New Secondary Schools for Richmond 4

[BayJay2]

Welcome. This is the fourth (or perhaps fifth) in a series of threads about Richmond Secondary Schools.

The discussion was originally triggered by Richmond council's publication of its Education White Paper in February 2011. It started with two parallel threads here and here.

In November 2011 the most active of the original two threads reached 1000 messages (the maximum allowed) so we continued the conversation here.

That thread filled up in May 2012, and was continued here.

It's now November 2012, and once again we're at the start of a new thread ....

"Same sort of article published in Telegraph same date last year"

If its coordinated, rather than coincidental, then it could be some sort of drip-feed of positive news stories in the build up to releasing details of the new wave of free schools in May, although that was later last year (July).

'However if you want to compare with established schools, would it not be better to use national stats?'

Do you have those? I don't think that info is even published by all LAs unless requested specifically.

Some areas allow 6 preferences, some only 3. The offer statistics show total applications to the local authorities but not how many schools to choose from, or how many schools received applications. Some parents use all preferences, some put fewer. But in the way they have been interpreted in ths press release, each preference counts as an application. But this bears no relation to numbers of offered either made or accepted.

I think there were about 250 first preferences last year for WLFS and around the same number of total applications. The LSN network discussed it:

www.localschoolsnetwork.org.uk/2012/04/how-reliable-are-the-school-oversubscription-numbers-if-they-include-applications-from-parents-who-ranked-the-school-lower-than-first-place/

numbers of offers either made or accepted

"Do you have those? I don't think that info is even published by all LAs unless requested specifically."

No I don't, and you may be right that they would be hard to collate and baseline. Probably not worth the effort ... but I don't think its useful to compare the stats with Richmond either. The phrase "apples and pears" springs to mind.

The WLFS admissions policy has a lottery element, which encourages people across several London boroughs to 'take a punt'. I assume that's the main reason its so oversubscribed, along with its high media profile.

There is an article in the RTT here about St Mary?s Hampton Primary School. It received 100 applications from parents as one of six preferences.

The annual admissions brochure doesn't give total applications for community schools, only cut-off distance (no information is given for any church schools). The only comparable stats were in an FOI request for 2011 applications. In that year Hampton Infants received about 275 applications, although a more appropriate comparison would be Bishop Perrin - also CofE and 1FE - at 138 applications. So 100 sounds about right for its first year.

Any info on the other primaries this year or is it too early?

WLFS admission policy:

120 places will be available at the school each year. Ten per cent of children are admitted based on their aptitude for music and, in accordance with the School Admissions Code, priority is given to children with statements of special educational need and children in care. We also have a sibling policy.

We want to ensure that the school serves local families and after we've allocated places to music scholars, statemented children, siblings, etc, we allocate 50% of the remaining places on the basis of proximity.

The remaining places are awarded by lottery, with a majority being allocated to those who live within a 1.5-mile radius of the school and a smaller number to those within a three-mile radius.

WLFS is a 'prep school on the rates' and so naturally eagerly sought after by parents who will otherwise be shelling out for a prep school.

"Any info on the other primaries this year or is it too early?"

The primary offer day is April 17th, so there should be some news towards the end of next week.

"WLFS is a 'prep school on the rates' and so naturally eagerly sought after by parents who will otherwise be shelling out for a prep school."

WLFS is a secondary school (though they are applying to open a primary in 2014). A 'prep school' is a primary school. In any case, I think Toby Young would argue quite vociferously with your description. He pitches his school at the aspirational working class, who couldn't hope to afford private education, and uses the phrase 'comprehensive grammar'.

From this article: "There?s no evidence that the school appeals only to white, middle-class parents. In our first cohort of 120 pupils, 25 per cent are on free school meals and more than a third are black, Asian or minority ethnic ? percentages that mirror the social and ethnic composition of the area. It turns out that small class sizes, strong discipline and high standards appeal to parents across the board, not just the privileged elite. "

Toby Young calls it a 'comprehensive grammar' doesn't he? The 'prep' bit of it (i.e. the primary) is opening in September and will take children according to straight-line distance. It will be interesting to see how the admissions policy of the secondary school changes when children at the primary reach 11.

"though they are applying to open a primary in 2014"
Correction: they have a primary opening Sept 2013, and they're applying for a second primary to open in 2014.

Cross-posted. The primary opens 2013 though, and he is applying to open a second primary (Earl's Court) isn't he? If they were both to be feeder schools with priority that would radically change the admissions policy.

Double-cross-post .

"If they were both to be feeder schools..."

Well they haven't changed the WLFS admissions policy yet, but who knows what the plan is; they have time on their side. My guess is that they'll keep a lottery element, as Toby Y wouldn't want to give ammunition to his critics.

The RTT has a letter from me Schools not achieving p. 27 summarising the results of Chris Cook's analysis of borough performance in the FT Data blog which I set out here in January (Wed 16-Jan-13 16:04:17). I wrote it in reply to an ignorant and complacent letter last week asserting that our secondary schools were rising in the league tables.

Saw that Chris. It'll be interesting to see the impact of Education Richmond in coming years, as it could provide a similar level of support as the London Challenge. It will need to be given time to prove itself though.

BayJay2: thanks for the corrections re WLFS which I admit I haven't been attending to recently so I only glanced at the group photo on their home page which shows pupils young enough to be at a prep school [= up to 13] but too old for a primary school.

The phrase 'prep school on the rates' was applied by a Lib Dem colleague to one of the early free school bids, since abandoned, to go on the Harrods site, I think.

Chris, not sure H&F is a good comparator for Richmond. Of 8 schools taking GCSEs last year, 4 were very selective faith schools and 2 were single sex. The 2 remaining mixed comprehensives achieved results similar to Twickenham academy - although yes, deprivation was much higher, so comparatively they were doing well and have improved.

The reason WLFS is so popular is through lack of choice (shame, then, that WLFS still doesn't take more than half its intake from H&F and its percentage of deprived pupils is less than half that of the 2 comps in question).

I just point that out because you might get a response saying 'this is why it was such a good idea to open a Catholic school - it raises the level of results and provides choice', blah blah, which it does only if you qualify for admission.

Not to overlook the success of H&F's girls's school - with a rate of 73% disadvantaged pupils its GCSE and Ebacc results are truly impressive.

Fulham Cross
Compare Lady Margaret (16% disadvantaged)

The RTT reports: More preferred places for Richmond school children:

The number of children offered a place at one of their preferred [primary] schools has risen for the third year running. Across Richmond, 92 % of children got a place at one of the primary schools they listed, compared with 92 % last year and 89 % in 2011 . .

76 per cent were offered a place at their first preference primary school, compared with last year?s figure of 75 % and 2012?s figure of 73.5 % . .

Grey Court's Ofsted Report has just been published, see here. They've done fantastically well to get a rating of Outstanding under Ofsted's tough new inspection framework, and will set the bar for all the other local schools. Good stuff.

Wonderful news - well done, outstanding Grey Court.

I am a long time lurker on this thread. I have two points on which I would be interested in getting your comments:

(1) The difference in practice between the operation of 50% faith-based admissions and 100% faith-based admissions is minimal as a result of the accretive effect of sibling preference.

An example:

• School is oversubscribed on an on-going basis, i.e. each year has more applicants than places
• 50% of places are given on a faith basis
• 50% of places are given on a non-faith basis, e.g. on geographic proximity to the school but with siblings preferred over non-siblings (irrespective of distance, i.e. the furthest sibling preferred over the nearest non-sibling)
• Where a school is a mixed sex school then the level of siblings will be relatively high (should be double that of a single sex school)
• Siblings of those admitted on a faith basis are not counted as part of the 50% of places given on a faith basis but are counted among the 50% of places given on a non-faith basis
• Over time a larger and larger percentage of those admitted who are not admitted on the basis of having an elder sibling attending will be admitted on a faith basis
• Over time more and more of the siblings admitted will be from families that practice the faith of the school
• This process can be kickstarted in the case of a free school by having the places reserved for the children of the founders of the school be taken from the 50% of places given on a non-faith basis

This analysis has been gestating in my mind for some time, but it was only today when I looked at the admissions rules for the South London Jewish Primary School here sljps.org.uk/admissions/ that I could see how the accretive effect of sibling preference would work.

As to what this says about Richmond, it is that both the Southwark Diocese and RISC made too much of the issue of whether admissions would be 50% faith-based or 100% faith-based as in practice five or ten years after the school opens it will make little difference.

(2) South London Jewish Primary School will be opening in the Wimbledon Synagogue one of the rabbis of which is Sylvia Sheridan. Sylvia is the wife of Jonathan Romain whom I think most of us on this thread know as the spokesman of the Accord Coalition and a vociferous opponent of free schools with faith-based selection. See here from 2011 where he spoke out against a Sikh school being established with 50% faith-based admissions:
www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-beds-bucks-herts-12758800

Obviously, husbands and wives are often in disagreement on many matters (as I know only too well from my own home) but I do wonder that Jonathan Romain seems quite happy to condemn faith-based admissions for Catholics and Sikhs but has been a lot quieter about faith-based admissions for his own faith.

Hello retrorobot, and welcome to the thread.

On point 1, I'd agree that 50% means a lot less than 50% in practice, (although don't forget that many of the siblings taking priority will be siblings of children who took open places).

My local CE primary, which has 60 places, operates 30% open admissions, implying 18 open places. In practice the number of non-sibling open places is usually in single figures. It was 6 in 2007 (the only year I know the numbers for), and they were all within 200m of the school.

The reason people were pushing for 50% locally for St RR is because that is the maximum allowed for new Academies and Free schools. St RR wanted (and got) close to 100%, and it was able to do that because it was (controversially) set up as a VA school instead.

There are many people who would have preferred 0% foundation places, but 50% seemed to be a reasonable compromise to argue for, given the legislation that was in place.

On point 2, that's interesting and I didn't know that. I can see how it might raise eyebrows, but as well as the independent-spouse defence, don't forget that she will be one of several governors of the school, so may well have argued for fully open admissions. If she made that case, and lost the argument, should she resign? Should she issue a statement to separate herself from the decision? I don't think so. School Governors need to represent a united front externally, but moderating voices within them should stay on board rather than jump ship.

retrorobot - on point 2 again, from your description I thought you meant she was a director of the school, but now that I've had time to look into it further, I can see that she isn't. This is the Director list. Reading your post again I think you just meant that she's a rabbi at a synagogue that is supporting the setting up of the school, which is a much looser connection. Plus, the names of the rabbis there are slightly different - there's a "Sylvia Rothschild" and a "Sybil Sheridan". Which one did you mean?

BayJay2: Thanks for the reply. Jonathan Romain's wife is Rabbi Sybil Sheridan. Sorry for the name mix-up.

Yes, she is one of the two rabbis at Wimbledon Synagogue which is supporting the South London Jewish Primary School. This includes giving the school rooms at the synagogue for use. I know only a little about how synagogues are run and my understanding is that this decision wouldn't be hers to make as such although she would have a role in it.

On the other hand here
twitter.com/SybilSheridan/statuses/227030016796540928
is a post from her twitter feed on 22 July 2012 saying "Good piece in JC re South London Jewish Primary School see
www.thejc.com/community/community-life/70287/south-london-primary-could-regenerate-community"

The link goes to a very positive piece in the Jewish Chronicle about the South London Jewish Primary School so she certainly seems very supportive of it.

I think this does more than raise eyebrows. It looks like real hypocrisy on the part of prominent representatives of the Jewish community. If a Christian leader had been campaigning against the opening of a Jewish school in the way that Jonathan Romain campaigned against Richard Rich it would have got national level news coverage.

"It looks like real hypocrisy on the part of prominent representatives of the Jewish community"

It might be painted that way by people who don't like Accord, but unless any evidence emerges that Rabbi Romain supports the Jewish school too, all you can say with any certainty at this stage is that it represents a significant difference between the views of a husband and wife.

BayJay2: I agree with you. I said that it looks like hypocrisy, not that it is hypocrisy. Those of a faith who disagree with faith schools should lead off by opposing schools of their own faith rather than starting with those of other faiths. In fairness to the free churches (Methodists, Baptists, Quakers, etc.) they've always been pretty good at taking this approach.

My apologies for referring to St Richard Reynolds as Richard Rich in my preceding post. Getting mixed up between English Reformation characters. Richard Rich is the last person that the Catholic church would name a school after.