Richmond Borough Schools Chat 9

[ChrisSquire2]

This thread follows on from Richmond Borough Schools Chat 8 starting February 2016.
News and opinions on all the changes to schools in Richmond borough.

See also:

Richmond Borough Schools Chat 7 starting May 2015

Links to earlier threads (1-6), starting in February 2011

To all who did not get GC and were offered Teddy, my son is there. He absolutely loves it and is super gifted academically (but we wanted a good old fashioned non-selective state school not Tiffin) and is nevertheless being adequately stretched. Sees no bullying. We have no complaints, couldn’t be happier in fact. Plus if you are concerned about grades, Tedd has just topped the state school peformance chart for A levels in Richmond Borough, even beating Waldegrave. GCSE results suffered from choices kids were allowed to make under previous leadership which meant progress 8 measures but should pick up again this Summer. So be happy with Tedd it’s a great school with unrivalled facilities in the borough (GC head said so herself) and brilliant opportunities. An amazing breadth of subjects.

I also haven't seen stories about hundreds of children not getting an offer of a secondary school place anywhere near them as used to happen a few years ago.

At DD's school last year (Darell), there were quite a number of children who did not initially get any offer at all (maybe about 5 or so out of 30). There were also a further five or so who got schools that were not convenient in terms of travel and some hadn't listed those schools as preferences at all. However, these were largely children whose parents were very unlikely to go to the papers and some of them may well have listed unrealistic choices. Everyone, of course, ended up with a place. But it was very stressful for some people.

The Grey Court places were particularly interesting as we'd been assured by Maggie Bailey in the academy consultation that Grey Court's catchment area was likely to increase as a consequence of new schools in Kingston and elsewhere. This absolutely didn't happen. In the end, the academisation got parked as Darell is in deficit and struggling in a number of ways. It's all very sad.

I will be v interested to find out how it pans out this year.

The number of applicants was 148 more than last year (7.3% increase). Sixty one percent of applicants will have received a first preference offer and 82% will have received an offer at one of their first three preferences. 112 have no offer as yet. www.richmond.gov.uk/council/news/press_office/older_news/march_2019/secondary_school_places_announced

From the same press release: “Our forecasts show that the number of applicants in future years is set to continue rising, already this year Richmond had a 7.3% increase in applicants, compared to 3% across the rest of the Capital. We are therefore planning now to ensure additional capacity.”

Last year 25% of Year 6s at Queens did not get an offer on allocation day and a similar number at Lowther, presumably more this year. The further into Kew and Barnes you go the more likely you are to be in a black hole of provision. All the more important the school is an inclusive comprehensive like GC rather than the divisive Conservative faith school proposed by the Thomas Cromwell evangelicals (the Headmaster of Fulham Boys’s School is complaining in his latest blog that “FBS seems to be forever taking flack – protests, letters, emails, press” which rather proves the point!). They held a meeting last month so they must still think they have a shot at the site but hard to see how / why?

I don’t think you should take Twickenham School being half empty is indicative of the demand if standards are raised, demand is as much a function of the quality of school places as it is sheer weight of numbers. Offer outstanding places and they get filled..... Many parents are not willingly spending money on going private or moving and there is still a higher proportion of parents going private than in similarly affluent London boroughs (though this could also be down to the number of good private school places in South West London especially for girls)

Judging by their presence on surrounding roads St Richard Reynolds sixth formers are thin on the ground but the first cohort to take GCSEs became notorious, significant behaviour and other problems (certainly not immune from the dope smoking in Crane Park sub culture). The school seemed to come up against its own complacency about its intake and had to belatedly toughen up on discipline / pastoral care, and behaviour has improved noticeably this year. The average results were not a surprise as some of the boys especially were not expected to do well. Even a tough year in a private school empties out a sixth form and as others have said there were competitive state alternatives. I suppose it remains to be seen if their unique Catholic identity will prove attractive to students in future....

Interesting - so I assume those living on the Richmond side of the Borough are not offered Twickenham Academy even if there is no other place? There seems to be over provision on the Twickenham side at present but need for another good inclusive school on the Richmond side. Twickenham Academy seems to be improving under Ms Ruse - lots of positive comments on the Whitton Village Facebook page.

When RPA first became oversubscribed parents in Barnes were offered TA but under pressure from primary school governors the Council has to concede it was not a reasonable journey for 11 year olds (especially as it was pointed out that they had made the change between routes in Twickenham so much more difficult when they moved all the bus stops). I think the journey from Kew would be even worse.

The new secondary school in Mortlake is at an advanced stage of planning, and has supposedly been assigned to an academy trust sponsor but has this “local” counter proposal for a Free School , the Thomas Cromwell School, proposed by Conservative Evangelicals who are not being entirely open about it originating in their own agenda as opposed to one genuinely arising out of the local community as a whole.

The fact that the need has arisen on the Surrey side more quickly than was forecast is because RPA went from half empty to oversubscribed faster than anyone anticipated, largely as a result of the links it worked hard to develop with local primaries which built patent confidence in making it a preference. There has been a fair amount of criticism on here but it seems as if once the parents in primaries felt it could be an option a sort of critical mass was reached where they were all willing to send their children there together. I do think if Twickenham continues to improve you will see spare capacity fill up on the Middlesex side though hard to see how the Head at Twickenham could work with Middlesex primaries in the way you could with the ones in the east of the Surrey side because there isn’t the same sort of cohesive local school community with a secondary school at its heart.

The official line in the council forecasts seems to be that the Middlesex side has just about enough (including the THS places) and the Richmond side needs the Livingston Academy.

Hampton High is oversubscribed for the first time ever this year.

That’s odd - on the official list released by the council (posted on here earlier) Hampton High and Twickenham Academy are still undersubscribed.

If HH, TS and Teddington all get a good Ofsted over the next couple of years, I'd be willing to bet pressure will increase beyond what is forecast too.

Thr letter sent out to year 6 families says its oversubscribed with last distance of 1.857km.

All the other numbers on europaeus's list look ok though. They match the letter.

Anyway, just because TS is under-subscribed doesn't mean it hasn't been filled up on allocations.

Hello sorry, I missed the distance for Hampton High, reposting the correct list. It did not say wait list though.

SchoolNational Offer Day 1 Mar 2019
Christ’s SchoolOpen places 1.599 km
Grey Court School2.263 km
Hampton High School, All preferences met, 1.857km
Orleans Park School1.634 km
Richmond Park Academy2.092 km
St Richard Reynolds Randomly allocated within band 3
Teddington School4.293 km
Richmond Upon Thames School2.160 km
Turing House School20% 6(a) 0.646 km, 80% 6(b) 1.898 km
Twickenham AcademyAll preferences met, N/A
Waldegrave SchoolArea A 1.330 km, Area B 5.374 km

SchoolNational Offer Day 1 Mar 2018By 1 Sep 2018
Christ’s School Open places 1.380 km2.726km
Grey Court School 3.146 km3.327 km
Hampton High SchoolNot oversubscribedAll preferences met
Orleans Park School 1.530 km2.562km
Richmond Park Academy 2.981 km3.206km
St Richard Reynolds Randomly allocated within criterion 2Randomly allocated within criterion 2
Teddington School 2.660 kmAll preferences met
Richmond Upon Thames School 3.590 kmAll preferences met
Turing House School 20% 6(a) 1.308 km, 80% 6(b) 2.457 km20% 11.648 km, 80% 6.544km
Twickenham AcademyNot oversubscribedAll preferences met
Waldegrave SchoolArea A 1.533 km, Area B 5.028 kmArea A 1.769km, Area B 6.128km

SchoolNational Offer Day 1 Mar 2017By 1 Sep 2017
Christs (open places)1.291 km1.344 km
Grey Court2.941 km3.788 km
Hampton HighNot oversubscribedN/A
Orleans Park1.611km2.724 km
Richmond Park AcademyNot oversubscribedN/A
St Richard ReynoldsRandom allocationN/A
Teddington3.429 km8.593 km
Richmond Upon Thames School5.445 km33.00 km
Turing House3.235 km4.137 km
Twickenham AcademyNot oversubscribedN/A
Waldegrave Area 11.911 km2.04 km
Waldegrave Area 25.304 km5.719 km

SchoolNational Offer Day 1 Mar 2016By 1 Sep 2016
Christs (open places)1.438 km2.532 km
Grey Court3.243 km4.314 km
Hampton HighNot oversubscribedN/A
Orleans Park1.466 km1.786 km
Richmond Park AcademyNot oversubscribedN/A
St Richard ReynoldsRandom allocationN/A
Teddington2.433 km5.422 km
Turing House2.526 km4.159 km
Twickenham AcademyNot oversubscribedN/A
Waldegrave Area 11.616 km1.777 km
Waldegrave Area 25.172 km6.077 km

here is the link to the 2019 distances

Strange, the version I've seen does say Waiting List. Maybe it was on the brink and they got more applications half way through printing the letters .

Out of curiosity: one thing that is never clear for me is what happens if you list let's say 3 schools and you don't qualify for any of those? Do you not get an offer on 1 March for another borough school that isn't listed in your application, provided they have places? Or perhaps they contact you after 1 March to offer?

They have to offer you something so they would allocate you the nearest school that had a place. It might not be the one you expect though. Last year I heard of someone in the Hampton area that just put 2 or 3 preferred schools down (which they didn't get) but didn't put Hampton High because they assumed they'd be allocated it anyway. That meant they were lower priority than all the people who did put down HH, even if they lived much further away and put it as a low preference. So in the end this family were allocated Twickenham School instead.

Thanks.

In some case, however, you don't initially get an offer at all because the emptier schools are filled via allocations of places for children who live nearer those schools than you do. I know of quite a few children this happened to last year.

Yeah, council press release says there are 112 in that position this year.

It isn’t necessarily true that offers are not made because all schools are full with allocations. As I highlighted the Council tried offering places at TA to parents who did not get places at RPA or any closer schools rather than create a bulge class at RPA a couple of years ago. They encountered such strong feelings from the primary school governors and parents about subjecting 11 year olds to a difficult journey that eventually they had to back down and create local places with a bulge class at RPA (mind you it was when the then Council Leader, Lord True and Cabinet Member for Education, and later Council Leader, Paul Hodgins were on a charm offensive trying to pursuade the Primaries to go into an East Richmond Academy Trust with RPA with the head of Barnes Primary, where Paul Hodgins children attended, as Head 🤔, the governing bodies were even less impressed by that and successfully resisted). Since then they have not offered TA places in the area of need on the other (Kew /Barnes) side of the borough.

When St RR opened and was undersubscribed, parents in Hampton who did not get their preferences were surprised to find they had been allocated places at St RR rather than then undersubscribed Hampton or TA. Basically they were shared about between the three. I am sure it had nothing to do with the Council Leader, Lord True not wanting St RR to open half empty after all the effort he had put into establishing it.

So basically it is a political process and wise parents use up all their preferences, even for the least worst option.

I know of at least two children who were offered places at Twickenham for 2018 entry. Both near Kew/Mortlake. One has ended up at RPA and the other at Waldegrave off waiting lists. I think someone else was also offered Twickenham but not sure how that ended up as I don't know the parents well.

Hello there,

Any news about the second round of offers for secondary school? Many thanks.