No school vacancies in the Richmond Borough

[Slubulino]

Hello there!

My family is moving to Richmond Borough in August. We have been planning our house search in the East Sheen as there was only the RPA school that had vacancies for year 8th.

But now no school in the Borough has any place 🥲. I am lost! Not sure how I should go about finding a home now as I am afraid of finding a home and then get a school 1h away.

What are the criteria of allocating a school place if none of the schools in the Borough have places? I know a child must receive a place.

Thank you!

@Slubulino the Fair Access Protocol involves a panel of borough head teachers meeting to decide where your child is placed. They are a reasonable bunch, and it's very unlikely that they would place a child from the Western side of the borough into a school on the East, unless you happened to live reasonably close to Richmond Bridge, or the Teddington foot bridge.

Can you confirm you are talking about year 8 in September? i.e. your child was born between 1st Sept 2011 and 31st Aug 2012?

^ Or place a child from the eastern side in a school in the west.

I do mean Richmond borough 😅. I know! Hard to believe 😅. But I also think there is no accurate visibility now during vacation because probably there will be some movement in September 🤞.
Twickenham School and RPA were the ones that had places in the spring but now all are full. 🥲

Thank you! Yes I am talking about year 8 in September. The kid is born February 2012.

I am thinking there needs to be some reasonable choice, I hope 🤞.

Thank you everyone! I will focus on finding rent first. Then we need a bit of luck 🍀! ❤️

I was thinking also if perhaps the VAT change that is proposed for the independent schools might have pushed more people in the state school?

Definitely! But also think about where you renting. The closer to the school the quicker you will get the school space as the waiting lists are based on the proximity to the school. Who lives the closest gets the place when it is freed unless EHCP and other variables are in place. Check the lenght of the waiting list for in year transfer and where it would put you if youive in such and such place ( email Richmond Council school admissions for that info)

Another factor to consider is the size of the school. The larger the school the more kids join and leave. E.g. Turing House has 150 kids in each year so will observe less mobility than Orlean Park with 215 PAN or even less tha Teddington 240 kids in each year group.

Also remember that Richmond Council will only look at schools in Richmond borough...lots of children cross borough boundaries at secondary so look at schools based on location rather than just within the local authority..as they maybe closer/easier to get too than the otherside of the borough

Although also pressure in places everywhere.. but there are outstanding schools in Hounslow, Kingston and Ealing that maybe accessible depending on where you are ...

Public transport is very commonly used to get to school you want....

Turing have recently increased their intake to 165, so it's not 150 any more!

@Slubulino , you only have a few days before term ends but I would recommend emailing schools to ask how many students they have "over PAN" in their current year 7, soon to be year 8. PAN stands for "Published Admissions Number" and is the number they expect to have in that year group. But they may have already been obliged to accept more through FAP admissions, appeals, EHCP admissions, or (less obligatory but common) offsite directions & managed moves. This can influence the likelihood of a waiting list place coming up. For example, if they are 3 over PAN, then 4 children will need to leave before a waiting list place becomes available.

There's another 10 days until the end of term for Richmond (like most of the rest of London).

Only private schools have already broken up for the summer.

Thank you! I was thinking vacation has started already 😅. Here vacation has started mid June 😊. I will email schools as @lycheez also suggested.

No problem! I think only Scotland has early summer holidays in the state sector in the UK - and they go back in August.

This might be helpful for you:

www.richmond.gov.uk/term_dates

Exactly. Good point

There is a lot of movement of people in this area, so don't panic. However you do need to think about your wants and needs.

Why are you moving to East Sheen? It's lovely, but it sounds like you need a state school. A lot of people in the area are frankly loaded, so pay for private schooling (for secondary.).

RPA is ok, but behaviour of the kids has been a problem at end of day. Especially at the bus stops on the south circular. I wouldn't move to the area to target that school, but it's not a bad school, just not excellent.

Would you pay private to have a place for your child?
Are y religious? Can affect school options .

If not the next most likely state school to have space is ARK in Putney (Wandsworth borough) It usually has space, it isn't very popular.
Christ's the other way in Richmond is currently full, but there is often movement as people move, if you are religious your chances are much higher to get a place.. Vary good for sports.

If Catholic Richard Reynolds school is close to Twickenham station so a lot of Catholic kids travel by train from South West London.

That year group was the biggest bulge year for primary intake so I can understand space at secondary this year is tough. Also didn't Chiswick school get a terrible Ofsted rating? So probably pushes more children into Richmond.

You could look at renting in Kingston, or Twickenham for some other options.

I don't think that it's that there are no places. I think they have paused the admissions process until 2024/5. They are not currently taking applications but will take them for next year (but you need to have an address in borough to access this process).

I think aiming for East Sheen is difficult. There's basically just RPA and Christ's. I live nearby. In Twickenham you may have more options. Ditto Kingston. Is there a particular reason East Sheen/RPA appealed to you?

Hammersmith & Fulham publish a list of schools with vacancies or short wait lists here. Even though it is for Y7, it might be a good starting point to research possible schools before your move - would be even better if Richmond did something similar.

@TheRainItRaineth , no, there really aren't any places in that year group - I heard that from another source too. It was the peak of the bulge.

@Rollercoaster1920 , the OP has the option of the Swedish school in Barnes hence the East Sheen base. It's cheaper than a private school and the OP could rent in a cheaper area and her DS travel to Barnes to afford the fees.

The Swedish school is £13,600 per year so about half the cost of other local private schools. It does look like it'd be a good transition option.
But the ongoing question is whether you want to stick to state schools or pay private. The UK is very very different to Sweden with that split. Which group do you want your child in? Which can you afford? That would affect where you should rent or buy.

You are walking into the heart of the British class / money divide I'm afraid!

Parents of kids that are moving away often don’t inform the LEA. Those places will be identified and released 3 weeks after term starts.

The whole point why the OP is thinking about Richmond borough is that almost all schools have above nation average results and some have very very good.
What is the point of sending a child to Swedish school and paying all that money if doesn't have better results than surrounding state schools? That makes only sense if one parent originated from Sweden.

It is not like private schools in Richmond borough are significantly better results wise than state schools

@Smoothie23 the OP is moving from Sweden. And the local state schools don't have any places available right now.

Thank you everyone! I know Swedish school is a great school and not so expensive as the other private schools. We choose Richmond also because of the good state schools. My son wants to go to a British school. We want to integrate and pe part of the community. My son is fluent in English and he is excited about trying the new system.

And yes, we are lucky that the Swedish school is also close by. We never know where the future brings. So is always a great option ❤️.

We like the East Sheen area. We also like St Margarets, Barnes and Richmond. We started looking more seriously in East Sheen because up till recently RPA was the only school with vacancies. But right now the situation has changed. However there might be movement in September 🤞. I know there are better schools in the borough than RPA but those have even longer lists.

We are now looking for rent in various parts of the borough and the aim is to be as close as possible to one of the secondary schools so we get higher on the list. 🤞

Thank you!