West Bridgford Nottingham

[bella789]

Hi,
Just wondering if anyone else out there is totally shocked and really rather cross that they havent been allocated a reception place for their child.....and if there is anyone in the same shoes out there, what is your next move on this??!!
Bella

Mine are both in school already but I do have a few friends in the same situation as you. Its shocking they must have known when everyone applied that the numbers were gonna be high.
From what I've heard there are 27 children without places in Bridgford and talk of putting on an extra class at Abbey Road.

what bloody good is abbey road if you are at the top end of say greythorne drive?

( 20 swear words later, help i was going to move to wb to be near family)

be bloomin grateful that the "meddders" is a different authority

The situation here in WB is very distressing for all of the parents without a school place for their child.

Blackeyedsusan - your catchment school would be Heymann and that wasn't oversubscribed. If you had moved this year and applied there, you would have been given a place.

The main problem appears to be around Jesse Gray, West Bridgford Infants, Pierrepont Gamston and Abbey Rd Schools.

I would strongly urge anyone thinking of moving to WB for the schools not to live more than, say, 300m from the school as the crow flies.

My next step is to keep an eye out on every house now going up for sale and back on the to let market...

Blackeyedsusan - one other thought - there is one LA admission team now covering the whole of Nottm / Notts. My gut feeling is that your child could be sent to a school in The Meadows if that was the one closest to you with a place. The LA is legally obliged to offer you a place somewhere - and The Meadows is well within 3 miles from WB. Anyone have any different view?

was just using greythorne as an example as I have not been around enough to remember anywhere further away from abbey road.

no, more bad news... oh well there is always home educating til there is a place. we are unlikely to move before the round of admissions for ds.. so it would be a waiting list somewhere for 2 children.

i would probably move in with parents til I could afford somewhere to rent/buy somewhere in nottm anyway, and it is not very far from a school. (and we would really be living there, not just staying for address sake.)

The high numbers applying to go to school here have been a problem since 2008. It's something of a new situation here - I imagine people living in other parts of the UK are much more used to it. The thing that people find shocking is that people have lived here for 15+ years and they can't their children into the schools now, unless the live really close.

And there are people who people who allegedly put their homes out of catchment up for sale, move in, get a school place and then move out again. Fingers crossed that the LA start to address that point.

hmmm 'tis a shame that living in the area for a long time doesn't qualify you, i suspect that 35 out of the last 40 years would get me near the top of the list then!

Am surprised that no-one else is posting about this in WB as there are a lot of annoyed people out and about...

We know of a few people who are in a similar position and have contacted our county councillor with our concerns. We have heard rumours that there are parents who do not play fair when it comes to school applications and hope that the school admissions team do check addresses. I fear, however, this is not the case and it is genuine 'in catchment school' children who are forfeiting their places because of this.

Does anyone know if addresses are checked?

I work in an ofsted outstanding school in The Meadows. In fact Ofsted are not even coming this time to inspect as were so good!
Our SATs results are well on par with Bridgford and weve been included in a report about the top 20 inner city schools in the country.
If not for the fact I work there I would have gladly sent my children there.
Not everything about the meadows is bad x

I'll stick up for the Meadows as well lol - have done supply at a couple of amazing schools there! (Tend to avoid it purely based on the fact I hate the traffic systems past QMC - no other reason)

Not related to the West Bridgford mess but sticking up for 'em too!

bella - my thoughts are that the parents affected should collate every single address that goes up for sale or to let between now and when the children start at school and to email that through to admissions.

While no-one should allege that anything fraudulent has happened the fact remains that people should still be resident in catchment when the child starts at school. If people are moving now then the place should be forfeited. No checks are done either by the school or the LA here in Notts once the school term starts...

I wasn't wishing to allege anything, just repeating what the manager of our nursery said has happened and she believes contributes alot to the problem. I wouldnt know where to start collating all the info about house sales/lets, how could you find that out do you think?

I'd cycle, walk or drive around the catchment area and make a list!

Bella - depending on where (if?) you are on a waiting list for your preferred school you may want to take the long view and see how you progress up and down the waiting list. It's just very interesting that lots of homes have gone up to let close to WB Inf on Rushworth Avenue and around Carnarvon Rd. It can't be a coincidence, surely??

The LA does not ask for proof of address which is scandalous in these times so people can put their lovely homes out of catchment up for sale at too high a price and then move back once they have the school place unless they are worried that a check will be made. Don't suppose the nursery manager would like to be more specific....?? [csmile]

Well said Outstanding.

also worked in the meadows, it must have improved a hell of a lot since then.

is there a link to find out how far you are from a particular school?

I dont know one, although you can look on the council website to find your catchment school, or use Googlemaps to see how far it is (using the direction option it will tell you how far it is)

Am sure that if there are parents in WB who would be happy to send their children to a school in The Meadows then, regardless of whether they work at the school there or not, even now hey simply need to call the LA and see if there is space. Plenty of people have their children at the school at which they work. This might lead to the freeing up of some WB places and parents waiting for school places at the WB schools would be happy to move up or even off the waiting list to their prefered school. On the plus side, people wanting to choose a Meadows' school can now do so from the outset as it's one admission authority now.

we are JG catchment (and have been since pre-kids!) and didn't get an offer anywhere... have just heard today that our mandatory offer is edwalton, which is a 40 min + walk away..... crap crap crap

Hi everyone

Could you please send me a message to my inbox if you are in the JG catchment area and did not get a place?

Thank you

hi, we live well inside JG catchment our second choice was WB infants and did'nt get a placement at either!! V cross!! have been offered a place at edwalton which is 2miles away which seems rediculous, there are 7schools closer!!! we will appeal but don't hold much hope. Are there any action groups?
sad and heavily pregnant jo

Yes!!

E mail

[email protected]

ASAP

xx