Scrap school catchments now

[Momentumummy]

If Labour wants to eventually end parents buying privilege through private schools, it needs to go after school catchments. How can it be fair to decide schools by distance to gates when it often depends on ability to pay rent or mortgage which will usually be higher in catchment for good schools?

The only fair system is a lottery one by borough (at least for secondary when kids are old enough to travel alone). You should be allocated a place within your borough but it should be randomized and not based on distance to gates.

No we live in a small village, the primary school here has a Reception intake of fifteen kids per year. Why shouldn’t those places go to children who actually live in the village?

Funding alone will not fix this. We need an equitable distribution of parents from all backgrounds sending their kids to each school. Private schools ending will address some of that. Grammar schools ending would help. By far the biggest impact would be ending selection by house price.

I think quite the opposite.
Introduce fixed catchments as in Scotland and other countries to take away all the inefficiencies of the application process and uncertainty for children and families about where they will end up.
School has a clear cut community, there's a straightforward path for progression from primary to secondary so transition can be well supported.

@Momentumummy funding won't fix this but you think making children travel up to 10 miles a day to go to school will? Have you any understanding of the impact on low income families? I've a friend who wasn't able to increase her hours and is still reliant on UC because she has to do the school run still for flipping 14 year olds! Because there is no safe way to travel the 4 miles independently and as I say the local authority, due to funding I might add, don't provide travel.

Doesn’t that just entrench privilege if you can afford a certain catchment from day one @GoingWithTheWasp ?

Travel should be funded for all secondary pupils. Guarantee this is cheaper than pumping millions more into classrooms to level up results when having a more diverse set of classmates will do more not just for results but for society and wellbeing.

That’s not the answer - the answer is surely that all schools are on a par so the incentive to move close to a particular school is not there. Difficult to achieve though. But making children travel and go to random schools will just add to the already increasing non attendance. Plus who will pay for travel? I don’t think many families will want to pay for daily buses when their children could have walked.

When you say travel should be funded is that bus passes or school buses. With a ballot from village A we could get any one of 5 secondary schools. Using public services doesn't work as some schools you'd need to leave at 6am to get to and you're only talking 3 or 4 children attending each secondary so school bus doesn't work either.

Practically this would be a nightmare. People travelling far more which should be discouraged. Imagine what school runs would be like.

I don’t think randomising this on a local scale would work. there are three schools in our town. My kids go to the one that is locally considered the best, although a few years ago it wasn’t. All three are pretty much the same and filled with mostly middle class kids. I’d be happy with any of them.

the schools in the nearby city are a different story…

The benefits of being able to walk to secondary school (generally in towns and cities) are immeasurable for students and the local community. Fewer cars/ buses = less pollution. Shorter commute = more time for clubs, hobbies and homework. Families within a 15 min radius = better opportunities for community cohesion. Secondary schools where parents do get involved do see a corresponding improvement in that school.

The 'pointy elbowed' middle classes only move into catchments because those schools are good. So let's make the schools better by investing in them (ref London Challenge). Yes schools with DA kids are more likely to be able to access PP but this isn't actually a huge amount more.

You're looking at it from the wrong angle OP. Examine why some schools are better and take it from there.

@Momentumummy and what will that do for the environment unnecessarily moving around hundreds of thousands of pupils, and not to mention the missed opportunity for a walk in the morning and afternoon particularly amongst a population getting less and less exercise?

Many professional jobs for high education don't pay so well are insecure or very stressful compared with trades etc so the most intelligent who support schooling won't be able to afford best catchment so it may even out. People earn loads from mostly talking nonsense (influencers) who won't push their kids at school so much

Sorry but this is really daft - all this information about protecting the environment the only sensible thing to do is by distance so hopefully most kids can walk to school or have short bus rides.

OP is obviously an urbanite who didn’t get her kids into her school of choice. In practice, outside inner cities, this proposal would be an absolute shambles & make students and parents lives much trickier.

Would you divide huge counties up? Without division of counties we could have a 70 plus mile commute to a school!! Division would still create catchment areas, just bigger ones. We're incredibly lucky to only have good or outstanding schools within at least a 20 mile radius.

What a crazy suggestion. Maybe efforts should be made to improve the poorer schools? And all of the social and economic problems that exist is these areas.

Imagine the traffic! No thanks.

But the OP doesn't want clear cut fixed catchments.
She wants schools mixed in terms of social demographics. So parents who buy a house in an affluent area wont get their kids into a school full of other children whose parents could afford to buy in the affluent area. They'll travel 10 miles to go to school in a less affluent area

This!

The country of Powys is 200 square miles

The kids that NEED a smaller school that focuses equally on the less academic side instead of hothousing and vice versa the kids that need pushing to achieve their potential - what happens when there is no tick box at all to express preference?

Also what about those with faith criteria?

This is just covering up the actual problem. Why do more expensive areas have "better" schools? They don't. They have more engaged and motivated students because their parents tend to be more engaged with their education.

If you want to raise standards for all, you need to focus on the root cause - not just cover it up by mixing the disinterested with the engaged to make everyone mediocre. Focus on helping parents to see the value in education. Focus on raising engagement from statistically deprived groups. Focus on providing the basic standard of living so children are ready to come to school and achieve. Fund social services and community support properly. Fund SEND services. Fund NHS preventative measures rather than trying to fix everything after the damage has already been done.

People, don't even waste your energy on this.
Next thing OP would propose is that pupils who can afford tutors shouldn't use them as it's unfair. Pupils who can afford certain clubs and activities shouldn't do it because it's unfair.

It's someone who's unhappy with the school her kids go to but instead of looking for ways to move, she'll just wait for 'government to fix it'.

Your idea is absurb, my child goes to our local high school in our catchment area. He walks the 20 minutes to school every morning and does the same trip back home.

If schools were allocated by your suggestion, the nearest high school outside of our catchment is 2 bus journeys.

So by your logic, (assuming school buses wouldn't be feasible due to the logistics of children attending a multitude of different schools instead of an ample 20 minute walk to school) he would have to get up much earlier to ensure he catches the very unreliable bus and hope that there is no delays so he can catch the connecting bus.

Additionally for those that don't wish their children to do such a trip all it is going to do is cause congestion to the surroundings of the schools for those who choose to drop and pick up their children. I am sure local residents will be delighted to have the streets rammed with waiting parents, causing congestion!

Something may need to be done about schools not performing well but calling out catchment is simply not the answer!

If they don’t turn up for their local school then what makes you think having to pay for multiple buses journeys every day would help? Unless you think that councils should pay to bus hundreds of thousands of kids round every day?