URGENT HELP PLEASE: Challenging council re removal of 'bulge' class

[RestingFebruaryFace]

Sorry for lengthy message, I don't want to drip feed.

Our local secondary catchment area has shrunk this year by over 40% from over 800m to just over 500m. This has left a huge amount of families without any of their choices, and they have instead been allocated either a single sex school or a faith school which is an hour's walk away.

There are a number of reasons behind this - this is the last high birth year and there were a huge number of sibling places allocated this year, meaning very few places left based on catchment. In addition, the school sold off land and two huge housing developments have been built adjacent to the school meaning lots of families have moved in to the area, squeezing others out.

This has left a number of families who have missed out completely devastated not to be getting their local school, which is a real 'community' school. Congestion in our town is already horrific so kids travelling to the faith school will only exacerbate this (there are no public transport options that work).

Apart from the general disappointment, families are angry because for the last 2 years the school added a 'bulge' class to go up from 7 form entry to 8 form entry. The expectation was they would do the same again this year, given the high birth rate and the effect of the new housing developments, but it has become clear only on allocation day that this did not happen. The school have issued a statement saying they wanted to add an 8th form again and for this to become permanent, and they even offered to contribute to the cost but the Council turned them down. This seems to be on the basis that there are places available elsewhere in the town (the faith school and the single sex school), and maybe this is a cheaper option for the Council than adding the bulge class, though I don't pretend to know much about the funding.

Parents are trying urgently to challenge the Council on this, and given the wealth of experience on here I was hoping someone may have some insight.

eg, are there any possible grounds for challenging the decision - should the council have consulted parents about not having a bulge class, or at least made this clear at the application stage so parents could plan accordingly? I'm not hopeful but we need to send something as soon as possible and I'm not sure we'll have time to research the legal detail for the initial complaint.

Thank you if you are able to assist at all.

My brain! I thought this thread was about a leisure centre fitness class with men wearing tights 🤣

I believe that every child who lives in St Albans has been offered a place at a school in St Albans.

The council will not fund a bulge class when there are empty spaces at schools a mile or two down the road.

A similar thing happened in Berkhamsted with primary schools when DD1 was due to start. Our closest non faith school had ONLY siblings starting in reception that year as a result and two siblings didn’t get a place. The child who lived literally next door to the school entrance didn’t get a place.

They all went to other schools. Everyone was fine. Of course there were some very upset parents but it’s a preference not a choice. Last admitted distances can and do change every year and there’s never any guarantees. Yes it’s upsetting but all of the schools in St Albans are great. You’re not talking about sink schools in special measures here.

It’s just been announced that the council will fund an extra class this year! It’s a massive result for pushy middle class parent lobbying community engagement and also cooperation between the school and the council (and also local MP Daisy Cooper involvement).

There will still be a lot of families who won’t get a place but I think/hope it will be easier to accept this as a fair outcome even if it’s not the one they hoped for. And there is still the question of future years and whether the extra class will become permanent but I can’t see those we’ve relentlessly lobbied wanting to go through this again next year.

https://beaumontschool.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/Joint-Statement-Beaumont-and-HCC.pdf

Great news OP. Will your child get a place?

My child is actually y5 so we didn’t apply this time round. The lobby group consists of parents who missed out and those whose kids will be applying in years to come, who will now try to get the additional class made permanent.

Even more siblings for when you apply OP!

This climb down benefits absolutely no-one in St Albans other than the meagre 30 families that receive those newly released places. Terrible short termism needlessly creating surplus places in the city. A decline in funding for the less popular schools will follow and the spiral continues.

The point is that the council did have to fund extra places in St Albans - but did it at other schools rather at Beaumont

Have you considered that you've potentially shot yourself in the foot by having even more siblings in the year when your child applies?

Obviously it would be good for you to have this bulge class made permanent, but there's no guarantee of that, and there's presumably a limit as to what the school site can currently cope with...

It's a fair point, and it is of course the case that if the extra class is added for this year only then it is likely to make things a bit more difficult for the next few years for everyone who follows behind. There are absolutely no guarantees that it will become permanent - the school is keen/willing/ready/has room but it's in the hands of the council as to whether they will fund it again. With a Labour government likely coming in it could well improve the school funding scene, though not in time for the next applications deadline.

However from the outset (all of a week ago!) this campaign has been about ensuring a permanent increase in secondary provision this side of town. It was started by someone with a child in Y5, so very much with an eye to next year, and the plan has always had three phases: Phase 1 get the 30 places added back for the school year starting in September, Phase 2 get this made permanent for future years, Phase 3 ensure provision of secondary places matches local demand, which isn't achieved with just the addition of one extra class, even if permanent - there are already a lot of ideas around this though TBC what may be viable.

There has been a real mobilisation of the local community to do this, and it has really strengthened the feeling that we want community secondary schools rather than sending our kids off in all different directions and across town.

While it may seem like there are competing demands we do all really want the same thing: enough co-ed non-faith secondary places in our community.

I'm sure some of those who have secured a place this time round will drift away, but already a number have said they want to stay involved as they are so grateful for the support that has been shown to them.

Let's hope the next ofsted remains outstanding on that school too - house price worries on a falling PAN will look like a walk in the park compared to if they get downgraded. Same with Sandringham.

I've done a bit of research on that new estate. Did you know part of the planning was that they had to provide money to fix that appalling crossroads at sandpit lane/marshalswick lane which definitely doesn't have capacity to cope with all the additional traffic? Notice how much had been done there? Yeah, nothing. Because it can't be fixed. Suspect same with schooling. People just chase down the outstanding schooling. If Beaumont got RI in an ofsted, the campaign for "community schooling" would evaporate.

The junction is indeed shocking and I’m so glad we don’t have to drive through it regularly.

A while back we considered moving to Oaklands Grange and the massive queues on a Saturday morning were one of the things that put me off! That said, I think the way s106 works is that developers are required to contribute funds for local improvements generally or local improvements of a particular type (eg increases to school provision, road improvements). But council doesn’t necessarily end up spending them on the projects that may have been mooted when the planning application considered. But I may be wrong!

If Beaumont or Sandringham got an Ofsted Requires Improvement then of course that would have an effect and people would obsess about them less than they do. But it would if anything strengthen our campaign that we do not have adequate/satisfactory secondary provision this side of town.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/03/09/at-albans-beaumont-school-catchment-areas/?fbclid=IwAR2QPDnF3xjH00iLUZBfKNT0U4xIAi2Y5DHLZTwi1vyb3t_TReTc9eQl3co

Why are there so many families with children coming up to secondary age in that small area around the school? Did most of them move there on purpose to game the system? They could have bought near a local 'good' but less desirable school instead and then their children would have likely been able to walk to their local school. The way I see it is that they took a gamble.

There is an existing/long established community that has been sending its kids to the school. Then over the last 8 or so years the school sold off land at the front and back for very sizeable developments (one is 350 odd houses, the other around 120 I think).

Many (most?) people who have bought these homes have done so because of the access they will get to the school - it’s understandable and I’m not sure it’s “gaming the system”, at least not when these moves are genuine rather than people just moving there for 18 months to get their kid in and then moving away.

The existing community have as a result found themselves pushed out because the council have failed to increase provision of secondary places by enough to meet the much higher demand.

the council have failed to increase provision of secondary places by enough to meet the much higher demand.

Where there is a new housing estate of family homes, there will be a bulge in demand for school places that fades once the initial purchasers with younger families move through the system. The council will be looking to the longer term for numbers of places required which, whilst higher than previously, will be lower than it is now. And if there are sufficient places in another school then they are already able to meet demand for school places.

I do understand that, at least in theory, but the problem is that there are no school spaces for girls anywhere locally now (ie anywhere that isn’t a long walk away).

Boys are being sent to an all boys school and girls to a faith school right the other side of town (or a few to an all girls a 45 min walk away).

So it’s impacting girls the most, and you can bet no one at the council has done an Equality Impact Assessment as they clearly should have.

There is an existing/long established community that has been sending its kids to the school.

Won't these families get subsequent children in as they have siblings at the school?

Boys are being sent to an all boys school and girls to a faith school right the other side of town (or a few to an all girls a 45 min walk away).

If it's their closest school with places, but not walking distance, then isn't there a school bus?

I meant the community has been sending its kids to the school, rather than individual families. People have moved to this area over the years in part because of the schooling, and bought houses that until about 4 years ago would have been well within catchment. Children have attended 3 primaries in the area and in the past almost all would have gone with their contemporaries to Beaumont.

The catchment has shrunk, however, from 1.35km 9 years ago to 511m now. This year is a bumper year for sibling places but that means even more families missing out if there isn’t an older sibling at the school.

That’s my understanding, that there should be a bus, but it’s currently unclear. I’ve heard there is one bus in the morning but it has only 1 stop and I know people for whom that stop is a half hour walk. Presumably they will extend the route.

I don’t know how it works if you have sports practice or orchestra or whatever, presumably you have to make your own way home then.

Some schools fund an after school bus on club days. Our local school decided to extend it's offer to children who live in a new village 5-6 miles away, so put on an after school bus on club days that goes through the local area and out to that village.

Saying this is an equality problem is seriously reaching. As a mum of girls, this has irritated me the most out of all the fairly heroic mental gymnastics being done to justify people's complaints. The nub of it is that generally these families moved to the area a couple of years ago specifically for a school place at an ofsted outstanding school in a 'naice' area. They paid excessive house prices for that gamble. They're now in the double bind of a house that's devalued because it's got a track record of not getting kids into Beaumont AND the horror of having to go to a school in a less naice area.

I'd have a lot more sympathy if OP and the people being quoted in the press were just honest about it. It's what swathes of St Albans does for both primary and secondary but dressing it up as a faith school/single sex school/equality issue is just disingenuous.

By the way, if you're campaigning for decent school buses in general, I'd be massively supportive. I've tried our MP, the bus companies, the county council. Noone cares. But if you succeeded, you'd make the lives of hundreds of children and their parents loads easier and massively ease the ridiculous traffic at school run times.

I’m sorry but this is total snobbery, all St. Albans senior schools are rated good or outstanding. It’s about being able to say my child goes to Beaumont or Sandringham. Being a faith school has nothing to do with it, every school teaches RE and nominally all schools are C of E unless they are another specific Faith. If you live in Fleetville on your side of town you have Beaumont, Sandringham, Samual Ryder, Nicholas Breakspear and Verulam. 3 ranked outstanding and two good.
When I went to school in St. Albans I walked or rode my bike the 2 miles to school. People came on the bus, my OH walked from near the station to Stags.
People are annoyed because they have paid for what they believed was a school place and that gamble hasn’t paid off. When they complain it will have an impact on their house prices I lose sympathy. It’s funny how many flats and houses popped up unfurnished for rent or sale after the school places were allocated.
The simple fact of the matter is if you swapped Verulam for Townsend or Marlborough you’d take the place.
Maybe allocations should be done by lottery as it’s done in some London Borough’s.
Effort would be better spent on school transport provision and improved bus services.