Richmond Borough Schools Chat 5

[BayJay2]

Welcome! This is the latest in a series of threads about Richmond schools, which was first triggered by the council's publication of its Education White Paper in February 2011.

Please do join in the chat. There’s a bunch of us who’ve been following the thread for a long time, and we sometimes get a bit forensic, but new contributions are always welcome, and if it’s something that’s been covered before we can always direct you to that part of the thread.

We generally talk about local education policy, the impact of national policy, the performance of the borough’s schools, and admissions-related issues. We began by talking about Secondaries, but tend to talk a lot about primaries too, so the title of the thread has evolved this time to take that into account.

If you have a few hours to spare and want to catch up on 2 years of local education history, then below are the links to the old threads. We have to keep starting new threads because each only hold 1000 posts. The first two threads run in parallel, as one was started on the national Mumsnet site, and another on the local one:

1a) New Secondaries for Richmond Borough?: Mumsnet Secondary Education (Feb 2011 – Nov 2011)
1b) New Secondary schools for Richmond!: Mumsnet Local (Feb 2011 – Nov 2011)

1. New Secondary Schools for Richmond 2: Mumsnet Local (Nov 2011 – May 2012)

1. New Secondary Schools for Richmond 3: Mumsnet Local (May 2012 – Nov 2012)

1. New Secondary Schools for Richmond 4: Mumsnet Local (Nov 2012 – Oct 2013)

1. This thread: Richmond Borough Schools Chat 5: Mumsnet Local (Oct 2013 - ????)

Finally, to find out how to add links, as well as smilies and emphasis, see these Mumsnet guidelines.

BayJay: how do I set up a watchlist? I haven't found anything about this on Mumsnet.

Hi Chris. You just need to click the 'Watch' button at the top of the thread to add it to your list.

Then to see all the threads in your watch list click the "I'm Watching" button. Within that page there is a check box for generating an email alert.

Thanks - I have found 'Watch this thread' and clicked on it, which returns an error message:

'HTTP Status 405 - Method Not Allowed

type Status report
message Method Not Allowed
description The specified HTTP method is not allowed for the requested resource.

Apache Tomcat/7.0.47'

but has added this thread OK. I've also just spotted a 'Watch this thread' button below this comments box.

So Gove's out, and in comes Nicky Morgan. She is a local, of sorts, having attended Surbiton High School.

It looks like she will be both Education Minister and minister for equality. As she voted against gay marriage, that part of her portfolio has been controversial. Her voting record as an MP is here.

The Guardian reports: Number of babies born falls by 4% while average age of mothers rises to 30:
. . The ONS reported that the number of live births in England and Wales last year fell to 698,512 from 729,674 in 2012 (a decrease of 4.3%). This contrasted with the increasing number of births that has been reported each year since the low of 2001, with the exception of a 0.3% fall in 2009. Between 2001 and 2012 live births rose by 23%. The fall in live births in 2013 represented the largest percentage annual decrease since 1975 . .

School places for all in 2018!

The Surrey Comet has a piece about an office block on the main road near Norbiton Station being bought by Dept of Education to be turned into a free school. I assume it would be a primary school as it's one form entry:
www.surreycomet.co.uk/education/educationnews/11345002.Office_block_could_be_Kingston_s_next_free_school/?ref=mr

Apparently it's very suitable because it's got a car park! They end by asking if you would send your "parents" there. I think my mum would probably be alright as there's a lift but not sure I'd want my five year old being taught on the upper floors!

How extraordinary, LProsser, my mum would also prefer a playground, swings and a learning garden (or allotment) over a car park as she can't drive!

'It would not be the first time a free school has been opened in a converted office block.'

Parkfield School in Bournemouth opened last year in a seven storey building, housing more than 400 pupils.'

www.bournemouthecho.co.uk/news/10921018.Parents__anger_over_Parkfield_School_moving_to_Bournemouth_Airport_site/

From the above:

' . . Pupils now face travelling six miles to the new site after negotiations with the owner of a town centre site fell through. One parent told the Daily Echo:

“Many parents are very upset. The original proposal was for the school to be in the town centre, a notion which encouraged many to sign up – now it isn’t even going to be in the same local authority area. Several parents I spoke to feel cheated, angry and let down . . '

Well I suppose at least the little children going to this Norbiton school will mainly be local not from 6 miles away but I am firmly of the view that children need grass, trees and fresh air. No doubt there will be lots of parents who will be seduced by promises of extended hours of hard work, the presence of God, bilingual teaching or whatever other special features the relevant free school is promising!

Today's RTT page 3 says that Haymarket are no longer going to move their HQ to Egerton Road but are just going to lend 20 staff to coach the kiddies in meeja skills. I wonder what effect this will have on the financing of the scheme overall?

Hi All. Looking at options for DS to go to secondary school in 2015. I live in the Hounslow district but am literally feet away from the Richmond border. Am trying to decide whether to put St Marks or St Richard Reynolds as DS's first choice as we're Catholic and he wants to go to a mixed school. Do any of you know what the catchment distances were for each school for the previous round of applications? Are there maps available? I know that they'll change year on year as SRR is new, but want to get an idea whether I'm completely wasting my time on either of them or not. Putting Orleans down as 3rd choice and Gunnersbury as 4th. Will go to both open days etc but I think distance will end up being the deciding factor and somewhat out of my hands.

I think there will be one for Orleans Park for 2013 admissions on Council website. I don't think it will be published for 2014 until later in the year. I don't remember ever seeing a map for Catholic schools' Admissions - I Think It's kept private and fluctuates more as you have to get the religious endorsement too. I am sure the schools will let you know if you are near enough though. I am sure Sir R R has taken children from LB Hounslow so far.

Looking at one of the links that someone posted on here, it looked like there were 150 places and 150 applicants had put SRR as their first choice, so the competition looks as steep as St Marks

Hi Sooper. First thing to do is to look at the admissions policy to see whether you're in category 2a, 2b or 2c for admissions. That's dependent on which parish you live in and whether your DC is a practising Catholic, or just a baptised Catholic.

If the school is oversubscribed in category 2a or 2b they'll use random allocation rather than distance to select, so you'd have as much chance of a place as someone living next door to the school.

If you're in category 2c then distance is used as an oversubscription criteria.

For 2014, according to council figures, all of the places were allocated on the basis of faith critetia. Anecdotally, some families got in under category 4b, but that might be chinese whispers. There is a list of primaries on the website from where children transferred, but that might not help much as some catholic families use CE or community primaries.

If you have younger children, beat in mind that there is no sibling priority.

P.s. List of schools here: www.strichardreynolds.org.uk/images/SRR%20Year%206%20transfers.pdf

It does say some children transferred from abroad, so that suggests Hounslow wouldn't have been a problem.

Correction: that school list is for 2013, not 2014.

thanks, BayJay. we're in category 2c, so distance will be the main criteria if it comes to it, but as we're right on the Richmond border that would be fine as long as there's still places after the other categories are fulfilled.

I wonder if SRR has freed up places at st marks. eg whitton residents who would have previously gone to st marks would potentially now go to SRR instead. does anyone know?

Well Sooper, I guess on an individual basis that depends on whether they prefer a mixed school or not. However, on a wider scale it's not as simple as that because the numbers transferring out of our primaries are rising, and the dynamic between private and state transfers changes depending on the choices people have on the table.

I think you have to keep an eye on admissions patterns when the secondary transfer brochure comes out around 1 September. Here is the 2014 Hounslow brochure (see page 53).

St Marks is still really popular with 1,000 applications, and well oversubscribed on first preference - I don't think that's a downwards trend. And fewer Richmond pupils can go there as the proportion prioritised at Hounslow schools from deaneries within Richmond borough is being reduced gradually. Ofsted inspections can also have an impact on preferences.

The RTT reports: Haymarket holds fire on HQ at Richmond College:

Media giant Haymarket has backed out of plans to house its 1,100 staff on the developed Richmond College site . . the group plans to base just 20 staff on the campus, to provide creative and digital expertise as part of a "tech hub". It is now looking to base the majority of its office staff "elsewhere in the borough". The company's chief executive Kevin Costello said Haymarket's plans had "evolved" since they were first put forward last year.

. . Community group Heatham Alliance, who previously questioned the council's transparency during consultation, welcomed the downsizing of the project. A spokesman said: "Public-private partnerships are fraught with tensions and this education and enterprise scheme was no exception. This is a sensible and welcome down-sizing of an over-ambitious scheme. It proved to be an obstacle to Haymarket’s plan to move out from Teddington Studios and it also put the provision of 750 secondary places in Twickenham in potential jeopardy unnecessarily."

. . A council spokesman confirmed the altered plans would have no impact on timescales or funding of the scheme.

Hi muminlondon, thats brilliant news for Clarendon and all the kids and staff.

RUT College did not fare so well with Ofsted tho. I see their inspection in May was awarded Needs Improvement again. A new principal is expected shortly.

Did you see this in the local paper last week about the RUT College redevelopment? One of the community groups has welcomed the ‘down-sizing of the project’ now that Haymarket is looking elsewhere for its new HQ.

Its online too - Haymarket holds fire on HQ at Richmond College
www.richmondandtwickenhamtimes.co.uk/news/11352837.Haymarket_holds_fire_on_HQ_at_Richmond_College/

Sorry, Chris, time warp problem.
The move by Haymarket should help reduce the risks for the new secondary school opening, which is good especially as the timetable must be looking very, very tight. The new Clarendon building is not due for completion until late 2018 according to the reec.org.uk website.

ThisIsLocalLondon has Timetable for Kingston Academy free school opening is "sloppy", council leader claims:

Kingston Council leader Kevin Davis says pupils at the new Kingston Academy free school will have 18 months of building work around them after the school opens. In September 2015, 180 year 7 students are due to begin their studies at the converted North Kingston Centre in Richmond Road. Planning permission has still not been granted for the school which will eventually have 900 students.

Coun Davis said: "The reality is that school will have a significant amount of building work going on at the back of it for about 18 months after it opens. It does now look like they will get the school open by September 2015, but they have got an awful lot of work to do. They have got to consult before they put an application in, and that will probably have to wait until September now. I've seen a timetable and it's a bit sloppy."

All new schools have building works going on - and all the schools putting in sixth forms. I'm not sure who is managing this - is the Kingston council leader is being critical of the DfE or the builders?