Commuting to Barton Primary School from Newnham

[juno76]

Hi, we are moving to Cambridge in July. Our younger son has been offered a reception place at Newnham Croft, our preferred school, for September. We've just heard that the older one has been offered a place at Barton primary (currently year 2), a school we know very little about. Thinking of appealing as we'd like our kids to be at the same school but I just wondered if anyone has any experience of it. Both parents will be working full time but apparently there will be a taxi or minibus service provided; again, does anyone have experience of this?Many thanks in advance.

Have you spoken to the LEA yet?

You're in a pretty good situation as you've got one DC in - many many Newnham families are disappointed & haven't got a place in their local school. Barton is a nice school with a dynamic new head - and not very far away by car & lots of families have to do it because Newnham is over subscribed. I imagine as you've been lucky enough to get a child into reception you're quite high on the waiting list for year 2 as your eldest child will have sibling / catchment. Have you asked where you are on the waiting list?

From what you've said I don't think you'd qualify for appeal as your situation is far from unique - there are children in the Newnham Nursery connected to the school who didn't get in - but you should discuss with LEA.

There is a lot of movement in Cambridge, in your case I suggest accept the place -and as PP said and ensure that your older one is on the waiting list at Newnham I would advise checking with both the school and local authority. you should be able to find out how many are on the list - but given they will have a sibling there its it quite likely that they would move up quickly.
I can't imagine appealing would help.
I would look for wrap around care in Barton - maybe? Or see if anyone could share lifts?

Thanks to you both for your replies - we will definitely accept the place at Barton and will visit it next time we're in Cambridge. I realise we are very fortunate to have a place at NC for our younger son.

Does anyone have any experience of the transport service from Cambridge to Barton? I'm not sure if this will be a taxi or a mini-bus, but it would be great to hear from anyone whose child has to commute in this way. Our son is currently Year 2 but he is not yet 7 so quite young to be travelling on his own.

Thanks.

Many schools will hold a parents' evening for new starters - probably quite soon or just before the start of term. You could meet parents there - have you travelled from your home in Newnham to Barton?

You could ask the school to pass on your details to any Newnham parents so you can talk about car share.

If you have two children at different schools an appeal will not help but once they are at the schools you can ask the fair access panel to look at your case. The fair access panel can force the school to over-admit if you can make a case that you are unable to get both your children to school/pick up from school on time.

I was told about this by a headteacher who advised me to go this route. (I didn't in the end but that's another story.)

Thanks again for your replies (and niminy, that's useful to know - thanks).

We've been in touch with Barton and they have invited our son to spend a morning there soon to meet the rest of his class. The school sounds lovely and it sounds like they've been working hard to address the issues that were raised by Ofsted last year.

I will certainly ask the school to put us in touch with other Newnham-based parents but if there are any on this forum it would be great to hear from you, as well as anyone with experience of Barton primary school.