Primary school place shortage in Crouch End September 2015

[cgehansen]

Hi, Has anyone been affected by the shortage of primary school places in Crouch End? We put the 6 closest schools to us by distance on our form which are Weston Park Primary, Rokesly Infant, Coleridge Primary, St Aidan's, Ashmount Primary and Campsbourne Infant. We've been turned down from all of them and instead have been offered a school in Wood Green which is a 48 minute walk away. I know of at least 5 others in the same situation.

I'm trying to get a group of us together to take this up with the Council so if you are in the same boat or know somebody else in this situation in Crouch End it would be great to hear from you. Only in large numbers can we make the Council take notice.

So latest from Haringey is "There is a very small possibility that a family who live closer to one of your preferred schools than you do will move into the area at the beginning of September and gain priority over your child on the waiting lists we compile on the 14 September 2015. However, given your previous waiting list positions on all of your preferred schools and the likelihood that a good proportion of those holding higher waiting list positions than you do will also ask to be put back onto the waiting list, it is extremely unlikely that, were such an event to occur, you would have risen to a point on the waiting list that meant that you would be offered a place a one of your preferences during this time." Which I'm reading as don't worry none of this will affect you as you have no chance of getting a place at the 6 schools closest to your house.

I think they mean no-one is going to withdraw before 14th September and even if they did this wouldn't affect us although presumably it would affect others. And they take 2 weeks to check the ones who don't turn up to school. It all sounds very un-transparent to me.

Some of the haringey schools stagger the reception start so a third of the kids don't start until the 21st of September. So I imagine they will not know who is definitely taking the places or not until end of September or later?

(290 sqm? Excuse me. Has been a week of very little sleep. Coleridge catchment area is 0.18 sq miles which is obviously way larger in metres than what I posted)

I am getting contradictory information from the council. On the one hand they are saying there's an expectation that everyone will turn up in September and on the other they are saying they are now planning for a surplus of 27 reception places in the area because people will decline places between now and the start of term and also not turn up on the the first day of school.

cge Some schools in the borough still have places, just not the ones in crouch end.

When a vacancy is available they have to place unplaced (ie new residents) there don't they? With the schools who had no waiting lists previously this will be simple, but with those who had a waiting this which was cleared what will happen? It sounds like children on the waiting lists will be unfairly disadvantaged.

It sounds like they will be. The surplus of 27 is in Stroud green, crouch end and Highgate where all the community schools are oversubscribed. So 'there won't be much movement' and 'we're predicting a one form surplus' don't match up.

I wonder if they are tiggy as when the waiting lists are closed in the beginning of September there will only be vacancies and no waiting lists.

It doesn't seem like they have answered what will happen in this situation.

Been avoiding speaking to Haringey council yet as I thought it would raise blood pressure and achieve nothing, but we are one of those who were really looking for an early answer and now very frustrated -
my daughter starts Reception at WPS next week - expensive uniform set duly bought
my son starts Coleridge (Y3) next week
Once my son starts, my daughter will have sibling preference and as of late July would have been first on Reception waiting list (except sibling pref won't apply until my son has actually started)
We have had to re-apply last week to put my daughter back on tha waiting list

Obviously the outcome we were hoping for was that in week 1 of Reception there was notification of a space - it seemed possible at least... still possible but now we won't know for at least another week or two, which if we do get to switch my daughter will be a real shame in terms of settling in etc!

...oh well!

Op when you originally posted you had been offered a school out of Crouch End and you spoke of "at least five others in the same situation". From the thread it seems you have been offered a local school now. Do you know if the same local offer has happened for the other five families you knew of?

I am keeping a watchful eye as I will be applying for next year and I want to know if there is a shortage of local places in reality because, as some have said, there does seem to be movement between offer day and now, and that movement will continue after the start of term when not all children might turn up.

Would you also mind letting me know if the place offered to you was one of your preferences? As it is 0.5 miles from your house I assume it is?

Has anyone heard anything about the waiting lists? I've had a one line response from Admissions and nothing yet from the Councillors I emailed.

N8r In planning area 2 (Crouch End, Hornsey Stroud Green, Highgate) there were 22 people who didn't get any of their reception preferences for September 2015. This figure has now come down but Haringey include people who subsequently and reluctantly applied for another school and were accepted as getting one of their preferences. So there are people who remain on the waiting list for their 6 preferences but also applied for and were offered WPS. They aren't happy by any means but are counted as receiving one of their preferences even though they remain on the waiting list for all 6. It's just massaging the figures. We subsequently applied for and were offered St Mary's even though we aren't happy with the CofE element. It was that or Wood Green. Depending on where you live in Crouch End I would include St Mary's and Highgate Primary in your list of preferences. St Mary's takes more than 50% of it's places on distance only and tends to get overlooked because you need to complete a supplementary application form. Highgate Primary can have quite a large catchment area because it's surrounded by fields on 2 sides and many people in the area go private. What you need to avoid is choosing schools that you have no chance of being offered on your 6 preferences and then find that others in the same boat have moved themselves onto the waiting lists for Highgate and St Mary's so you end up not getting a place locally. There has been hardly any movement on the waiting lists this year at least not in the right direction. The council are prediction that a lot of children won't turn up on day one but we'll have to wait and see what happens. I guess it depends on which school you are talking about. For example they've told us everyone will turn up at Weston Park but that 40 people dropped out of Rokesley last year which I find very hard to believe. I do get the impression that admissions tell you 'there's a lot of movement' just to get you temporarily off their case!

Lattjo Admissions have told us "There is a very small possibility that a family who live closer to one of your preferred schools than you do will move into the area at the beginning of September and gain priority over your child on the waiting lists we compile on the 14 September 2015" so if you are close to the top of a waiting list you could miss out on a place.

And of course they are meant to be maintaining the list, not compiling one.

Indeed. I made that point and they replied "We are not in breach of admissions the code and will continue to maintain the waiting lists. We are currently ascertaining who genuinely wishes to remain on the lists." which contradicts the statement that they are compiling lists on the 14th September.

Thanks cge. We are the Priory Road side of Crouch End and so St Mary's would be a viable option for us. I would be very happy with that school as I have heard great things about it.

We are lucky that we have so many fantastic schools locally that we can put as preferences although as someone acknowledged upthread, this does mean that Crouch End is a magnet for pre-school age families wanting one of these schools and this is making cut off distances very small!

Unfortunately I suspect their confusing, vague communication is more down to incompetence and badly managed staff than anything else. The people you were in touch with cge probably do not even know what the admissions code is. My son was not given any place on offer day because 'the person who was supposed to update the records had not done so'.......'we get so many applications, some are bound to fall through the gaps' I was told.
Last week I wrote to them asking for some clarification about something. Explaining in my email that my son had a reception place. The answer I got was either meant for someone else or whoever answered had not read my email. They sent me an in year application form and told me to fill that in and I would be put on waiting lists. Obviously a standard answer being sent out to those who did not get their choice and are on a waiting list. You wonder if they cannot properly handle these simple administrative tasks how in the world they are managing the whole system properly?

It was the head of admissions who emailed me so I would have thought they know the admissions code. Still seems very odd.

I have no time at all for Haringey council but, in their defence, they have been absolutely hammered by central government cuts over the last 5 years and actually don't have the capacity to run many, if any, of their statutory departments properly.

Yes, they have a statutory duty to investigate allegations of admissions fraud, but there aren't physically enough people in the admissions team to go round knocking on doors, speaking to neighbours etc and doing the through checks that some boroughs do, so they do a bare minimum checking of Council Tax payments.

Is this fair? No, not at all. Is there anything else they can do? Can't see it tbh. (Your situation sounds extreme, maidename - you should appeal esp if you have proof that the council did receive your application eg e-mail confirmation).

If they were decently funded, I expect they would still be fairly incompetent, but not to the degree that they are now.