Richmond Borough Schools Chat 8

[muminlondon2]

This thread follows on from Richmond Borough Schools Chat 7.

News and opinions on all the changes to schools in Richmond borough.

Today’s print RTT has a letter (p 27) ‘Better site for school’ from Andrew Roberts.

The Kingston Guardian has: Kingston schools most oversubscribed in London:

Kingston schools are the most oversubscribed in the capital, with 50 % running at or over capacity. Despite this more than 75 % of children who will enter Year 7 in September were offered a space at their first choice school . . Kingston Academy, the brand new free school in Richmond Road, saw a massive 600 top three choice applications for just 180 places. Headteacher Sophie Cavanagh said: “For us it is a fantastic achievement . . it is wonderful that so many put us in the top three . . North Kingston was really in need of a great school and it still is in need of another great school . . ”

If Kingston has 50 % running at or over capacity, then half of them are undersubscribed. Four are grammars and faith schools taking from other boroughs. Only two are mixed schools with a distance criteria but are still classed as 'secondary moderns'.

At the September admissions forum it was noted that:

'Over-provsion st secondary schools was a continuing concern ... it was clear that the foundation of The Kingston Academy and increased secondary provision in neighbouring authorities had impacted on vacancy levels.'

Chessington CC had ceased having a Y12 intake since 'smaller sixth forms could not offer a wide range of subjects and this also created financial challenges'.

The 'blackhole' in the middlesex side of the borough is now surely boys in Strawberry Hill - no access now to Orleans Park (the cut off point btw this year was 1,466m!). Turing House in Whitton will be too far away for many and the new RUT school also not that nearest. Fulwell, Hampton Hill have Turing, HA & TA. Unless OP's catchment increases after RUT school opens?

I see what you mean DDqueen40. Do you think the opening of RuTS would mean that the Orleans Park catchment area increases?

Sorry, just saw your last sentence. Yes, I think that may happen too.

Does anyone know if the Waldegrave and Teddington cut-offs increased with the opening of Turing House? If parents are choosing Turing instead of these other schools then it might be the case.

From Strawberry Hill to Richmond College it is possible to take the short cut via Twickenham Green and the Mereway Nature Reserve. Is this counted as a maintained path? It's probably only a 20-30 min walk, less if cycling.

Surely it would only increase if lots of people in the Orleans Park catchment put RuTs as a higher pref than Orleans Park? It might take a while before people are confident enough to do that. Any sign of the head being announced yet?
It sounds like RUTS will get lots of locals though. I know someone in Court Way in St Mgts who didn't get Orleans Park when they would have done last year so its definitely shrunk. There's a lot from Chase Bridge didn't get in.

There's also Marsh Farm Lane if that helps from the Strawberry Hill area.

RuTS look like they have really thought about students accessing the site on foot in their planning. There are proposals here to provide footpaths along the River Crane to the station too.

www.reec.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/Consultation-Document-Two.pdf

I think the catchments just get smaller each year Whittonmum because there are more kids in the system and some people move house to be within wherever the last cut-off was.

So the school acts like the force of gravity, pulling everything in towards it. More and more families with kids buying the houses closest to the school.

Waldegrave's catchment had hardly changed - still at around 1600. It seems bizarre that OP's is shrinking so rapidly. Teddington's catchment increased a lot last year (don't know about this year) mainly (I think) because of more going to grey court and because of Kingston academy. Maybe Turing house had some impact. It will be interesting to see if people put RUT as top preference next year or year after. What seems to be happening with OP is that the catchment is shrinking to such a wealthy area and in the end those way down on the waiting list get in because so many end up going private. Makes the whole thing a bit of a farce but I guess no way of changing it - it is certainly more fair than the link school system

DD could it be a delayed reaction to the link system going? The Vineyard kids weren't able to get Orleans before but now they can. This year's Y6's will have had longer to get used to the idea. I expect the first year it was dropped people had already made other plans for private or whatever.

Possibly - but I know of very few vineyard children who have chosen OP - grey court their state school of choice and a huge amount go private. maybe st Margaret's has just had a bigger influx of families compared to other areas in the borough?

Just looking at the primary expansions on the Turing consultation map.
Orleans primary has an extra 1fe from 2017 and St Marys 1fe from 2018 so the OP catchment will get smaller again.
Also Stanley and SJB all have 1fe extra which will impact Teddington/Turing/Waldegrave.
There's 1fe at Chase Bridge too.

Add Collis to that 2017 list too.

Cut-off distances for 2016

Also to be factored in is that OP, Teddington and Waldegrave increased their admissions numbers by 16 last year and this which had an impact on catchments but that is temporary. Waldegrave at least were saying it was just for two years because of the impact of the sixth forms.

All those expansions will have an effect. In Whitton we had Chase Bridge expanding from 2FE to 3FE in 2011, Heathfield expanded from 3FE to 4FE in 2013 and Nelson expanded from 2FE to 3FE in 2014.

The council say here that: It is essential to identify another new site within this area to meet possible longer-term need. There´s no more room for expansion in our 5 primary schools in Whitton/Heathfield.

The Guardian has: How the Tories picked free schools: chaotic, inconsistent and incompetent - It took a three-year legal battle for Laura McInerney to see papers on why some free school applications succeed and others fail. What she found made her determined to fight on:

. . after the 2010 general election, the shutters came down. In fact, plans for the government’s flagship free school policy were so secret that I was taken to court for asking to see them. For three and a half years I have been challenging the government to release these papers, in the public interest. This month the Department for Education finally handed them over . .

But it turns out this will not extend to letters sent after 2012, even if the free school applicants agree to a release. And so I keep on fighting. Scientists have discovered that people make fairer choices when they are being watched, if only by a robot. England needs more schools to cope with increasing pupil numbers and I believe free schools can be a solution, but only if people have faith in the process. To make that happen, someone needs to be the robot. So I will keep on asking for information – even if it lands me in court.

Every English school to become an academy

From this article:

'The prime minister said his “vision for our schooling system” was to place education into the hands of headteachers and teachers rather than “bureaucrats”.'

A representative of the NUT is quoted as saying:
“The fig leaf of ‘parental choice’, ‘school autonomy’ and ‘raising standards’ has finally been dropped and the government’s real agenda has been laid bare – all schools removed from collaborative structures within a local authority family of schools, all schools instead run by remote academy trusts, unaccountable to parents, staff or local communities.”

If they aim to push primary schools into the hands of academy chains, a third of which are run by churches, does this mean more religious segregation? Or maybe, following the laws of unintended consequences, VA church schools will be the only ones left that are officially LA maintained (just like our secondary schools)?

I don't understand why the government is do keen to abolish the rights of parents and communities to be consulted and represented, in terms of their local schools. Sounds like a poll tax moment.

The PM and Michael Gove both have daughters at the same CofE comprehensive.

The current Education Secretary is openly a huge supporter of church of faith schools. From Kingston herself, she attended Surbiton High (CofE).

As TA and HA are now changing sponsor I had thought that one might be taken over to become a CofE school for the Middlesex side of Richmond Borough. Doesn't fit with the MAT plan though.