ

RebeccaMumsnet · 25/09/2014 09:56

Good morning all,

Many thanks for your feedback.

The Schools Guide auto populates the schools info that we have, we have been in touch with them this morning and will iron out some of the specific issues with your help.

We will keep you updated when we know more.

Thanks again.

MNHQ

RebeccaMumsnet · 25/09/2014 12:34

@LilithTheKitty

There doesn't seem to be a local site that covers the Wirral?

Hi Lillith,

Your closest site is Liverpool.
Please do have a look around and if there is info missing near you, do let us know.

MNHQ

RebeccaMumsnet · 25/09/2014 12:35

@ElizabethMedora

Where is the information supposed to be? I can't see any school listings on my local site Hmm

Hi Elizabeth,

If you PM me with your local site name, I can help you navigate.
Is there nothing under the Childcare & Education header for your site?

MNHQ

RebeccaMumsnet · 25/09/2014 14:06

Hi all,

We have heard back from Schools Guide who say:

"We pride ourselves on the accuracy of our data - data is what we do and its relevance is critical. We currently update the site every six weeks with Ofsted reports and Department for Education additions. Nowhere should there be issues raised that are described as "woefully out of date."

"We do have to wait for publicly available verified data from the DfE and Independent Schools Council (it's released in January each year for the previous summer's results; so we are waiting for 2014 data to be release in January 2015) and that may be where the perception may come from that we may be lagging behind. But if there data is publicly available, we have it."

We are sending over some case studies from this thread and emails we have had in to see if we can figure out where the issue stems from. Hopefully we will have this sorted soon.

Apologies to those who have tried and not found the information or have found incorrect information, please do keep posting as this helps us to build up a picture of where the issues are and helps us to resolve them.

Many thanks again all.

MNHQ

RebeccaMumsnet · 25/09/2014 15:28

Hi both,

Would you mind emailing [email protected] with the name of the school and your local area for my attention please and I will see what is happening here.

Thanks so much for your help.

MNHQ

JessicaMumsnet · 26/09/2014 10:11

Hello,

Thank you very much for flagging up specifics it's really helpful to us to be able to diagnose problems. We're always testing and improving so really appreciate everyone who takes the time to helps us with that. Thanks

We've checked our data feed and that all seems to be running as it should so we're also looking into other possibilities.

School Guide are also checking their end. They get their info direct from DfE and OFSTED published sources so it should be as accurate as possible. Please do continue to let us know if there's a specific school that seems wrong and we'll investigate on a case by case basis.

A couple of people have mentioned 'missing schools' or schools that shouldn't be in a certain area.

Each local area in Mumsnet Local is defined by a series of postcodes. It's quite a challenge to get all those postcodes right so if there is an area that looks wrong please let us know and we'll check what postcodes are being included or excluded.

We do hope this to be a valuable source of information not only for an overview of the data but also crucially for Mumsnetters to share reviews. It's the chance to see what other Mumsnetters think about a school that we hope will make it different and useful.

MNHQ

JessicaMumsnet · 26/09/2014 10:21

Hi ElizabethMedora it sounds like your area could have the wrong postcodes, would you mind emailing [email protected] with details of your local area so we can check?

Thank you

MNHQ

JessicaMumsnet · 26/09/2014 10:57

Thank you both, that's really useful to know. It's true postcodes aren't always the best measure for all areas. They can be useful in some situations as you point out but for others less so!

It would be a considerably bigger undertaking to change the structure of Mumsnet Local but it sounds like something we should have a think about, particularly in regard to how people want to search for schools.

In the meantime, have either you found the map useful?

We hope that part of the usefulness will be in Mumsnetters sharing their thoughts about local schools. So although only four schools may be in your catchment you might benefit from another Mumsnetter saying that School 1 is especially good for X and School 2 is fab for Y.

MNHQ

JessicaMumsnet · 26/09/2014 12:16

PseudoBadger sorry about that, we've fixed that now.

(Fair enough ElizabethMedora, it is a very personal choice)

MNHQ

JessicaMumsnet · 26/09/2014 15:27

Hello Dad164 Do you mean this listing?

That entry hasn't come from School Guide but from the school manually adding it. Possibly they felt the open morning would be of interest to people living in Islington but it's out of date so we've zapped it now.

Thanks for flagging to us!

MNHQ

JessicaMumsnet · 26/09/2014 16:56

Hello there, we're afraid that was our error. Someone, sometime thought to add W7 as a islington postcode... We've removed it now so those schools should have gone.

Definitely not a Tech fault though who are in fact entirely blameless - aside from somehow not predicting and accounting for random human error when they did the database integration. Shock Wink

Shall feed them Cake and Wine instead of firing.

MNHQ

JessicaMumsnet · 26/09/2014 17:31

Hello petalunicorn thanks for emailing us.

The last update School Guide did from OFSTED was four weeks ago we believe and will be updated again in two weeks so it's possible that if an OFSTED report was published in the last few weeks it isn't appearing yet. We'll look into your case though and flag it to School Guide if something is amiss.

We feel it might be useful to some to have reviews and top level data in one place but completely appreciate that it's also useful to go direct to councils too. Thanks

MNHQ

JessicaMumsnet · 26/09/2014 17:31

@NickNacks

Please could some consideration be taken into those areas with the three tier system. We have middle school and high school admissions at the same time you have secondary.

In mums at local the three tier school system is pigeon holed into the two tier labels (primary and secondary) which just leaves guess work as to which catergory you have out our schools in to.

Thanks NickNacks that's a really good point and something we'll have a think about.

MNHQ

JessicaMumsnet · 01/10/2014 13:17

Hi,

We've yet to find a case of schools actually being missing. Unfortunately though, sometimes people aren't finding the schools they'd expect because of an issue with how Mumsnet's local sites are defined.

For each local site we tell our system the various post code prefixes that represent that local site. So for example, "Richmond upon Thames" was defined as "SW13 SW14 TW1 TW9 TW10 TW11 TW12".

Schools Guide receive data from DfE and Ofsted and this contains the school's post code. For example Trafalgar School in the borough of Richmond upon Thames has a post code of TW2 5EG. Therefore, despite it clearly being in that borough, our system wasn't showing it in that Local site, because TW2 wasn't in the definition for Richmond upon Thames.

We've now added TW2 to Richmond upon Thames so that school, and all other schools with a TW2 post code will now appear.

Postcodes for a given area can sometimes be a bit tricky. There are some towns which have a variety of prefixes and there are various other anomalies, not to mention good old human error.

In the case of Belfast you're absolutely spot on - it has been defined as postcode BT but that clearly isn't specific enough so we've refined it to BT1-17 and BT29. Hopefully you should get more relevant listings now.

If you spot any other missing schools then please do let us know and we can check its postcode against the postcodes for each local area.

Thank you

MNHQ

JessicaMumsnet · 01/10/2014 13:30

The school admissions process can vary quite dramatically from area to area and sometimes even from school to school so our listings of schools aren't intended to be a replacement to using government resources.

We've always had school listings on our local sites but they were a bit sketchy in their coverage in the past because they weren't coming from official sources.

We're hopeful that now our local listings will compliment the existing tools out their and give Mumsnetters a place to look up an overview of the information, see what other Mumsnetters think and share their own reviews of a school.

We're keen to keep improving so if there is other things you'd like to add or explain more feel free to mention!

MNHQ

JessicaMumsnet · 01/10/2014 13:32

@KittiesInsane

Ours has now appeared, thanks. Why are the listings full of paediatric first aid courses and 'procedure in case of school closure' guff, though?

They shouldn't be really, in the past we relied on people adding listings so unfortunately some sites have got some ahem, less useful entries. Any you spot do report and we'll remove asap.

Thank you

MNHQ

JessicaMumsnet · 01/10/2014 19:20

@PythagorousPlannedIt

I live in what could be called south Crouch End, which means that although we are in Harringey, we are very close to Islington, with Islington children coming to Haringey schools, and Harringey children going to Islington schools, so around here the borough boundary not a useful division, yet mumsnet local is based on Boroughs?

It isn't always ideal basing on boroughs we agree. When local was first built we based everything on postcodes as the way to divide the areas but appreciate that doesn't fit in all circumstances. School listings are especially difficult because of the small areas of some catchments and overlaps.

MNHQ

JessicaMumsnet · 01/10/2014 20:29

@wigglesrock

Also on Belfast and Northern Ireland local pages, there is no information at all. There's no age range even. It is literally the name of the school, not even a full postcode. If you look at the Co. Antrim pages there are several schools, with the same name, it doesn't even tell you what town they're in, you need to look at the totey map.

I don't know if this is because we don't have Ofsted and the data is being transferred or whether it's a case of couldn't be arsedness.

Hello, definitely not a case of couldn't be arsedness. The info is taken from OFSTED so that is an issue. We've asked School Guide to clarify though and will let you know their thoughts.

MNHQ

JessicaMumsnet · 01/10/2014 20:31

@autoUpdater

MNHQ - Thanks for adding TW2 to Richmond upon Thames. However, there's another postcode missing - St John the Baptist Junior School is in KT1 4.

Great thanks for letting us know, there may be a small problem in that we define by only the first part of the postcode so we'd have to add all of KT1 which might not be ideal. We'll have a think about that one. Thanks

MNHQ

JessicaMumsnet · 02/10/2014 11:11

Thanks autoUpdater that's good to know!

MNHQ

JessicaMumsnet · 02/10/2014 11:13

wigglesrock Update for you. School Guide have been working on improving the info they get for Northern Ireland and have said more will be available for us during October.

MNHQ

JessicaMumsnet · 22/10/2014 09:05

@MsHerodotus

I have given up trying to look at our local site as it is incredibly slow - presume it is separate from main mumsnet - a franchise or something?

Hello, sorry your local site has been playing up for you, we'll take a look. could you let us know which site you're having trouble with please? If you'd rather not say here please email [email protected].

MNHQ

JessicaMumsnet · 22/10/2014 09:10

@cowbiscuits74

MNHQ has this been abandoned now? I can't find the schools I am looking for tnx

Hello, It's a very large database of UK schools so it probably should be there but it may your local site is missing a postcode. Would you mind emailing the name of your school and the name of your local site to [email protected] and we'll take a look.

Thanks so much for your help.

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