Twickenham Secondary

[Slubulino]

We are moving to Richmond in the summer. We plan to rent a property in Kew or Barnes.
my son will be year 8th is September and by the looks of it Twickenham is the secondary school most probably to have a place for him.

The academic results it looks above the average and is rated as a Good school. However being the only school not Oversubscribed and reading some old reports on the internet looks like is not a popular choice?

I am looking for some reviews or experiences you had with this school?

Another school that might have a place is Richmond Park Academy. This one looks like is below average academy.

Thank you!

"Can someone apply in multiple municipalities at the same time? Let’s say one lives in Richmond and applies for schools in Richmond and Putney or in Richmond and Kingston etc?"

@Slubulino yes they can (btw in London they're called "boroughs" or "local authority areas", rather than municipalities).

The only thing is that it is very risky. I know two people who have done it. Applied to Richmond schools while living in Hounslow They have not received any of the 6 choices but each of them got a completely different school in Hounslow Borough. They both are very unhappy with the situation

That only works if you are really within the catchment/ past distance of the school in the other borough. And always it is important to include relatively safe local option.
They wanted to be clever and thought that if they select 6 oversubscribed good schools from the next door borough they will get one of them. But the priority always goes to those within catchment or closest distance

@RedFluffyPanda remember the OP will be applying to Year 8, not using the coordinated admissions scheme for a Year 7 place, so she can apply to, and join waiting lists for, as many schools as she likes. Therefore, there is no risk for her in applying for multiple boroughs.

(As an aside, for the year 7 coordinated scheme, it will always be the "home" borough that allocates a school if none of the preferences can be satisfied). If there is no home borough (e.g. an application from abroad) all bets are off.

yes, I mentioned it in my last post

Yes! Thank you! I am thinking if we are at the border for example of Richmond and Putney if I can do an application to Richmond listing 6 closest schools and one to Putney listing schools in reasonable distance.

Also when do you think is best to time my move. We were planning to move in August but then the schools are closed. Is it better in July when they are still open? In Sweden school ends in June. 🤩 we wanted to have a bit of vacation before the madness of moving starts 😅

What I am trying to say is that your plan may not work. The council/schools usually give priorities to those who live within the borough. An exception to it would be if the school is on the very border of the borough, or if it is a faith school ( parishes work differently and across diocese rather than borough) or if it is a special school like https://swedishschool.org.uk/en/ Call them and ask about waiting process. They may prioritise kids from Sweden

Agree that this plan is unlikely to work in oversubscribed schools. Unless it is a faith school, they are bound by the distance rule, and obviously in-year admissions are fairly limited.

I think you'd be better of deciding on a couple of schools that you'd be happy with in principle and then talking to the admissions team about what the current wait lists look like. They are pretty helpful and can tell you where would be on the list and advise on reality of getting a place.

Several years ago when Waldegrave was really at it's peak, we were on a wait list for three almost years - we got an offer and had 24 hours to decide as there were people chomping at the bit.

Is there any way you could shortlist, say three or four schools: Twickenham/RPA/Christs and The Swedish School (or whichever) and do a flying visit? Once you have visited the schools and understood the geography, daily journey etc, you will have a much clearer view I think.

"The council/schools usually give priorities to those who live within the borough."

@RedFluffyPanda this isn't true, and is actually illegal - google "Greenwich Judgement" for the background.

Places are prioritised according to each school's oversubscription criteria, which are published on school websites. There are no other criteria applied.

"or if it is a special school like swedishschool.org.uk/en/"**

The Swedish School is a private school, not a "special school". Special schools cater for special educational needs.

"Also when do you think is best to time my move. We were planning to move in August but then the schools are closed. Is it better in July when they are still open?"

@Slubulino Applying before the end of June may give you an advantage. Read page 15 of Richmond's in-year transfer guide for details: https://www.richmond.gov.uk/media/22152/inyear_transfer_guide.pdf

Also, the bottom of page 4 makes it clear you need to do a separate application for other boroughs. You can apply in as many boroughs as you like.

@lidonit that is why I mentioned the school by the border with other boroughs where she may have a chance otherwise...
Despite the Greenwich judgment, catchment areas can be wholly contained within administrative boundaries, and even coincide with administrative boundaries, provided the area is clearly defined and there is some additional justification for the choice of area that is considered reasonable, such as distance from the school or ease of access. Catchment area boundaries may align with postcode areas or roads, and these sometimes coincide with administrative boundaries

There are queues for in year admission. I know myself around a dozen of mums who are anxious to fill the in year admission form and send it in June on the first day when it is allowed. They are willing to wait for over a year to get the place. The chances for getting into oversubscribed school in Richmond are very low. As soon somebody moves out, a new one in the waiting list jumps in.

I didn't mean special school in a sense of school for children with disabilities etc. I mean special in a literate sense.

@RedFluffyPanda none of the schools in this borough or neighbouring boroughs have defined catchment areas that align with borough boundaries, so your Wikipedia extract isn't relevant.

That said, Kew is notoriously bad for school admissions and will be until the proposed new school is built at Mortlake Brewery (i.e. not in time for the op's move). Unless there is a strong reason for living in Kew, I'd be choosing a different area.

"I didn't mean special school in a sense of school for children with disabilities etc. I mean special in a literate sense."

I knew what you meant, but if you're aiming to educate someone from abroad about schools in the UK it's an unfortunate mis-use of terminology. Better to be precise.

https://www.turinghouseschool.org.uk/documents/admissions/Admissions2023.jpg Do you see the blue boundaries? It is in a sense catchment.
The similar situation is with Waldergrave and also SRR has parishes which function as catchment

Better to be precise

on that I agree.sorry

The SRR catchment does align with borough boundaries - I'll give you that - but as the op isn't catholic it's not really relevant.

THS and Waldegrave catchments don't align with the borough boundary. Waldegrave prioritises north and south of a straight line, using distance to the school, and THS prioritises relative to two points. In any case, neither are particularly relevant to someone living in Kew. The op is planning to apply to Putney schools and I was correcting your incorrect assertion that local authorities prioritise places for their own borough.

SRR catchment is related to parishes as a part of diocese and not in all catholic schools it does overlap. I live in Richmond but we applied to Sunbury catholic school because they list in admission also a few Richmond parishes. But yes, it would not be relevant and it was only an example of catchments " in a sense".
I was correcting your incorrect assertion that local authorities prioritise places for their own borough.

But there is something to it. I know two mums who on the 1 March didn't get any Richmond school they applied to but instead they got a random school in Hounslow. One lives not far from THS and Twickenham school. Less than a mile Just by looking at the list of preferences they could have given them Twickenham especially that " all preferences have been met in Twickenham" :(

"But there is something to it. I know two mums who on the 1 March didn't get any Richmond school they applied to but instead they got a random school in Hounslow. One lives not far from THS and Twickenham school. Less than a mile Just by looking at the list of preferences they could have given them Twickenham"

That's because she didn't put Twickenham School as one of her preferences. If she had, she would have got it. You said up-thread that she didn't get any of her preferences. Therefore, she would have been "allocated" a school that wasn't on her list. As she lives in Hounslow, it would be Hounslow borough that did the allocation, hence a Hounslow school.

In contrast, a Richmond family that got none of their preferences would be allocated an unfilled school in Richmond borough, which would have been Twickenham School until it was full, or no school at all (many Richmond Borough families get no offer on March 1st and have to wait for waiting list movement - this often happens to families living in Kew in particular).

Of course, none of this detail is relevant to the op, who will be applying in-year for Year 8.

"SRR catchment is related to parishes as a part of diocese and not in all catholic schools it does overlap."

Yes, the parish boundaries happen to align with the borough boundary, which is why they are not in breach of the Greenwich Judgement - they can legitimately argue that the borough boundary isn't relevant to the definition of their catchment area.

p.s. Richmond's press release on secondary school allocations shows there are currently 126 children with no year 7 offer at all: https://www.richmond.gov.uk/news/news_march_2024/secondary_schools_offers_day

Interesting. But the bad news is that it will only make the queues for in year admission longer. However, I think most of those children will be accommodated as many will go to private schools.

There is also Hanworth Reach opening this year in Feltham ( Hounslow) and it will absorb some kids from Hampton.

Thank you everyone. Unfortunately logistics prevent us from arriving in UK sooner than July. 🫠 Ah, the school is the biggest stress in our move 😤.

Remember to call the local schools asking for places before moving to specific accommodation. Good luck!

If op was moving mid-year then it's unlikely that a desirable place would remain open long enough for a property to be secured. Most popular schools have waiting lists, so places are offered and accepted quickly during term time. However, the process does pause in July (as per page 15 of the doc I posted up-thread), so that might provide a window of opportunity to move into pole position for a place.

Why do you that can be an advantage ? 😅

Term ends around July 19th. In some schools there will be children planning to leave on that date and not come back because they are moving house over the summer (like you are). The schools will know they are leaving, but their places can't be offered to the waiting list until early September, after the leavers are confirmed to be registered at other schools. So, in principle, that gives you 6 weeks to move in and apply. (However, unfortunately, schools might not tell whether any places are expected to come up in September, so you might just need to rely on luck).

But the people send in year applications in June. From June the waiting list is created

Yes, but if anyone applies in July or August they do get added to the waiting list, so that's fine.

In June, they pause offers, they write to everyone on the waiting list to make sure they want to stay on the list, and add in any new applications. If any places are vacated in June or early July, they will be offered between 1st July and the end of term. But any places that are vacated at the end of term won't be offered until September.

Good to know! Might be a bit of advantage then. Do you how a kid that doesn’t have a school placement ranks compared with the kids that already have? Does that make any difference? 🫠Thank you!

Also, when does the process restart? In September? So we will not know anything till September? 😅