New Secondary Schools for Richmond 2

[BayJay]

I'm starting this new thread because the other one of the same name has filled up.

lack of primary places

I would just like to point out that sacred heart school in teddington is taking a bulge class. The head of educational commissioning stated that faith places were not required in teddington instead community places were required hence Hampton wick infants was expanded,

however there is still not enough places.

It is totally unfair that a bulge class is placed in a faith school that is not as popular as schools such as Collis which is so oversubscribed

I KNOW THAT SACRED HEART BULGE CLASS IS FULL OF NON CATHOLIC CHILDREN THERE FIRST PREFERENCE WOULD OF BEEN COLLLIS /HAMPTON WICK

i have set up a Facebook group to try to pressure the council to provide further community places locally

www.facebook.com/CommunityBulgeClassTeddington2012

Hi playgroup, and welcome to the thread. I assume you already know about the Richmond Inclusive Schools Campaign?

yes totally whole street knows and nursery class

Just to add on Facebook links and under provision of infant classes this year. There is a facebook page called children without choice - based for Hampton children although last year we also linked up with other areas. There are at least 17 children in Hampton alone with no school place - significantly up on last years numbers at this stage last year. We have been mentionned previously on this page - the Maharishi school have quoted the site! However whilst currently I am most concerned about this years current crop of unplaced children I am now struggling even more to accept that there is any need for another faith primary school (albeit with 10 places for non catholics) when there are vast swathes of the borough that are so under resources for places. Surely all parents can see that each child is born equal and thus should have equal opportunity to gain a school place.

April 18: Primary school offers day - 91 % get a school of their choice (Council press statement):

As demand for primary school places reaches an all time high, more in-borough applicants than in previous years have been offered a place at one of their preferred schools ? 91% compared with 89% in 2011.

On 18 April 2012, Richmond Council will be making the initial allocation of reception class offers for this September. Seventy-five per cent have been offered a place at their first preference primary school, which is a rise from last year?s figure of 73.5%. Eighty-eight per cent have been offered a place at one of their top three preferred schools, compared with 86% last year. Those who have not been offered any of their preferences will have been offered an alternative ? or will be offered one in the coming weeks.

To meet demand for places, last year the Council announced additional investment to expand the borough?s primary schools, as part of a ten year strategy. This year, an additional three permanent forms of entry, for 90 additional children, will be provided at Hampton Wick Infant, Orleans Primary and St Stephen?s C of E Primary, and St Mary?s C of E Primary . . The provision of the 60 additional places within St Margarets and central/east Twickenham has been particularly helpful in greatly reducing the number of children in those areas who would otherwise have been unplaced at the initial allocations stage.

In addition, Archdeacon Cambridge?s C of E Primary, Nelson Primary and Sacred Heart Primary will accommodate an extra class in September; and St Elizabeth?s Catholic Primary and Sheen Mount Primary will provide extra classes as part of their respective shared forms of entry with other schools . .

Ofsted praise Hampton Academy's progress (RTT Apr 21): Ofsted has praised the academy?s progress since it opened. Two inspectors said they did not observe any unsatisfactory teaching . . and students? attainment was improving. They also praised how the academy, due to move into new buildings later this year, cared for pupils who showed challenging behaviour. Their report said: Despite the ongoing construction of the new build, the leaders and managers have been unremitting in establishing the Ofsted approach to learning. This is leadership at its best in relation to communicating a shared vision about the future, which all understand and are working towards, despite continuing obstacles.

The academy?s sponsor Kunskapsskolan has developed the Learning Schools Trust education model that provides pupils with more control over their learning.

Sue Demont, principal of Hampton Academy, said: We were really pleased that the inspection team not only recognised but highlighted the strengths of our new learning model as a Learning Schools Trust academy, while confirming the positive relationships which characterise and underpin the work of our school community.

See also: Ofsted Monitoring Visit - Press Release and Stop Press!- Ofsted Report just received.

Here's a link to the full Ofsted report. The overall judgement is that the academy has made "satisfactory progress towards raising standards".

With regard to the Sacred Heart bulge class, I found some very revealing stats on past primary school applications in this FOI response on the council's website.

There has been only 16-32 first preference applications to Sacred Heart (which you would expect from Catholics local to that area) for the last five years. So a lot of that bulge class would be non-Catholic.

Overall applications jumped from 72 to 139 in 2011 - but that's when it had the advantage of a link to Teddington. Compare that with 368 applications to Collis and 457 to Stanley in 2011. This suggests to me that good community schools are much more popular than faith schools.

muminlondon - I think that 2011 the first year of the pan-London application form. This meant that up to 6, rather than 3 choices could be made. This is why there was a big jump in numbers in that year.

muminlondon - this data clearly shows that demand for community primary places is significantly higher than for Catholic primaries. Hence the priority should be to create a new community primary. Selective data was shown in consultation to justify demand for a new Catholic primary - another example of the bias shown to justify the Catholic VA school proposals

Rather than comparing fiath with non-faith demand, I think its fairer to say that the first-choice demand for Outstanding schools is higher than the first-choice demand for Good schools.

St James RC Primary in Twickenham, which is Outstanding, has a very high number of first-choice preferences. Sacred Heart RC Primary in Teddington is Good, and doesn't.

In both cases the opposite is true for the nearest primaries. Collis in Teddington is Outstanding, and very oversubscribed. Stanley in Twickenham is Good, and not quite so popular. Nearby Trafalgar Infants in Twickenham is Outstanding, and has a lot more first-choice preferences.

Its not rocket science is it?

But BayJay, there are four community primaries in Twickenham/Teddington nearer to the river - Orleans Infants, Trafalgar, Stanley and Collis - and the only new proposed primary is a third RC school. There are 390 places amongst them and first pref demand outstripped that by about 10% in 2011. There are parents who would really be uncomfortable with a faith school so LittleMrsMuppet's point is very important.

What is the council doing to address demand for non-faith primaries in Twickenham? Orleans' reception places will go down by 30 when it's a primary so if demand persists there will be many more parents chasing places there than are available compared to St James's. And that's it - the other schools are already too big. And the other expansions they have made are in Hampton or Whitton, which further away.

I heard they have abandoned the link system now which will surely cause big problems in north Ted/south twickenham where everyone will be too far away to get into Teddington or Orleans. Despite Whitton (twick academy) and Hampton not being v popular, I still think we will suddenly find RuT borough residents v short of secondary school places as those living in Kingston/Ham will be equidistant from Ted school over the footbridge.

Sacred Heart school is the parish school for Sacred Heart church. St James school serves all of Twickenham, St Margaret's,Hampton Hill and Hampton parish churches. Perhaps that explains why the number of applications are higher? As for it not being rated outstanding I believe the results it produces at ks1 and ks2 are above that of other Teddington schools. Not that that matters, but you seem to be implying that it's rating by Ofsted is the reason behind such low numbers. Also those who know the school/parish know that it's entrance criteria are also partly responsible for the low numbers qualifying for entry.

As for it's Teddington school link, it's far from recent. Sacred Heart has had that link for years. Not that many children take it up.

foxinsocks: the implications of the decision to scrap the links have been discussed in this thread; see, e.g., muminlondon Mon 28-Nov-11 20:05:14 and BayJay Wed 30-Nov-11 17:08:29.

See also
Abolishing the ?linked schools? system: who gains? who loses? A forecast for Orleans Park (Oct 10) for a different view to the council's.

noUggscuse - whilst St James school has places specifically reserved for the parishes you mention, a good proportion of pupils at Sacred Heart travel from Hampton, Hampton Hill and Twickenham as it is no further for them than St James's.

I'm not sure what you are implying about its entrance criteria? They are no different to those to the other Richmond Catholic primaries, surely?

The fact is that the reasons for people's school choices are complex. My hasty 'rocket science' comment was off the mark, because you would actually need quite a detailed study to determine people's real motivations.

If a school is very oversubscribed, it may be because its a faith school serving a large parish, it may be because its outstanding, it may be because its got swimming pool, or a large playing field, or a very charismatic headteacher, or a link to an outstanding secondary. In reality its probably a combination of all those things and more. I don't think someone choosing a school for its faith ethos is more noble than someone else who chooses it because it is outstanding, or vice versa.

Muminlondon, I would agree that central Twickenham needs more community primary places, because I know that in recent years people who haven't gone to church (to access Archdeacon Cambridge, St James or St Mary's) have struggled to get a place anywhere. Trafalgar and Stanley catchments don't stretch into central Twickenham any more.

Litlemrsmuppet - St James gives a percentage of places for each of the four parishes so that explains why they get ranked higher. Some end up at Sacred Heart as their second choice, choosing to travel further out to a 'Good' faith school instead of a local outstanding one. The entrance criteria may be similar to others but obtaining a reference off certain priests is harder than others.

Bayjay - It's your prerogative to think parents choosing a school because of a swimming pool is comparable to those who choose to educate their children in a faith environment.

It's your prerogative to think parents choosing a school because of a swimming pool is comparable to those who choose to educate their children in a faith environment

Yes, it is, and I know it's the opposite view to some other people, especially those for whom faith is the most important thing in their lives. However, there are many other families for which sport (or music, or science, or drama, etc) is more important than religion. If the local faith school also happens to also be the best school for sport (or music etc), then in my view a family that chooses it for its sporting provision should have as much right to access as someone who chooses it for its faith provision. That is why I think faith schools should have inclusive admissions.

Of course, others will disagree, and that is why they don't think faith schools should have inclusive admissions.

"obtaining a reference off certain priests is harder than others" - I'm sure you didn't intend it to be, but that is quite a pertinent statement.

You are implying here that even practising Catholics may not be getting references and therefore entry to Catholic schools. Is it right that a child's education should be decided on the whim of a priest?

Chris I was meaning in terms of this thread, it is even more key now to have a non religious secondary school (not that I ever supported the catholic one in the first place). There is a gaping hole in that region now.

Chris, thanks for the links btw. I'm not on here often enough to pick threads up like that without someone linking for me!