Bulge classes in RC school

[lifeistooshort]

Does it ever happen?

Every year the school we applied for is oversubscribed in the main criteria. DS is 8th on the list which makes me thing that there were more applicants in the same criteria. Can you push for a bulge class to be set up? How do you go about it?

hi, am in a similar position and following with interest.....

If it is over suscribed every year then a bulge year is not what is required. It is a double form entry. The school may not have the capacity to cope with either. It is a diocesan and borough decision and tbh I think if it was going to happen it would have happened by now. I know how upsetting it is. What borough are you in?

I don't think the LEA can force VA schools to expand or take a bulge class.

( and bulge classes are generally forced)

Many boroughs are also very reluctant to allow VA schools to expand anyway. They feel their grip is tight enough iykwim.

Bulge classes are put in place due to a general shortage of places in the area, not because one school is oversubscribed. As Indigobell said, for a VA school the LA can't force them to take a bulge class anyway (there would need to be negotiations between LA/diocese/school).

If there are sufficient places in an area overall then the LA won't fund a bulge class just because a school is popular.

If the school wanted to expand permanently, this would need diocese approval and then there is a LA-wide consultation process that must be followed and if the result of the expansion could leave other schools in the area half-full then it probably wouldn't go through anyway.

Thanks all that is what I suspected. I am going to write to the diocese and the school. The admission criteria for both RC schools are not the same. Which means that the children at School A have 2 chances to get into the schools as they fulfill the admissions criteria. They also have different oversubscription criteria. School 2 tie breaker is distance. This means that a small (but family populated) area of the town has no chance whatsoever to ever get into a RC school whereas the rest of the town's georgraphic area gets one or two shots. Very unfair in my opinion

Am pretty sure there is going to be a bulge class next year, admissions Sep 13. It is an Unpresidented Baby Boom Year.
But everything I have read about it, it is not great. Children in a porta-cabin, who don't feel part of the main achhol. Everything changes, to creating 2 assemblies, school dinner times change, sharing of books and textbooks. And it goes all the way through the school.
If it is a small school, that has been the same way for years, Year 2 in the same classrooms, then not only do people don't like change. But its not just that. The disruption actually goes very deep and influences everyone. It is not a light issue. Is not good. Am struggling to see any positive spin, on it.

Not a problem!! I didn't feel bombarded. I enjoy really your incredibly informative posts Nightmare. So thank you. I posted here. Prompted by another catholic thread I was on recently. And then thought actually this is a general issue re 'bulge classes'. But thanks anyway.

And, I can TOTALLY sympathise with the nightmare, of having your child at a school, out of catchment.

I know of 2 RC schools in Surrey taking a bulge class in September 2012 - and proposing to increase PAN in 2013. So it can be done.