Appyling for primary school in sept- is there any way of predicting if they will put on a bulge class?

[krisskross]

we are applying for our local catholic school which is 2 mins away (we are practising catholics btw) but the catchment is measured from the church, which we are 0.65 miles from.

Over the last 6 years the catchment has jumped all over the place, 1 mile last year, 0.48 miles this year.

For applications this coming sept, the priest was giving out the additional form in May and date stamping them and we were asked to return them the following week.

Could this be to see if they need a bulge class? Is there any way of predicting whether they could put on a bulge class? we dont really have an alternative school (very little local prevision so other nearest school has miniscule catchment).

Advice please

Blimey! You seem to be applying very late where you are. You had to get your application forms in by July in London.

I would say that if your local authority was planning to put a bulge class in at that school, they would have already made the decision. Call up your local council and ask them.

I mean "You had to get your application forms in by JANUARY in London."

sorry- to clarify- we will be applying from sept for the following year (DS starting school sept 2012). so i am wondering if a school might have a sense they need a bulge class before applications are in- or would they have to be psychic?

the reason i ask is that we are starting to think we will need to move.

Maybe the priest is trying to get the forms to the genuine church goers, rather than the ones who will start attending church later in the year in the hope of getting a place.

Why would a bulge class bother you? Would you really move to avoid one?

You could speak to the diocese or local council and ask if they have had any discussions with the school about putting in a bulge class. They should have a reasonable idea of what the level of applications are likely to be and should be planning accordingly.

Is the school very over subscribed ?, our catholic primary would give a practising catholic family a place even if they lived 3/4 miles from school.

Apologies! I'm so tired i think my original message was quite unclear.

we are 0.65 miles away. Some years we'd have got in, other years we wouldnt, so we would be glad if they put on a bulge class!

I think that you need to go on the LA website and look up under admissions what the admission arrangements are for this school. If the Priest was giving out forms then there is for sure a faith category which will be giving priority to those who are regular worshippers at the church.
It could be that there will be more regular worshipers, who are confirmed by the priests supplementary form being completed, than there are places in the school. Under those circumstances there will be other admission criteria applied and that would normally be siblings first and then distance. However that distance will not be from the church it will be from your home to the school. The 0.48 miles is the distance that the last person offered a place lived from the school but that could be in any of the admission criteria. Again if you look on the website at the beginning of September the information on last year's admissions should be on the LA site under primary admissions.
It is unlikely that the priest's actions suggest a bulge year just a wish to ensure that the places are offered to regular worshippers of the church.

I thought that bulge classes were sorted out by the LEA when there was a shortfall of total places, not places of a particular type (RC in this case). They'll be added to the school best able to support them (or perhaps that should be least worst affected by one), and that would probably come down to things like size of site rather than faith.

i thought that too, but this year another catholic school a couple of miles down the road did put one on and was advertising in our church newsletter that they still had space available. ??

The jumping of catchments is probably down to siblings. If you know somene at the school (could be a parent) they may be able to predict the number of siblings.

For instance, I know that for DS's year there are at least 30 siblings. I have seen about this many pushchairs at school picking up time. Add on any others who their older sibling may be at an after school club or something and you get a rough idea of the numbers.

The thing is, people have until the LA deadline to get their forms in. OK, they might know from the forms that they are under pressure.

TBH I wouldn't bank on a bulge. Look at other catholic schools too.