Applying for a primary school place, Autumn 2014, Highgate, Archway, Crouch End

[nlondondad]

This is a place to discuss everything concerned with primary school admissions for autumn 2014 in this area of London

The area is partly in Islington, partly in Haringey, with a small bit in Camden:The area I am talking about is covered by postcodes N19, N8, N6. if you do a google maps search for N19 3BQ you will find the marker is pretty near the centre of the area.

I should declare that I am a governor at Ashmount Primary School, and a member of the Islington Schools Forum.

I shall add some more posts shortly, when I get around to it.

To start with note:-

1. Primary school applications for Autumn 2014 MUST be in by the 25 January 2014.

1. Apply to the borough you are living in.

1. BUT ignore borough boundaries when picking schools - it makes no difference.

1. Do use as many of your six preference as you can.

1. If you are in a nursery attached to a school you still need to apply!

Last 21 April 2013 I started a thread I called "Is there a shortage of school places in Highgate, Archway, Crouch End area?" which in the end went to 182 Posts, with the last being at the end of November.

I started the "shortage" thread because of a major difference of opinion in the neighbourhood. On one side was, and is, Islington Council who maintain that there is no shortage of school places in this small bit of London. So they want to use the old site from which Ashmount School moved last December for social housing, on the grounds that housing is a more urgent need (in the view of the Council) than school places. At least in this instance,

On the other side was, and is, the promoters of a "Free School" on the old site, and possibly, using the old building, who say that there is a shortage. Their key argument was, and remains, that there is a shortage of primary school places in the area and so a new primary school, taking in 56 children a year, is needed.

And there is always the complication that although Islington Council are responsible for the old site, it is 50 metres from the border with Haringey so the situation in that borough is also relevant.

Obviously these two points of view rested on forecasts of demand for school places, and I was hoping to use the thread to find out what the actual experience was on the ground in 2013 as part of trying to work out which state of affairs was the actual one. in the event in 2013 there appeared to be no shortage. There were no reports on the thread of anyone without a place, in either borough, and the official figures showed a small surplus (unfilled reception places) in the area.

However the proposers of the Free School, nothing daunted, despite their forecast of a shortage for 2013 turning out not to be fulfilled, still mainatin that there will be a shortage for 2014. And the Council still disagree. And there the matter rests until we see the actual results again.

However as happens so often, over the next few months the thread "morphed" into a useful forum, or so it seemed, in which people could discuss admission issues in this locality of London which covers more or less evenly areas of Islington and Haringey with a small bit of Camden. Also people used it to give progress reports on how the admissions cycle was panning out.

So I thought, the old thread having fulfilled its purpose, to start this new one, early, to see what happens.

So this is a places to discuss everything concerned with primary school admissions in this area of London.

If you want to look at the old thread (the one that was supposed to be about shortages and turned into a general discussion) you can find it here:-

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/primary/1737500-Is-there-a-shortage-of-school-places-in-Highgate-Archway-Crouch-End-area

And with offer day for autumn 2014 tomorrow, time to take down, and dust off, this thread which I prepared earlier.

Well I will rekindle this thread nlondon dad as I know you are very familiar with Whitehall park and all the debate about schools in the local area. We live at the Hazellville road end of Dresden road and have been offered no school by Islington. Not Ashmount, not Coleridge, not Hargrave park, not Duncombe and no not any of the local church schools because we aren't church goers. Feeling really rather glad we didn't listen to the anti free school propaganda and applied to Whitehall Park School.

@juniorjones

Did the information you got from Islington tell you what the last offered distance (on this first round) was for Ashmount Coleridge Hargrave Park?

Do they say where you are on the waiting list(s)

Did you apply to Rokesly? (I know thats a bit far but its radius reached you last year and it would be helpful to find out what happened this year.)

I live in Muswell Hill and have just found out that we have not been given a place at any of the local schools on our list (missed out on 1st choice Muswell Hill Primary on the next street to us by 0.02 miles) BUT have been allocated a place nearly 4 miles away in Tottenham! Needless to say I just can't accept this offer (I am relying on public transport and work in Central London). Apparently we are among the 6% of families who had to be allocated a place this year. Any advice you could give on appeals, waiting lists, anything would be greatly appreciated.

@markmyplace

Accept the place in Tottenham for the time being, it will do you no harm, and I am not sure what effect rufusing the place would have -someone else might know. BUT

Make sure you go on the waiting list of any school you can reasonably get to. There is quite a lot of movement on waiting lists and you may be near the top for Muswell Hill School. Also, in Muswell Hill, there are some parents waiting to hear about private schools, who will drop out of the places offered them in a bit and that again generates movement.

Do hold your nerve. Really hard, I know.

N London private schools generally offer in early February, I'm not sure how many will be giving out places now.

What were the Muswell hill distances like this year? Tetherdown especially?

Thanks very much for your advice nlondondad. I'll hopefully get to speak to someone at the LEA this morning just to clarify things. BranchingOut the distances have shrunk this year. Tetherdown's furthest distance offered was 0.3565. You can find the 2014 school allocations info including furthest distance offered for all schools on the Haringey website.

FYI cut off for ashmount is 0.266 - significantly reduced from last year.

@slowcomputer

In some parts of London, and Muswell Hill is one of them, private schools take enough of the children for them to have an impact. Most private schools offer in February, its true, but at this time of year you get two things happening that matter:

1. A parent may be waiting to make a choice between private and state, with a private place, as it were, in their pocket. And they will decide only when they get their offer as to whether they have an offer from the "right" state school. If they get the "wrong" state school (or the financial situation changes -a grand parent offers to pay the primary fees...) they will then refuse the state offer. So you get a slightly higher rate of refusal on top of the usual reason - people having moved between application date and next autumn.....

1. Private schools have waiting lists also, and of course even more than stae schools they HAVE to fill, rather than loose out on the fees.... So a private school place comes free, and offer is made on their waiting list and accepted, so a state school place comes free, and an offer is made on THAT waiting list and accepted, which casuses a lower preference state school place previously offered and accepted to come free, and so forth.

So everywhere the churn is high, but in Muswell Hill a bit higher

A comment from Islington admissions this morning:

"we know that there will be significant churn over the coming months. The number of parents without an offer of one of their preferences is similar to last year on offer day. The council will have a clearer picture when it receives confirmation from parents that they are either accepting or declining the offer made. By the end of last year’s process, only 5 parents across the borough were not offered one of their original preferences (none in the N19 area) out of over 2000 applications.

(The five remaining parents were allocated to schools not on their original preference list)

Thank you for a tiny glimmer of hope nlondondad. It turns out we missed out on a place by 48 feet! So I'm going to cross everything that some Muswell hill parents are planning to go private.

@markmyplace

That, and the big promotion to somewhere else in the country, or abroad...

markmyplace - wondering how you got on? We are just outside catchment for most local schools (DS is due to start Sept 2015), Muswell Hill Primary being our nearest at 0.36 miles away so I'm really curious to know how people in a similar situation are getting on this year.

Until markmy reappears,

I can just say that there has been significant "churn" in Muswell Hill following offer day. Apart from all the usual reasons why someone offered one of their preferences may decline, or later relinquish a place, it seems that Haringey having anticipated from the application figures that there could be a local shortage, and with Weston Park in Crouch End admitting 30 fewer children this year, arranged for a "bulge Class" at St Mary's Hornsey. As under the rules governing bulge classes the places could not be offered at offer day (The bulge class being established after offer day, but in fact long planned before) this caused an extra 25 (I believe that was the number) places to be offered largely in the Muswell Hill area. And that as much as I know.

We really need to hear from a parent in Muswell Hill, who applied this year.