Primary school places - Aiming for Alfarthing, hoping for Honeywell, set on Swaffield?

[LocalEditorWandsworth]

So tomorrow is the big day - primary school offers going out.

I know lots of you will be nervously waiting until midnight tonight for your email / or your letter tomorrow ....

So this thread is for comparing notes, asking questions about schools you've been offered that weren't first choice, appeals, general grumbling and hand holding.

Good luck all x

PS I've just checked with the Council and the letters will be posted out tomorrow. Unlike lots of other LAs, the info won't be online until tomorrow 'evening' (helpfully unprecise!). You need to go into the online system and check.

Offers are now up on the e - admissions site.

Someone on another local Wandsworth mums site (which shall remain nameless!) just said they are 190m from Honeywell and didn't get in.

My DD is a couple of years off but I am starting to really worry!

My sister is, according to her very extensive pre-school selection research , 182m from Honeywell and has got a place for her daughter so cut off point must be somewhere between there and 190m then.

She must have just squeezed in.

Although, presumably the distances will grow as people give up their spots to opt for private instead and they move down the waiting lists?

We got first choice - Ravenstone - so should be celebrating.. but after a wobbly Ofstead report just before we had to make our choices, I'm not sure. Before that we'd only ever heard good things about the school and it's our closest so we'd never really thought about anywhere else which is why we stuck with it.

It's had an interim Ofstead since which says they're making the changes needed but what really worries me is the responses on the Parent View Ofstead page - only 60% thought their kids were making good progress and only half thought it dealt with bullying properly.

I'm guessing it's too late to change my mind now anyway but anyone got kids there and able to reassure me?

Oh, and just realised I can't spell Ofsted either. Doh! Been a long and nervous day.

There seems to be a thing going on with some disenchanted Ravenstone parents complaining about cliquey ness. Not sure how real this is though.

Thanks Astolat. Do you have kids there?

Friends I know are happy at Ravenstone
Did you go look round?

Sorry no, SW12, no direct experience just what I have read online

Thanks all. Yes we went and looked around and liked what we saw. Friends with older kids there have sung its praises too.

Apparently 73% of children in Wandsworth were allocated their first place school, which is better than last year, but still leaves us second to last in London. Only Kensington & Chelsea fared worse with just 61% getting their top choice.

People in Newham did best in London, with 90% getting their preference.

Do we know how many got one of their top 3?

Given a handful of hugely oversubscribed outstanding schools I tend to think top 3 is a better measure.

My personal nightmare is around no 5 or 6.

But that is because I will put Honeywell down because it is virtually next door, or at least the new part is. It is my closest school and I think it's ridiculous that they measure from a different site so my closest school isn't officially my closest school.

We got our first choice

We're on the waiting lists for Ronald Ross (3) and Granard (2) otherwise will be offered a place at Heathmere, not so happy with their ofsted. Is 2/3 a good place to be on waiting lists???

Astolat - you surely mean Belleville school NOT Honeywell as Belleville is the one with two sites (the second one is on Clapham Common North side). Unfortunately, the admission criteria for Belleville is still distance measured from the main site (the one on Webbs Rd).

Yes, wrong way round. I know how they do it. Just think it's wrong and will put it down as a choice

I know the Belleville situation seems unfair for anyone living close to the Meteor site but it was originally set up to address a shortfall in the number of places for the Webbs road Belleville/Honeywell area. To have an impact on that they had to measure from the original Belleville road site. If they took the distance from the Meteor site then it would fail to meet its original purpose.

However - I know that doesn't really help the people living in the same street as the Meteor site who put up with the inconveniences associated with having a school in their road yet cannot get their children into the school.

I expect there will be another consultation on the Belleville admissions at some point
They previously proposed a priority area but that was rejected

The current admissions policy is unfair imo
There is no reason they couldn't have a similar policy to Henry Cav where you choose which site to apply to

Hello - anyone in Earlsfield? We've had a request from a local journalist who has heard that some Earlsfield children have been didn't get any of their choices and have instead been allocated places at the Mosaic school in Wimbledon/Roehampton.

If you are one of them and would like us to put you in touch let us know.

Lots of people on NVN discussing it

Can anyone tell me, we are very close to Battersea Bridge (DD starts 2015 so won't be applying until next year)... Would we be able to apply for schools in Chelsea or do we have to stick to Wandsworth?

you can apply for Chelsea schools too

Thanks greydove