So much for choice....

[GillW]

Our local LEA have just announced that from next year they are changing the primary admissions process. From now on you are no longer going to be able to apply directly to the schools, but will have to do one application to the LEA, and you will "then be offered one school based on catchment areas and if there are siblings at the school".

So that's it, catchment school or nothing then? We're back full circle to the way it was before they introduced (in theory at least) parental choice.

Does this happen anywhere else, is it just here that choice is being sacrificed for the convience of the LEA?

According to the form I filled in last year for DS1, you dont have a choice, you get the chance to indicate a preference. We apply to the LEA rather than individual schools in our borough. With the esception of any schools with a separate admissions procedure.

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Twiglett, catchment area alone won't cure the problems. It will simply send the prices of housing near "good" schools rocketing thereby creating the non-mix of children you hope to avoid.

If you browse through the education threads, you'll find plenty of "heated debates" about this

i do agree in theory! our catchment primary is ok but secondary school is dire and that is putting me off the primary school cos i want ds to go through primary to secondary with the same kids. bit unfair on the primary i know.....

btw the secondary is really really really bad not just a bit rundown.

Batters, the secretary at the school with the really appalling prospectus (speling!?) told me that she and the secretary at T school compare lists to see who can offer a place to which child. I had a feeling at the time that there was something odd about it. They're not supposed to do that, are they?

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Batters - from what I've seen so far it's not so much going to be a case of "no school knows if you have applied to others", but of applying to the LEA for a primary place in general, rather than for particular schools.

There's a huge difference between our two nearest primary schools in terms of style. One is large (400+ pupils), urban, and has classes of 60 (albeit with 2 teachers/class), the other is rural, has only about 100 pupils, and mixed age classes.

Although we're about 20 metres outside of the catchment area of the smaller school I think it would suit ds much better, as it's a lot closer to the environment he is thriving in now at his small, rural nursery and they seem better equipped to cope with a mix of abilities in the same group.

DS is a start of September baby so will be the oldest in his year anyway, and according to his nursery is well ahead of his chronological age too (they've just put him up to the pre-school group early so he'll have over 2 years of that before he even starts reception). I'm simply not convinced that a class of 60 - some of whom will be almost a year younger, which (anecdotally, but I believe it) often have all but a few who need extra help being taught together would be the environment he would do best in.

I'm already worried that over 2 years of pre-school could mean he isn't challenged enough towards the end of that, and I really don't want his first experiences of school to be that he's bored by it.

So it's not so much a case of wanting the "best" school (on raw results last year there's not a lot between them and actually the larger schools results improved while the smaller schools results dropped slightly, and it also has a slightly higher value-added score) but of wanting the school which would allow ds to do his best.

As Soupdragon says, it means our choices other than accepting a school which I don't believe will particularly suit him, boil down to moving, or paying to go private. Can't really afford to do either.

GillW, as most schools already work on the basis of siblings then distance, it shouldn't really change your outcome. You just have to choose your preferences up front. What it does stop is some parents getting offers from 3 or 4 schools and holding them all until the last possible moment whilst others get turned down by all the schools (being edge of catchment), and only get offered a place once the first set of parents have finally made up their mind. If all of your choices of schools are oversubscribed (as is the case locally) then you do have to think about your order of preference, but at least you should be offered one of your three.

Locally (I live in same area to Soupy) there are still a couple of popular schools which keep their own admissions (one is a faith school, not sure why the other does). This means that even with the LEA application, my friend in the next road was still "rejected" by the LEA (even though she chose the closest 3 schools!), though then got a space at her first choice once the "own admission" schools sent out their offers. Still not fun.

in my area (east sussex) there are no catchment areas, but of course it all boils down to where you live if they are oversubscribed (which the half decent ones are) so unless you live fairly close you have no chance of getting in. we are invited to express a preference for the school we prefer to the lea & a second & third preference, but in practice if you dont get the school you want on a first preference you have no chance of getting into a decent school on a second or third preference because all the places will of gone to children who chose the school as their first preference, this means you get stuck with a c**p school possibly some distance away.
where i am is a very deprived area, the primaries are reasonable but our nearest secondary is a no no. (i would home educate first) it doesnt seem fair that theres a fabulous school about 3 miles away that my children have no chance of getting into unless we upsticks & move into the area (where we could only afford to buy a much smaller house than we have now)

Ladymuck - it's not a case of "You just have to choose your preferences up front". I wouldn't have a problem with that, as long as it didn't mean that, for example applying to a non-catchment area school as first choice didn't mean that you wouldn't get offered a pace at the catchment school beacuse of it. From what they've said so far about the changes it's just going to be apply to the LEA for a place and they allocate the places according to THEIR preferences - what you want doesn't seem to come into it.