Concerned about RC state school options (South London)

[googoogaga1]

We've been living in Oz since the early noughties. DH has a good job and as a family we have the right work life balance. DH's company want him to move back to London to work on a two year merger project (big bucks!)

DS1 is 10 now and on top of pulling him out of his fab state elementary school (primary school) here in Brisbane to put him in a secondary school in London, we are concerned about the quality of the state secondary schools.

We are RC (not hardcore or anything of the sort) and would like DS1 & DS2 to attend a good RC state school. We are confused by the Schools Admissions Code and are not clear whether academic children attend the faith schools or not. We have friends in London and they say that whereas these schools used to select their pupils giving a greater spread of academic pupils across good state comps, grammars and indies, that today all the able pupils are 'creamed off' by the few grammars.

This is a cause for concern for us as parents, as we would like DS to mix the full range of ability children in any school we choose. Have I failed to understand how the admissions process works? I went to a rural comp in the 90s and DH went to an all boys faith school in South London with an impressive alumni (he described it as a private school without the fees).

Anyone else in our position?

You should be able to discover the greatest distance offered in the last round. But as they had 850 applicants for 199 places for 2017 admission (don't know if 2018 data has been published yet) and as tiebreak for whichever category they reach is siblings by distance, children of staff by distance, others by distance, I think you need to be realistic about the chances of being offered a place from that far away.

All the Catholic secondaries are very over-subscribed, particularly with the large influx of families originating from Eastern European countries (particularly Poland) settling in SW London.

It does have a exceptional social needs category, but the bare fact that you have moved will not be sufficient (loads of people move). You will need to demonstrate exceptional circumstances surrounding the move and - crucially - demonstrate why this school is uniquely able to meet his needs. You will need evidence from a suitable professional as evidence to back this up.

The criteria specify that Armed Forces DC wouid fall into that category (they have special treatment in the Admissions Code) together with other crown servants, and that refugees/asylum seekers might if they can demonstrate a need for this school rather than any other. I can't be sure, but extending that to include other mobile families might simply recognise that you cannot always pre-define 'exceptional'

WC went out to 4.5km for cat 5 (catholic boys who do not attend mass) in 2017, which would put out much of clapham....

it was nearer 6km for those who attend mass every sunday and holy day, but as OP says they are not "hardcore" I suspect that may not be the case!

Nearer 7km, I meant...

It surprises me DC are coming from so far afield PatriciaHolm - I would have thought they'd fill their quotas virtually entirely from Merton schools (with possibly a few just over the border into Kingston and Wandsworth boroughs). Sure the local non faith secondaries have tighter catchments than that?

But even though each sub category is further sub categorised by proximity, the degree of ''RC-ness' is always the most important thing. So, according to the admissions policy linked to above, even if you live miles away, baptism on or before your first birthday and having attended mass on every available occasion for at least three years will always trump living on the doorstep but having lackadaisical parents who didn't get you baptised until the day after you turned one, however often they have taken you to church since..

Out of interest - I'm not in London so can't help with the real question - does Qld still start primary and secondary about a year older than NSW? I remember a friend who moved from Qld and ended up a year behind me at school despite being several months older, as she was kept with the year she was in in Qld.

If there is still that disparity, well probably regardless actually, I would be looking at curricula to work out if there were any areas to catch up a bit prior to the move. Though some areas your son may be ahead of course!