hacked off with my areas 2008 primary admission process

[magicfarawaytree]

The admission criteria for community and voluntary controlled schools will allocate places to comply with national requirements as follows:

For pupils who have a statement of special needs naming the school
For children in public care

Following this:

Sibling applicants
Exceptional medical/social reasons
Children resident within the priority area of the school

Other applicants

so basically no longer guaranteeing children within catchment area a place. Its stinks with a capital S. Our school is not a top performing school by any stretch of the imagination. ranks almost 40 out of 90+ schools. and of the 4 closest schools is the lowest ranked. I Choose to send my children there to support the local school and contribute to improving what is a good but could be much improved school. also not having to do a nightmare run to school, it have a broader range of children most of than the other local schools.

I'm hoping we'll be OK too. Currently we are in catchment area for our local school. Ds1 already goes there and we've just had ds2's place through for September, which we expected since he is 'in zone with sibling'. I'll be applying for ds3 this September for entry in 2008 and I was assuming I didn't need to worry as, once again, we'd be 'in zone with siblings'.

If they change it so there is no 'catchment area' and it goes on distance by road I need siblings to be a priority or else we are going to struggle as although we are currently in zone, we are quite on the edge of that zone which is a circle around the school with one finger of road that sticks out from it - we are at the end of that finger!! It will mean that people who are currently out of zone but actually nearer than me will get priority.

This is what I mean by unfairness in changing criteria - I based my decision on ds1 and ds2's school on the current criteria feeling secure that they would all be going to the same school. If they change it then my reasons for previous decisions are now invalid.

If siblings take priority we won't have a problem but if they disregard siblings and simply go on distance, we could be stuffed.

Lets face parental choice is a joke, it's made everything more difficult, more competitive etc. Why did they ever mess with it in the first place!

I've been affected as they're shutting one infant school and converting the other local infant and one of the junior schools into primary schools and reducing their intakes to 30 each (instead of 90 each). What ever I do my plans are scuppered and my dds will probably lose out! In 5 years time this will be a good situation but those of us caught up the change process it is a nightmare.

I am not really worried re DD who is a 2008 (or poss jan 2009) entry because we are fairly close to the school and I think she would get in even without the sibling priority. I don't think they can squeeze that many houses in between us and the school by next Easter! But I realise that I am very lucky not to have such a worry.

seriously I could end up with 2 dds at one primary school and last dd at the other whether or not they change the siblings rule. If that happened I would be really annoyed as I do actually walk to school! I currently walk past the junior school to take them to the infants but then they will both be primary schools arghhhh!

Bozza - a word of warning. If people move into the new houses and get an older child in further up the school they could end up taking priority over you with a younger sibling if the admissions give priority to catchment siblings. That is part of the problem we faced. It also brings into play the unfairness of people being able to move into an area and take a school place ahead of families who have lived there since before their child was born (also happened to us).

Another way of doing it is to apply to become a govenor of the school via the Lea and then when you have met the head talk to them directly about why your kids should attend the school. It worked for me

"It also brings into play the unfairness of people being able to move into an area and take a school place ahead of families who have lived there since before their child was born"

Oh come on!! Are we going to take into account "how long parents have lived here" too? Are 6th generation residents going to get priority over newbies?

'parental choice' does sometimes work here in st albans, and i guess in other large towns - if you are very near two or three schools you do sometimes get one that is not your nearest

but

the application info does say 'you are most likely to get your nearest school'

i think you have to be a brave parent NOT to put your nearest school as chances are fewer.

I live in a densley populated area and belive parental choice for secondary and often primary does not really exist. I think it would be less stressful if they just allocated schools like they did in the old days!

wheresmysuntan I think I should be OK because I have already got the older sibling in school myself.

Soupdragon - I don't think it is unrealistic to consider length of residence of the child for oversubscribed schools where there is a high incidence of people moving in to get their child in to the school ( there is another interesting thread going on about the ethics of buying into catchment versus fee-paying) and where there are also those who play the system by renting short-term then moving out again etc.

CarGirl I seem to rememeber you live near to me. Are your talking about the closure of DD? I am going to see OP next week but have been told it is only 1 class for 2008 as it is becoming a primary school. Went to see WB last week Trouble is we have no obvious school near us...

Hi Cece which road do you live on then? Have you ruled in/out TG in NH? OP is lovely and where dd2 is and dd3 starts in September and they are full of confidence that dd4 will be fine in 2009 as they usually consider 15 to be a high number of siblings. But they don't seem to realise that there will be more children at the school for a few years and a wider spread of ages so possibly more likely to have an increase of siblings. Also it's going to be more competitive to get in!!!

Flippin nightmare as I have to walk past SC to get to OP. I have been very happy with SC and am disappointed that the others will end up staying at OP as a new junior school think it could be a rough ride and lots of temporary classrooms/building work plus they have such little land there. Pre-school in the grounds is fab though, I'm much happier with it than TG in New Haw (in the church hall) dd1 went there at to RB which we both thought was nicer!

"I don't think it is unrealistic to consider length of residence of the child for oversubscribed schools where there is a high incidence of people moving in to get their child in to the school"

So, how would you differentiate between those people who have moved purely for the school and those who have moved through necessity (eg relocation) but chosen a new house near a good school? It's unworkable and completely unfair to lump children whose parents have legitimately moved into the area with those who are renting to cheat the system.

Soupdragon- I don't think it is any less fair than what has happened here. New houses were built against the wishes of local people - people moved in -local children didn't get in to their catchment school.
Of course the real blame lies with LEA who have refused to expand the catchment school because they have an under-subscribed school in a neighbouring village which they want to fill despite the fact that by forcing people out of catchment they are also forcing them into their cars.

surely the newly moved in kids ARE now local children though?

Precisely, ChasingSquirrels.

But the family won't have been contributing to local community life in the same way. The displaced kids will have been to the local playgroup,nursury, sports centre, school fetes, church fetes and their families will have felt part of a community only to have their ,quite naturally,expected school place denied them and forced to attend a school in another village where they know no-one.

CarGirl - I already know TG in NH as DD goes there already but we moved when she was half way through reception so didn't apply the official way. We are very happy with it. The trouble it isn't necessarily our nearest one so worried DS won't get in. The sibling rule won't apply - too big a gap!!!

I also know TG preschool too!! In fact was htere today! Small world ain't it?

CarGirl you sound like you are in RT or A.?

Whereas I ma more NW / W

whoops NH not NW!

Or they might have been to day care in a nursery 10 miles away and had no part to play in local life.
I totally agree about people doing a short term rent etc, but don't know how that can be policed, but when people legitimately move into an area they are local even if they aren't accepted as yokel for another 10 generations.

Many parents I have spoken to had been under the impression before they had kids that schools had waiting lists so you could put your kids name down. When the current problems of over-subscription within catchment arose, most of these parents agreed that the fairest way would have been if the schools had had a waiting list after all - ie first come , first served.
If people are having to move house then they can take into account what the waiting list is like for a given school.
This would at least mean that when new houses are built against the wishes of residents that at least they won't be excluded from sending their kids to their village school.

Hi cece I live in central A by the big set of traffic lights nearest NH by the vets. I used to live above the hairdressers in NH the one near the bookmakers so dd1 went to TG. If your dd1 will already be in NHJ when you apply for TG then it does actually count as sibling rule IYSWIM just a bit dicey if one is starting juniors the same time as the other is going into reception. It takes 15-20 mins for me to walk to OP as it's straight down LL then over the M25 footpath - not so nice on a very windy wet day s there are no sound/weather barriers on it but we're used to it now!