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.

Cargirl! Must have been a lovely walk today! I know the lane you are talking of. We live in the other direction, along WH L!

Well I am visiting OP next week as prospective parent! Yes DD is moving to Juniors same year as DS has to apply for Reception - that will be fun!

I think it's horrible to think that some people aren't local enough to attend your village school based on how long they've been in the area. Reminds me of (I think) the Viz cartoon where the locals say "we don't like strangers round here..."

But Soupdragon - why shouldn't it be first come first served? Why should people be gazumped on a school place by people moving in? The people moving are making an informed choice to move.Of course I am not saying that you should be 6th generation to be accepted - I suffered enough from that as a kid myself as we moved around alot. What I am saying is that if local government are going to allow building in villages which residents do not want then the least they can do is ensure that the children do not lose out by not being able to attend their local school.

Does anyone actually want new building in their area? I am guessing that in the main people are either anti-it or don't really care, I guess very few people really want lots of new houses. HOWEVER people do have to live somewhere, so houses HAVE to be built. People move because of jobs and other reasons.
People have made an informed decision to move into an area, in the same way that people on the outskirts on a 'catchment' area have presumably made an informed decision to live further away, rather than nearer to, the school.

"I feel strongly that the sibling rule should only apply if the application for the subsequent child(ren) is from the same address as the first" So what if you move house within the area?? Of course those parents renting to get their first child in are cheating the system but you can't put rules in place that penalise others.

wheresmysuntan , beacuse people move. That's life. Why should they be penalised because they are newcomers?? It's not their fault that the Old Villagers didn't want the housing is it? I'm sorry, but effectively discriminating because they haven't lived there long enough is, in my mind, unpleasant.
How about they open the school on application day and only the first 30-per-class applicants get a place, regardless of other criteria? That would be first come first served wouldn't it? It would also weed out those parents who aren't dedicated enough to queue for however long beforehand. Or if "contributing to the community" is important, only those who are willing to put their time and energy into the PTA would be given a place.

The upshot is that there is no way that is competely fair to all. Unless all schools are carbon copies of each other, there will be different demands for different schools and problems with "catchment" areas.