Herne hill Judith Kerr school

[shadylane]

Does anyone have any children here/know much about it? Will be going to open day next month but wondering as I know no one with kids there. So bored of school application politics in this borough.

Itshouldntmatter That was last year, when they first opened. Bromley bilingual is in their first year and they can do that as a one-off. Like academies, Free Schools are expected to adhere to this admissions code like any other state school. Can you imagine if they could have their own admissions policy, what sort of inequality that would open up? After all, apparently free schools are all about opening up places in areas where there arent enough...or not? :)

Actually @vikingmum the official rationale for Free Schools is to provide parents with choice which is why the DfE can, and have, justified opening Free Schools in areas where opening the Free School creates a surplus of places. The Judith Kerr School because of its special (bi lingual) nature obviously does provide a different kind of schooling to that of the other primary schools around it. So if you live near enough to it, you have a choice.

However on top of this policy local authorities, who still have the legal duty to make sure there are enough places, are not allowed to open schools anymore, they have to be a Free School.

So the two issues this raises are:

1.Where money limited, and there are areas short of places, should not the money be concentrated there rather than used to create additional choice where places do exist?

2.Although politicians of all stripes TALK about parental choice, it does not exist. Parents get to express a preference not make a choice. For people to have a choice there would need to be a lot of vacant places, but no politician is prepared to pay for these....

Vikingmum, it was done on 50% distance and 50% random allocation this year as well - although only 33 places were left to go into this mix after priority given to looked-after children, siblings etc.

This is why getting information on the waiting list has been so difficult and complicated. Apparently they had over 200 applications for 50 places so what they are offering is clearly an attractive package to a lot of people!

Not quite choice, Nlondondad, but certainly the opportunity to express a preference and have a very slim chance (16 places went on random allocation) that you might get it...

nlondondad yes, of course, the official line is parental choice and a way of cutting bureaucracy and giving more control to schools etc. etc, so their raison d'être is not about creating places where they are needed. However, the political pressure has meant that free schools (including Judith Kerr) have defended the 'need' for places in the area they are opening in to silence critics (with more or less success, as you say– thats why was being slightly sarcastic…).

Parkrunner1 you are indeed right, I didn't know that about the admissions. Free school do have to adhere to the statutory admissions code but I just looked that up and apparently random allocation is allowed under that code as long as its not the main oversubscription criteria. Hmm.

In reply to some of the questions about the German Curriculum leader at Judith Kerr Primary, there is now someone co-ordinating the German curriculum - one of the current parents who has experience in planning curriculum, but who is unfortunately not bilingual. The reason for there not being a proper bilingual German curriculum co-ordinator is lack of funding. Current parents were told this in no uncertain terms by the current interim head teacher and CEO of the CfBT trust at the last parent-governor meeting. The reason given for the original head teacher leaving was indeed for personal reasons.

In response to some questions about how the school juggles passing all the key stages on top of having German classes, since the departure of the original head teacher the school has focused almost entirely on the English curriculum, with one hour of German per week plus incidental German where possible from the German-speaking classroom assistants. The situation may become more truly bilingual in the future, but at the moment it is far from it.

I am new to the school, with my son starting this year, the school seems so disorganized. Barely any information or any contact with parents about the starting date, I thought we were starting on Wednesday, took the week off and two days ago I got an email to say that we are not starting until the 8th.
This school does not look good at all so far, now I am really worried about the level of education they are going to receive or if everything is as disorganized as it seems, has anybody found the same thing?

Hello, I have a daughter in reception and I am looking for other JKPS parents to share the school run from Greenwich/Lewisham. We live in Blackheath and commute on the Victoria Line in the morning and pick up by car in the afternoon. Open for ideas how to make this journey easier.

Just reviving this thread as we are currently deciding which schools to apply for for our son. So far this is our favourite but we can't get an accurate idea of how much German the children are learning and whether this is really a reason to choose this school which is further away. I love the idea of a bilingual school but if it is just an hour a week the other primary schools will be doing that anyway. The teachers and staff at the open day were very impressive and the current parents seemed enthusiastic and committed. If any current parents have any feedback I would be really grateful as I don't know anyone who has children there.

The German content dropped right down towards the end of last year. I think they were concentrating their resources towards other areas (policies, staff training etc.) and just couldn't provide more than an hour or two a week.
This has massively improved this year, and there is more German- though not at the 50% level that they intended. That will perhaps come next year..?
When working in German, they group the kids into those who can already speak German and those who can't- so it is all pitched at the right level.

Still very happy with our school choice- in spite of all the teething issues. Kids are nice, parents are really nice (obviously!), great teachers, warm hearts, small classes, quite academic but also quite creative.
Hope this helps!

Hi. I'm new on Mumsnet. Our son has been accepted into Reception at Judith Kerr to start next September. We were so excited and went to visit the school yesterday. Our visit didn't live up to the expectations set by the website. I'd be grateful to get advice from parents whose children attend the school. Thank you.

Hello Hotchocrunner, I am a current reception parent, so maybe I can help. In what way did it not live up to your expectations? Obviously the school is mid-build at the moment, which doesn't help, but hopefully most of that will be finished by September. Our child's teacher is excellent, parents seem very happy with the teaching generally. Other things like extra curricular stuff are taking a bit longer to get going, and I gather communication with the head can be a bit hit and miss. It's a work in progress, but they are getting there, and they haven't even been there 2 years.

Thank you so much Matsikula. Your message is a big relief.
We were taken around by a Year 1 teache, although we got a Reception place and she knew very little about Re eption classes i.e. couldn't answer most of our questions (homework frequency, timetable, reading frequency to the teacher, etc). Furthermore, we thought that kids would be taught subjects in both languages, but I understand that they get 30-45 min of German every day instead (which is already pretty good, by the way). We loved the building, the huge space in the classes, it will be a grand building once finished!
Thanks again

Ah, I see. Reception is quite a different set-up to the rest of the school as it is still part of the early years curriculum so that is probably why the teacher wasn't sure. They don't normally have formal homework in reception, except reading, but there is a newsletter every week explaining what topics they are doing with ideas of things to do at home (we find this a bit unnecessary as he comes home brimming over with talk about mini beasts, halving things etc.) reading to the teacher - not sure how often but for literacy they do small groups across the 2 classes (with some children going up to year 1). German - as someone mentioned above they have got lots of teaching interns in recently (native speakers and students on a specialist course at Goldsmiths) so the content has shot up. As they get older they are doing some teaching in German (e.g. The year 3s 'did' Ancient Egypt recently and did mini presentations in German - and lots of these children only started german in year 2). At the moment for the non german speakers in reception it's singing, counting, colours, animal names etc. Theoretically they did this in French at my son's nursery (weekly lesson) but without the constant reinforcement from a native speaker, he didn't actually remember anything.

My bilingual daughter is going to Judith Kerr in Sept and I am quite happy - but now facing the question of how to get her there and back every day, we live in Catford... Considering an au-pair but would be interested to hear about any recommended child minders local to the school or from anyone who might like to share the cost of someone to drop off/collect from this area.

Hi all - I was hoping to restart this thread, and get some advice please. We are just about to move to Herne Hill with DS (4) and DD (2), after living in Shepherds Bush for 5 enjoyable years. DS will start primary school in Sept 2017, and so we are applying for primary school places in the current window - yikes! We actually have a few different houses/flats we could move to (renting for now, while we try to sell the Shepherds Bush place), and part of the consideration is which primary school we should go for. I've done lots of research online - but don't know anyone in the area yet - so would really appreciate some local knowledge! Our thoughts are below, but any ideas would be most welcome

• We are moving to Herne Hill for work reasons, and because we think we'd really enjoy the community spirit, and felt very at home there when walking around. Loved the local parks, independent shops, and being near Brixton.

• From looking online, seems that the best local primary schools are Judith Kerr, Dulwich Village Church of England Infants’ School, Dulwich Hamlet Junior School. Charter School looks very good for secondary.

• We really prefer state schools for primary and secondary school, if at all possible. We aren't religious, and would probably prefer a non-religious school, although aren't too bothered as long as all are welcome regardless of background.

• Judith Kerr is our first choice so far. Looks like a welcoming place. I speak fluent German (German grandmother), although haven't spoken much German to our kids yet. If anyone could update me, that would be much appreciated. Are kids happy there? Good teachers? Is it true that they dropped the German curriculum (as per above thread), or is this going again? There are talks about funding problems (as per above thread) - is this still a problem? Is class size still 25, or up to 30 now? And what's the likely outcome of that legal battle about the school grounds being taken over by a home for the elderly? Would this have a big negative impact, or would there still be some nice playground leftover? Also, is it true that there still aren't really any after school clubs? (football, art, etc). Sorry for all the questions! Oh, and how close do you need to live (roughly) to get in? (this doesn't seem to be published online).

• Dulwich Village Church of England Infants’ School. Looks very nice, and more established that Judith Kerr, so perhaps less risky. Has 45 CofE places (we wouldn't qualify) and 45 other places. Are kids happy there? Good teachers? Nice play area? For the non-CofE children, do they still take part in the religious education? And if so, are parents generally happy with this? I'm all for learning about world religions, but might not feel comfortable if the learning was overzealous and directed too much towards christianity. Also, any idea how close we'd have to live? (this doesn't seem to be published online).

• Then, if went for the CofE school, I guess you'd hope to get a place in Dulwich Hamlet Junior School for year 3 (I know it isn't guaranteed). Again, looks like a lovely school. Happy kids? Good teachers there? And there isn't the same religious teaching as per the Infants School, is there? They publish previous years' figures, and it looks like being 800m away is close enough. Do many kids go there from places other than Dulwich Village CofE Infants School? E.g. if our DS went to Judith Kerr, or somewhere completely different, but didn't get on with it, could he transfer to Dulwich Hamlet Junior School in Year 3? I wouldn't anticipate this happening, since I'm sure he'll enjoy wherever he goes, and wouldn't want to change his environment unnecessarily.

Sorry for long post! I'm probably overthinking things, but it seems like a big decision (and we do kind of have to make the decision which we prefer now, since we're about to move home and can choose a few different places). Any little snippets of information would be much appreciated, from anyone with local knowledge, or whose kids have gone to any of the above schools!