September 2016 - Crouch End primary schools catchment areas "Black Hole"

[cecinestpasunepipe]

If catchment areas remain similar to this year, my grandson (dob 10/11) will not be in the catchment area of any Crouch End school. Any suggestions? Anyone with children at Whitehall Park? Dd is panicking

Haringey schools do not use "catchment areas" bear with me, this is not pedantry. What they do is they admit siblings first. Then non siblings in order of how far away they live from the school. Each year Haringey publish the furthest distance from each school, a child offered on distance was offered ON OFFER DAY. However for various reasons not all offers made on offer day are accepted, and for that matter peoples circumstances can change between the closing date for applications in January and the start of term in September, so significant numbers of offers are made after offer day.

Also, once they see what demand is they may decide to create an extra "bulge class" at a school and these places are offered after offer day.

But the real point is that the admissions radius can fluctuate a lot from year to year (either way) partly depending on how many siblings.

But your Dd really ought to wait to see this years admissions circles, which are published in the Autumn, to get a clearer idea of what is happening!

(There was a shortage of places last year in Muswell Hill on offer day, then a bulge class was created and the shortage vanished)

Im in haringey too. down the ally pally for sept 2016. did not move due to school, but the school admission looks like nightmare here.

where do all of these kids go if they dont get a place?

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mumscafeteria.com

So far, Islington has relied on bulge classes - eg for 2013 admissions, 80 bulge places were created and 76 of them used. They had bulge classes again in 2014, but I don't have the exact figures handy.

The LEA continues to insist it has no school place crisis (it is the only London Borough which says that). But I would say that reliance on bulge classes, year on year, to cover the numbers is indicative of serious difficulties already underway.

OP: if you're in a 'black hole' then you just have to wait it out as your LEA finds a place for you somewhere. You may have to brace yourself for a long and inconvenient journey to an undersubscribed school (of which there are few these days), hope for a bulge class, or await use of FAP (to force a school to go over numbers). Not a great range of options, but they have to find you something.

I think its worth stressing that the OP is worried about September 2016 and things can change quite a bit in a year anyway.

For example the actual number of applicants in Crouch End has actually been falling slowly for the last few years. Its a very gentle decline in numbers, and could easily reverse, but if it continues that will ease pressure bit by bit. (The admissions radii will tend to increase in size) So next year could be easier than this, as this year could be easier than last year.

Last year, by the way, there was NO black hole reported in Crouch End. (There was a problem in Muswell Hill that was fixed with a bulge class)

So the OP will be OK unless pressure in Crouch End increased.

(The suggestion is that there are a number of families in Crouch end who have now completed family growth and so are no longer producing reception age children. So just as crouch End was absolutely overrun with babies a few years ago, in a few years time it will be teenagers)

Crouch End's projected 'black hole' in current admissions year.

This is based on "catchments" (ie admission footprints) that are concentric circles of greatest distance of offered.

Given bulge classes in earlier years across N London boroughs, it is likely that sibling places, including of those placed some distance from their home, will also be a confounder (making it harder to get a place at your local school) unless the bulge classes are repeated in every following year.

(Whitehall Park is an Islington school, isn't it? So Islington schools are clearly within reach for OP, so the situation there is also relevant in terms of where her DC might end up).

I live in a village in yorkshire - not a heavily populated area, very rural - and my DS will start reception in 2016. He has just started nursery (5 terms in a school based nursery as he is autumn born) and already it is beginning to show that there may be more children in the village than places.

Currently there are 38 children enrolled in nursery who will be starting school september 2015. Then factor in the children who go to a private day nursery (lots in the village do as the community is full of families who use nurseries nearer to their work) and there is already a full year group. My child's year group is massive. I remember the community midwife saying she had never seen so many babies born or due to be born that year (2011/2012). I have one friend whose son goes to the local school but lives 5 miles away in the next town. Sibling are 3rd on the list of priority for school places and she is worried that her daughter (same year group as DS) will probably not get a place because looked after children then those living closest to the school are first and second priority. She may end up with a son at the village school and her daughter at the local infants 5 miles away in their home town.

The school where I work has always been under subscribed for the first eight years of being open. The last couple of years we have been full (60) or close to full (55-58). Last September we were full but with a waiting list of 18 children. Completely unheard of.

So not just London who is beginning to see admission problems. A rural village in yorkshire as well as a 'not very popular' coastal town too.

@meditrina

You are quite right. Islington Schools are relevant and the problem with the map used by the Ham and High is it does not include islington Schools, so for example at least part of the "black hole" they show would be covered by Ashmount school. Whitehall Park School is a third empty this year, in the context of there being about 80 places vacant in the other Islington schools for reception 2014 so there is some slack there.

How does one go about applying for Islington schools if in Haringey. Do the same admission criteria apply ie siblings then in order of distance? I think Ashmount is nearest school, although they are in Haringey.

You apply for up to six schools in order of your preference. The schools can be in any Borough, but you apply through the Borough you live in.