St James's Catholic Primary School, twickenham

[Teddy77]

Hi
I was wondering if anyone on Mumsnet had any experience/knowledge of how quickly the waiting list for reception class places and/or in-year admissions moved. Based on distance (we are 1500 meters from school and the last few years they got to approx 1000 meters!) I am not hopeful that we will get a reception place first time round but am hopeful that if we remain on the waiting list long enough (maybe even years!) that something might come up. Any experience/feedback/knowledge that anyone has in this area would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks in advance
Teddy77

BTW forgot to mention that we my DD is a baptised catholic and we do attend mass regularly so we did satisfy SIF criteria....it is mainly the distance factor that is going against us :-(

I wouldn't hold your breath. It's a popular school, and these days there are fewer parents in the area opting to go private. Bear in mind, too, that if anyone moves in to a property closer to the school they will instantly leapfrog you on the waiting list.

Do you know if the cut off distance was applied to criteria d) baptised practising catholics living within the 4 specified parishes, or e) baptised practising catholics living outside the 4 parishes? Makes a difference IYSWIM.

My child attends St James's school and I initially was very happy to have got the place there.

After a while I have realized that the school is good at raising money however does not really care about the good for the children.

Parents are not friendly and there is nothing of the Catholic spirit you should expect. I bet that a school good at ticking boxes also gets parents like this.

To further parents: I recommend to visit alternative schools.