Disastrous primary admissions

[kafka]

Ds has not got into any of his four preferences and we are a bit up and down about it all.

Anyone else been through this who is able to offer some words of reassurance.

Kafka

[staranise]

Message of hope for people. We live in south London, one of the most oversubscribed areas int eh country for school places and DD did not get into any of her seven choices for primary (four in the borough we live in, three in the neighbouring borough, which is the next street to us). She was 19th on the waiting list for her first place, and moved to 16th last week. We found this out at Easter (our borough are the earliest in the country to release results). LEA said there was no chance of getting in adn we registered DD, v reluctantly, at the local private school. We were also appealing on the grounds that the council measured our distance wrong, and I had written to all our councillors, our local MP etc.

We have found out today that she almost certainly has a place (haven't had it confirmed in writing but Pupil Services more or less told me over the phone). Our first choice or one of the other local schools has put on an extra class, or found extra capacity, whihc has had a big knock on effect on all the waiting lists.

So hang in there - all the local mothers told me we would get a place sooner or later and that most of the movement happens in late May/June, not in the first weeks after the offers. And they were right

Lalalonglegs - really hope it's good news for you too

[lalalonglegs]

That's great news Staranise - what a relief for you.

[staranise]

Fingers crossed for you too. Sounds like our LEA are taking some action at last... Ring Pupil Services tomorrow!

[1dilemma]

Great news staranise are you happy to say which borough you are? I think there are lots of SW London children without places at all this year, have heard quite a bit of talk about extra classes but very rumourey and concerning schools where the class would have to be suspended over the main road from a crane to fit it in!

I seem to remember last year it was a more Western borough to me wiht the smae problem (also solved with extra classes)

[staranise]

we're Wandsworth, though i hasten to add it is as yet unconfirmed...

[1dilemma]

thought you might be

(whispers: am too )

good luck with it

[staranise]

We are the west side - catchment is AS, B, H, OLV, St.M. Best of luck to you!

[kafka]

Its me again, sorry to hear that others have similar troubles.

query ? we are on the border of two london boroughs and applied to both and had we had an acceptable offer from either it would not have been a problem as both offers would have arrived at the same time on 2 May and we would have accepted one and rejected the other

both boroughs have offered us school we cannot accept but now borough 2 have indicated they will offer us school we could accept (but far from ideal) but it looks like borough one will take longer to decide re a re offer, but no certainty and we may be offered nothing

what do we do, if we accept borough 2 will it extiinghuish the other borough?

please don't jump on me for this we would not hold two offers at the same time just would like to know what are options are if we accept borough 2 is it all over in borough 1 apart from the waiting lists or can we wait for borough 1 to re offer on tehir second round and then decide?

[staranise]

You can accept an offer and stay on the waiting list for as many other schools as you wish, irrespective of which borough they're in. I don't think there's anything wrong in doing that - what else do they expect you to do?

The problem we had living on the border is that, despite borough 2 schools being some of our closest (and jsut as close as borough 1 schools), they would not properly consider us for places as we are not techincally their residents, hence we ended up 150+ on their waiting lists

Best of luck

[1dilemma]

oh staranise I thought they had to go purely on distance?
kafka as far as I know accepting an offer doesn't stop you being on other waiting lists, I think that's one reason why there is so much movement

[staranise]

Yes, so did I . They told us that they have to place all their residents, and as this is easily done becasue they are so oversubscribed, we go to the bottom of the list. We are 180+ on the waiting list for their schools . Our MP is looking into it...

[nlondondad]

Staranise, boroughs are NOT allowed to give prority to residents. This follows a court case a number of years ago called the "Greenwich Judgement" you should be able to get information on it by googling......

This is a serious point.

Ask your local council, in writing to confirm what they told you about giving priority to residents. Address the letter by express recorded delivery to the head of education services.

That request in itself might do the trick. If on the other hand they have confimed the decision in writing already, tell them that due to the "Greenwich Judgement" that they are wrong, that therefore their admissions policy is unlawful, and you will take the matter further. Copy to your local councillor.

You should get a pretty rapid response.

If you dont go to the school adjudicator.

[staranise]

Thanks for that info, I wasn't aware of the law.

As it happens it looks like we have got our first choice in our borough anyway, but I will follow it up with their LEA and our MP etc as it applies to all the families in our area, adn I do feel that both boroughs have more or less washed their hands of us

[Mumfun]

Hi

I was nearly here. we got into our preferred school by the skin of our teeth. We are in SW London too.

But I was going to wait and risk home educating DS. Often at our preferred school a child (sometimes 3 children! do not turn up the first day of term) A lot also drop out May to September for various reasons so I would have had a chance on the waiting list.

But Kafka (Im not meaning to be mean here) I would have appiled for a place for my child saying that they had a special need to get into the school you wanted due to the medical reason of a stammer. In your position I would still consider using it if that is allowed in your borough to try to secure him a place. It is allowed in ours and I know people who have used less strong medical reasons to get into the school they wanted.

[1dilemma]

Mumfun what kind of less strong medical reasons please!

SO I'm also wondering about David Camerons daughter said in the paper today she has a place at their preferred school despite it being some distance, it's a religious one does anyone know whether religious schools have to use distance strictly?(amongst children who fulfill their other criteria, place of worship etc) or do they prioritise their list according to how religious you are? (IYSWIM)

[TheBlonde]

I think the religious schools can prioritise the applicants as they wish (within the criteria eg if the criteria is RC kids whose parents go to church X then they can offer to those people in whatever order they wish)

[1dilemma]

Really? I thought they were also prioritised on distance too, I shall have to find that out.

[TheBlonde]

ah I have reread it, for HG they are then supposed to order by sibs, med need/statemented, distance

all the faith schools seem to have slightly diff admissions policies

[1dilemma]

Are you here now too? what you up to?
dh taken dcs swimming I'm still not showered, w machine is on though!!

MIL is threatening that we should all go on summer holiday together (I'd rather work ALL week obviously)

[TheBlonde]

faffing about at home
washing machine on
DH not up yet
kids been up since 7am
off to orthodontist later as have broken my retainer (bit of a faff as it's in Hammersmith)

[nlondondad]

Religious schools are their own admissions authority. This is to allow them to give priority to children of the correct religious ethos.

There is no doubt that this freedom is sometimes abused.

[becks5109]

we haven't got into the CofE school we applied to for our daugyhter as the criteria goes completely against us living in Hackney when the school is in Islington - we live right on the border and go to church in Hackney but the criteria for the school is

1. Those who regularly attend this church (we do not)
2. Siblings (doesn't apply to us)
3. Those resident in our parish whose families regularly attend any Christian church (this is the one that annoys me as I am not in their Parish as I live cross border in Hackney but how can this be a fair rule when they say that all applications from hackney or islington are judged the same?)
4. Those whose families attend regularly any church in the Islington Deanery and for whom ours is the nearest Church of England School (again we are not in the Islington Deanery we are in the Hackney deanery) and I am pretty sure that this is our nearest CofE school.

Seems very unfair for cross border applications to me but I guess the church schools are a law unto themselves! We are praying (no pun intended!) that we get her in on the waiting list - I'll be able to phone at the end of this week to find out where she is on the list as all applications have to have been accepted by then.

[TheBlonde]

I thought it was quite standard for you to have to worship at the corresponding church

[LyraSilvertongue]

They're now considering adding an extra class to our school to accommodate some of the children who didn't get a place. I'm soooo not happy. We're already the biggest primary in the borough. Adding an extra class would mean there would be 120 children in reception, which I think is way too many.

[1dilemma]

Lyra are you in London?
Agree that would annoy me too, what about clubs,PE,lunch,playground space?
It's not just for one year it's all the way through.