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

That is really interesting, thank you. I've been looking at the Offer Day stats from last year and it would seem that most catchments have therefore reduced this year compared to last.

From that link I found the other day for 2017 some of them shifted a lot last year because of the waiting lists.....
Christs (open places), March 1st Distance 1.291km, Sept 1st Distance 1.344km
Grey Court, March 1st Distance 2.941km,Sept 1st Distance 3.788km
Hampton High,March 1st Not oversubscribed,Sept 1st Not oversubscribed
Orleans Park, March 1st Distance 1.611km, Sept 1st Distance 2.724km
Richmond Park Academy,March 1st Not oversubscribed,Sept 1st Not oversubscribed
St Richard Reynolds,March 1st Random allocation,Sept 1st Random allocation
Teddington,March 1st Distance 3.429km,Sept 1st Distance 8.593km
RTS,March 1st Distance 5.445km,Sept 1st Distance 33.00km
Turing House, March 1st Distance (80%) 3.235km, Sept 1st Distance 4.137km
Twickenham Academy,March 1st Not oversubscribed,Sept 1st Not oversubscribed
Waldegrave Area 1,March 1st Distance 1.911km,Sept 1st Distance 2.04km
Waldegrave Area 2,March 1st Distance 5.304km,Sept 1st Distance 5.719km

We're just outside the distance for our first choice so feeling quite confident looking at what happened last year.

Judging by the reactions on our class parents' WhatsApp group last night, lots and lots of people have not got their first preference. Two have no offer at all. One person has been offered a school that wasn't on their list at all. The info about the waiting list movement is very useful, thanks.

Here's the full data for 2016-2018.

School,National Offer Day 1 Mar 2018,By 1 Sep 2018 (not avail yet)
Christ’s School, Open places 1.380 km,
Grey Court School, 3.146 km,
Hampton High School,Not oversubscribed,
Orleans Park School, 1.530 km,
Richmond Park Academy, 2.981 km,
St Richard Reynolds, Randomly allocated within criterion 2,
Teddington School, 2.660 km,
Richmond Upon Thames School, 3.590 km,
Turing House School," 20% 6(a) 1.308 km, 80% 6(b) 2.457 km",
Twickenham Academy,Not oversubscribed,
Waldegrave School,"Area A 1.533 km, Area B 5.028 km",
,,
School,National Offer Day 1 Mar 2017,By 1 Sep 2017
Christs (open places),1.291 km,1.344 km
Grey Court,2.941 km,3.788 km
Hampton High,Not oversubscribed,N/A
Orleans Park,1.611km,2.724 km
Richmond Park Academy,Not oversubscribed,N/A
St Richard Reynolds,Random allocation,N/A
Teddington,3.429 km,8.593 km
Richmond Upon Thames School,5.445 km,33.00 km
Turing House,3.235 km,4.137 km
Twickenham Academy,Not oversubscribed,N/A
Waldegrave Area 1,1.911 km,2.04 km
Waldegrave Area 2,5.304 km,5.719 km
,,
School,National Offer Day 1 Mar 2016,By 1 Sep 2016
Christs (open places),1.438 km,2.532 km
Grey Court,3.243 km,4.314 km
Hampton High,Not oversubscribed,N/A
Orleans Park,1.466 km,1.786 km
Richmond Park Academy,Not oversubscribed,N/A
St Richard Reynolds,Random allocation,N/A
Teddington,2.433 km,5.422 km
Turing House,2.526 km,4.159 km
Twickenham Academy,Not oversubscribed,N/A
Waldegrave Area 1,1.616 km,1.777 km
Waldegrave Area 2,5.172 km,6.077 km

I think people would be a lot calmer if they published those September distances in the brochure or on the council website or in the offer letter where everyone could find them easily rather than people having to put in freedom of information requests. Our letter today says "We plan the number of school places required according to the number that will be needed for children to start school in September, rather than at the time offers are sent out initially in March" but parents normally only ever see the March distances. Maybe it's because they don't want people hanging on too long, but it's a bit unfair on parents when the whole process is stressful enough as it is.

Interesting how last year the Orleans Park jump
from March to September was over 1,000m and yet the year before it only increased by 300m. Makes it very hard to know what might happen this year

I suppose there were suddenly more places last year with RTS opening. They were going round all the primaries doing presentations and bribing Year 6's with promises of free ipads (some parents not too happy about that I hear ). This year RTS will have their new building, but Orleans Ofsted will make their undecideds more likely to hang on to offers, and maybe they'll get some extra applicants who were favouring Teddington, so it's all going to be different again.

Absinthe how can they have no offer at all, when two schools are not oversubscribed? That doesn't make sense to me at all.

Because the schools that are not oversubscribed are currently filled up with people who may not have listed them on the form but live nearer to them than the people without an offer. Things will of course move once people start declining places.

Hardwickwhite A couple of years ago when RPA first became oversubscribed they tried offering places at the school formerly known as Twickenham Academy to parents on the Surrey side . Given that the black holes are in Kew and Barnes the Council had to concede that no parent was going to send their 11 year old child from one end of the borough to the other with multiple changes of buses. No doubt they have decided since then that making offers to Surrey (where the shortage of places lies) parents of places at the far side of the Middlesex side of the borough is adding insult to injury.

This is the latest school place planning strategy which highlights the current situation. The unforeseen, by anyone to be fair, emergence of black holes of provision on the Surrey side and proposed new school on the brewery site, and the vindication of the forecasts that without another inclusive school black holes would emerge on the Middlesex side too, that bought Turing into existence. cabnet.richmond.gov.uk/ieListDocuments.aspx?CId=163&MId=4219

I know at least two parents who were not close enough to RPA (which they listed) to get a place who have been offered Twickenham - one lives in Mortlake. The people I know without a place live further from Twickenham than these parents.

we're 35th on list for OP so am not holding out tbh even though last year's waiting list went very far. we have our second choice which we are happy with. There are some parents who have nothing so am counting ourselves lucky.

@DDqueen40 we’re 28th on the waiting list for Orleans, I’m really hoping there’s some movement. Our second choice, where we have a place, is the new Richmond upon Thames school. What is yours?

@goddessnic we have Turing House which we are very happy with. Am just aware that more people may hold on to their OP places this year and that you can move down the waiting list too so am being fairly realistic about it and preparing our son for TH.

We got RTS but waiting on Orleans (2nd) and TH (1st). Once all the private school kids have dropped out there's got to be a big shift. DDQueen/Goddess, 28/35 doesn't sound too bad. Surely there are 36 kids living closer than you to Orleans Park who are likely to go private? Fingers crossed for you.
What I don't get is whether the private schools are expanding to cope with the increased numbers of children too. I haven't heard of any new ones opening up in a while to soak up the extra demand. You'd think they'd be cashing in, but if the govt can't even find sites for new state schools where will private schools find sites?
If people don't get the private school they want they're more likely to take up a good local state offer than fork out a fortune and travel miles to a less attractive private school.

@DDqueen, I’ve heard Turing is very good. @pissup, you would think so re kids going to private school, I guess we’ll find out! We only missed out by 0.2 of a mile so there are 27 other kids on the waiting list who live within that .2 of a mile, crazy!
I’m not sure about RTS, it seems good but it’s so hard to get a a feel for a school when there’s no site to visit!

@pissupinbrewery & @goddessnic - to be fair TH still doesn't have a permanent site and we still can't see temporary site but feel extremely happy re: education/quality of staff there. We were 300m out of cut off point for Orleans and am equally shocked at how there can be 34 other people nearer on waiting list but just goes to show how crazy this whole school business is!

Goddess, it's 0.2mile wide donut around the school though isn't it? At least the river takes a big bit out of it! good luck!

#bite not bit. Was proud of donut metaphor, but went and ruined it .

@DD yes Turing is quite established now isn’t it, I can’t find anything online about RTS, I’d like to hear parents views and have some feel for what they’ll be doing there. If you’re 300m off cut off, we’re more than that so how come you’re lower on the waiting list?! Don’t get this at all!
@pissup, we’re just over the other side of twickenham roundabout so I guess the river would be taken into account? Who knows.
Ps love the metaphor!

It's travel distance not crow-flies so there'll be some be donut crumbs on the Richmond side of Richmond bridge but mostly their offers will be on Twickenham side. The a316 is like a river too but with more crossing points.

@goddess, there is a very tiny amount of data on ofsted's parent view - only 15 responses though, so it's hardly going to be that useful to you
parentview.ofsted.gov.uk/parent-view-results/survey/result/167783/current
DDqueen - I am a TH parent, it does have very good teaching, happy to answer any questions if helpful.

@goddesnic - to be precise we are 1861m from the school apparently so slightly over 300m from cut off point.

Thanks @bluesnowdog- am sure there will be a lot of TH questions but just now am happy to hear good views. Will it be inspected by OFSTED?

I believe so soon, put it this way, the Head has mentioned at various parent meetings that they are ready for it, as I believe it happens in your 3rd year of being open, so it must be this academic year. I would be surprised if it wasn't a good report for them, as they really do seem to know what they are doing. (If we ignore the lack of site, which is not within the school's control!)