332 children didn't get a place at secondary school in Hackney this year...

[SixSpotBurnet]

This is not just children who didn't get a place in their first choice school, mark you - this is children who didn't get a place at all.

I feel very despondent about this. DS1 is in Year 4 so we don't have much time to ponce about with this. I really don't want to move but I am starting to think we are mad to stay .

Whereabouts are you, SixSpot? Are you near Stoke Newington School, for example?

That is bizarre. What do councils do in these situations? - trade the children into other boroughs?

Or might the figures include those who chose (for special reasons) to go out of borough?

I think there was a similarly scary story about Lambeth a few years back - several schools have been built since then. Any similar plans in Hackney?

Do you know how many of those who didn't get places were in that position because their parents didn't do the form filling properly? It happens I'd consider what the admissions criteria are for your local schools and how well you fit into those criteria before panicking on the basis of that figure.

Bink, when it happened in our area, a former special school was opened as a temporary secondary school. I don't think the figure will include those who chose to go out of borough - they're all in the scheme.

The new KPMG Academy should be open in time for DS1's year but that's just one school, it won't even scratch the surface.

We are the other side of Hackney from Stoke Newington School. What puzzles me is that lots of children from London Borough of Islington get places at Stoke Newington School .

Bink, you know my DS1 - do you think he would have any chance at all of passing private school type entrance exams? If we got some tutoring?

But why should you have to??? It is outrageous. In my part of london there are always a few (around 20 or so) children who get no school, but Hackney sounds appalling.

Mind you - even the children who do get allocated places find that they are expected to trek miles across town and it is just not practical. The whole system is a farce.

This is one of the reasons we'll be moving

I just so don't want to move. We all like our house, I like the primary school the DSs attend, DS2 (ASD) is getting really good support....

SSB - yes I think he would. I really do - and to convince you I mean it, it's ds1's focus that is the clincher. That is the kind of thing independent schools like - the child that gets hold of the lesson and runs with it.

The tutoring question is an interesting one, though. A side of me says ds1 doesn't need it (see above); another says the experience of those groups is salutary in itself - it was when my ds did not get on in one of those groups (& was asked to leave & was quite happy to ...) that I realised that pursuing the Highly Selective route for him was a mistake (at least at the age he was then, 7). Especially it will show you whether ds1 enjoys being with other, fairly competitive, bright types - ds, at 7, surprised me by not enjoying that.

There's the selective state school option, too, SixSpot. The Latymers and all that.

Thanks Bink . I do really appreciate that. I think the only fee-paying school within striking distance of us is City of London though and that is insanely competitive - I think ControlFreaky said 700 applications for 70 places. I don't want to set him up to fail, iyswim.

Porpoise, are there really any selective state schools left? We're not RC or anything useful like that .

Yes, there's Latymer in Edmonton. And QE Boys (somewhere else - sorry haven't been there).

Another private option might be Forest - quite different to City Boys. Worth a look.

I did have a conversation with DominiConnor (remember him?) about Forest.

I will look up Latymer and QE Boys.

By way of private, people go to City, Highgate, and UCS. Also Forest, which looks miles away but I think put on a special bus. Forest is not as selective as some of the others. Logically, Bancrofts should be accessible from Hackney too, bt I don't know anyone there.

By way of state, people go to Latymer (selective -- very), Mossbourne, Petchey, the St Mary Magdalene Academy, Islington Green and EGA. I know a couple of kids who commute to the Anglo-European school at Ingatestone (via Liverpool Street). Raines Foundation in Bethnal Green is also meant to be okay.

Latymer and QEB are generally considered harder to get into than any of the private schools.

Blimey, I do remember DC - where's he gone?

QE is miles though

Laytmer is quite an easy commute if you can get on the train at Bethnal Green or somewhere.

I think the applicant / places ratio is close to CLS though...

I'd say fewer and fewer children from Islington go to Stokey high these days - teh catchment has shrunk dramatically over the last few years (500m i think)

I will have to pick your brains a bit, Frogs,when we go out! I don't know anything about Highgate or UCS.

Obviously we'd be delighted with Mossbourne but getting in is a total total lottery as far as I know. Gah!

You're right, Bundle.

Am in Islington (but v close to Stokey) and there were many disappointed yr 6 parents at ds's school this year.

ooh porpoise, where are you????
we're just over the park, nr finsbury park, my dd's go to st joan of arc

am in highbury. my ds's at t'other church school down the hill from yours

I think Stoke Newington School would be too arty/meeja/luvvie for my uber maths-geeky DS1 .

(Which reminds me, I meant to say - re the selectivey thing - I have never forgotten your ds1 adding up faster than my ds can, & my ds watching with a seriously respecting expression.)