Can I "force" my LEA to create a bulge class?

[shroedingersdodo]

I'm in Greenwich, and I live in an area that is off the catchment area of all the local schools (Maze Hill). My son was allocated a place in a school that is quite far, and also has a very bad Ofsted. I suppose there will be quite a few families in the area in a similar situation.

Most of the local schools have 60 places for Reception, but one of them (Meridian, which is considered a good school) has only 30 places. It would be great if they could create a bulge class, as this is clearly an oversubscribed area.

How could we approach this situation and suggest the creation of an extra class in this school?

(I have no idea how this whole thing works, so any suggestion or information will be very useful)

Thanks!

You can start a campaign for a bulge class and, if there is a shortage of places across the borough, the LEA may well agree to create one (and in fact, if there is a shortage, they may already have plans). But the decision on where to locate the bulge class depends on many factors - not least, the footprint of the school and its capacity to absorb an extra class - and it won't necessarily be at your preferred school.

If there is no shortage of places across the borough, just a mismatch between where the places are and where the children live, there is far less chance of a bulge class.

"Force" was a bad choice of words, I couldn't think of a better one. "Campaign" may be better.

But Panelchair, if the places are far away and in bad schools, don't we have a case?

Not from the LEA's perspective, no. They are concerned with the situation borough-wide. They will know, obviously, which are the sought-after schools and which are the unpopular schools, but if there is no overall need for new places they will not agree (even tacitly) to let places in unpopular schools stand empty while new places are created in sought-after schools. At least, they wouldn't in my borough.

What may help you, though, is that many London boroughs face a looming school place shortage and there is a general impetus towards building new primary schools and expanding existing ones. You may be able to capitalise on that, if Greenwich needs to expand its primary school capacity.

Have you approached your local councillors to enlist their support?

schroedingersdodo - I have PMed you

It's not sounding very good, but thanks a lot for the replies, Panelchair and Tiggytape. I really can't fathom how several families in this situation just accept that there are no decent school places for their children. I'll try to get in contact with other parents in the area and see if they've had the same problem.

Anyway, thanks a lot!

how do you know school m has capacity to expand maybe just not room.

also even temporary bulge classes can create havoc with siblings this has happened to few local people as theres ore soblinsg when pan frops down to 30 again.

Bristol has 2pressure groups set up to campaign school places maybe start something up, contact mp but no guarantees and lea will say they have given you a school.

I know how you feel as in same situation my younger child dident get into same school as her sister or any other schools on list.

i have 3rd child starting next year so have go through this again.

Shroe - I also live just by Maze Hill. I am still waiting to hear about my place but that's another story. Do you know about the new primary that's opening opposite Millennium? Well when I say new, it's actually a second site for St Mary Magdelan in Woolwich. I think it's a CoE school that's either 'good' or 'outstanding'. It is supposed to be opening this Sept - although when I last walked past it still looked like a building site. You should definitely ask the LEA about it as you may be able to go on the list? Think it's going to be a two form entry.
Also look at Windrush. The second site on the Woolwich Road. I looked round and was very impressed. It's an outstanding school but as it's only been opened two years not many people know about it.

Just to add, our local authority have a vague list of schools that will get any extra classes - they let the schools know they may need to create one in advance.

tiggytape, excellent explanation. I'm fuming about this issue but I admit, if DS gets a place in a good school through a waiting list, I would probably never think about this anymore. (I'm not proud of that).

Dinosauradventure, thank you very much for your suggestions. I will check these two schools you mentioned. I'm slowly getting more hopeful...

Are you sure that Meridian is the best focus for a bulge class?

Firstly, their site is very small and, as I understood it, the building is totally full. Unless they turfed out the pre-school. It might be worth checking this before you go down that road, because if there is just no way of adding a room, how will they create a bulge?

Second, are you close to getting into Meridian? As I've had it explained before bulge classes are allocated according to normal preference criteria. Wouldn't that mean that, even if there was a bulge class, lots of families who didn't get Meridian and got Christ Church or one of the other schools shifted up? Would a bulge class actually get you in?

I think its too late in the year for them to decide to bulge. If you suggested it and they agreed they probably would plan to do it for next year or the year after. They only take 30 children for a reason and this is most probably lack of space to accept more. In my area a few schools have bulged but have had to use temporary classrooms and the school my daughter is going to is currently going through building works as they are building some extra classrooms this is because in my area there is a problem with children not getting any of their choices and this year its been the worse

The bulge class wouldn't necessarily be in the school with only a 30 intake, it would be in the school best able to cope with the extra demands on infrastructure (hall, playground, toilets, access for parents morning and afternoon et )

A school with a usual intake of 30 would be very unlikely to be a candidate for a bulge class as for them this would mean doubling the size of a year group and will stretch resources unreasonably. A school with a normal intake of 60, and even more so if the normal intake is 90, is much better placed to cope with an additional 30 pupils.