Richmond Borough Primary Applications

[Eleusis]

I know it's not 9:00 yet, but if you go to the website you can get your application results now. I just did, and I am so so so so glad we got in to the school of our choice. Ok, WE didn't get in, DD did.

Yippee!!!!!

This is really worrying me as I'll be applying for ds later this year. Roughly how far away from Trafalgar does your friend live xoxo to be 20th on the waiting list??

Gegs73, you could contact trafalgar and ask them how far away the furthes kid who got in this year lives?

How far are you from the school?

Its about a 10/12 min walk I would say slightly more than half a mile. I think I will give the council admissions a call and see what they say.

council admissions will also have stats on different years and distance from schools for their students

this years cut off for trafalgar was 1486 meters

My friend is a 5 min walk to Trafalgar, via a shortcut pathway.

oh and decaf, if you want to, keep on at them. you'll get in eventually. so many children leave the school as families move away that you'll probably be in soon if you keep on their radar.

That's roughly .92 miles for the Trafalgar cut off.

Oxo, pathway was probably not the route they used on the GIS sytem. (there is specific GIS software LBRUT uses to determnine distance from school for all applications to LBRUT schools)

how do people know what number they are on the waiting list for community schools ? are the council giving them out already ? odd as people havent even returned their forms yet.

Maple: we know where we are on the initial 'assessment' list, based on siblings, geography etc. The list is a moving feast. The admissions office can tell you where you are on teh initial assessment, but not where you are on the waiting list until after 29th April.

Ele: I take yr point re: catholic schools, but I'm not practicing. so i'm out!

thanks for the information. i never seem to get thru to the admissions. its like trying to win a radio contest !! i really feel for those of you without schools. not exactly a "get what you pay for" council, is it ? what annoys me is how when the secondary place came out the council website flashed its success on offering 80% of first choices on the council webpage, and now with such a crisis in primary school admissions not one word discussing the issue is on the council website !!! hypocrites !!

when our form came back it had an attachment telling you how close you had to live to the relevant school to get in this year. I understood the RUT software measured distances by public-maintained roads and pathways, which stacks up with who has been offered what round here: paths under the railway lines.

Which school is it you're interested in? I'll look on the piece of paper and let you know the distance.

fridayschild: Although not relevant for me this year, I'd really like to know
St M. & St Pet. in Ted. and also Stanley.

Thanks a mil!

Eleusis - Yes, I know! We are 22nd on the waiting list, which means that there were 90 (places allocated) + 21 = 111 people before us, also with priest's reference letters!

The policy goes something along the lines of:
Children in care; siblings; practising catholics (i.e. those like me with a priest's reference); other religions.

The practising catholics are then ordered by distance from the school, but with a certain number of places held back for the parishes of St Margarets and Hampton. We are about 2 mins from St James's but quite a distance from the school (it is still our nearest catholic school though).

Anyway, long and short of it is there appear to be a lot of practising catholics with 4 year olds in our parish right now (never seem to see that many in church ) Sorry - now am just being cynical!

You did well to get into AC. I know a couple of lovely kids going there next year. You must be really pleased.

Amida - Yes, that's what the school office recommended when I called. Think that's my only option.

decaf - how does it work with the nursery admissions? do they get automatic entry too? which would leave even fewer spaces?

why doesn't the priest looked at the planned-giving? that way he would know who just turns up to get the form signed?

Hampton & St.Margarets get 15 places each i think. you never know, many of those may also have places at private schools which they take instead. or Sacred Heart in Teddington... was that as oversubscribed?

so decaf, didn't you get allocated a place in Stanley then? surely that's your nearest school?

The nursery admissions criteria/process are the same. You then have to reapply for the school. We didn't have ds in the nursery as I was working a 4 day week until quite recently and the half days wouldn't have worked. So glad he wasn't there now.

The planned giving idea would work (if everybody did it; many don't).

I don't know about Sacred Heart. I'll keep phoning the school to see how the list is going. Am really feeling for the poor admissions secretary; she must have had to put up with all sorts during the past week.

No, we are in Central Twickenham. We were offered Heathfield in Whitton (there, I've said it!). The Ofsted report is far from impressive. I think Stanley is also full.

what is 'planned giving?'

It's for people who support the church Oxo... so not for you.

So, what private school are you looking at (nosy nosy me)

I've signed up for Montessori where my friends son goes. I preferred that to the private 'schools' as he's quite shy and they have very small class sizes. They also do a lot of extra curricular activities such as karate which he loves so I'm hoping it'll bring him out a bit.
actually that's not true - what I'm REALLY hoping for is that he'll get a place on appeal at the local school for many, many reasons . Not least that we can't really afford private, and dd will be in this position next year and we certainly can't afford two kids going private!

and getting back to planned giving - is that all about money, then?

My 2 dd's go to Heathfield in Whitton and I think it's a fantastic school. They love school and are progressing really well. My dd's are not tattoo laden pikeys and neither are any of their school friends.

Decaf - I assume the less than impressive ofsted report you are refering to is the one dated 2001 when there was a different headteacher.

We live in Whitton and Heathfield was our first choice, after visiting all the schools in Whitton we thought Heathfield had the best atmosphere with good facilities and the children seemed very happy.

My DH went on a school trip to Richmond with dd1's class (year2), they travelled by bus and the bus driver commented how well behaved and polite the children had been.

Have you visited the school and spoke to the teachers?