Urgent Help - Year 9 school places for six children required asap

[2010louises]

I'm posting on behalf of a friend who would prefer to remain anonymous, could any one help or offer her advice please ?
"Do any parents whose children are in Year 9 know of any local schools whose classes have room for 1 child (or up to 6 kids) ? My son is being forced to change schools at short notice , he is one of six kids in his year who are in the same situation, all the parents are now scrambling for a school that has spaces available. I have contacted my Local Authority (Bromley) and been told despite classes being full , not to worry as by law the local authority have to find him / them a place, so in the meantime we have to join the waiting lists "

I was referring to your rudeness, as you know.

This thread is not seeking information about school places. It is yet another thread trying to undermine a new policy because for once it costs money to people who already have it. I do not have time for parents who use a system that benefits them because they have privileges and expect other people to sympathise when they have failed to prepare for a change that was on the horizon years ago.

I haven't been rude to any individual. Whereas you resorted to rather lazy insult to me.

Sure thing, sweetie 😘

It’s the Labour Government who is responsible for preparing for the inevitable transfer of pupils from the private to the state school system. If you bring in a policy which is likely to result in tens of thousands of pupils moving school, you plan for it properly. We are talking about children here.

I know you are you said you were and so am I is it?

I’m sorry but you are wrong , see my question , it was a very specific question re state schools , I made no mention whatsoever of independent school , the question only came up when someone questioned what had they done , could it be some kind of sexual assault meaning the child had been excluded so of course I had to respond 😳

Bromley Council has relied for years on about 10% of the (admittedly) relatively affluent local population paying for private school, using grammars outside the Borough, paying for their own SEN support and "exports" a significant fraction of SEN kids...

They free ride on their neighbouring areas!

I think it is a real story.

This thread is not seeking information about school places

I don’t think you read the first post. It specifically mentioned asking for information about school places. The OP only admitted to them currently being at private school after other posters pressed for more information and made some assumptions.

it costs money to people who already have it.

They don’t have the money. That’s why they’re moving.

expect other people to sympathise

No one is asking for sympathy, just for advice on specific school places. As it’s a thread on secondary education, it’s not an unreasonable post.

Unfortunately this is the reality of the situation. People might not like the fact that parents will now have to use overstretched state schools but they have no choice.

It’s not the only council. There are no local school places for my children if we wanted to move. My MP agreed with me when I pointed this out. Our nearest one with any space is about a 40 minute car journey away (no public transport available).

I voted Labour but this is a poorly thought out policy. The fact that some very wealthy schools expect to be quids in because they can now reclaim VAT on their expensive building projects is no great surprise. https://www.theguardian.com/education/2024/oct/12/eton-among-elite-private-schools-set-to-cash-in-on-windfall-from-new-vat-rules

It was obvious that these schools would claim this money back and will probably lose no, or very few, pupils because they now have to charge VAT on fees. They have the endowments to provide bursary funding for the few who would struggle. Meanwhile the smaller poorer schools who can't afford big building projects and whose pupils come from less affluent families are going to lose pupils who will go into the state sector. This means their education will cost us all money which currently their parents pay over and above their taxes.

I wonder how much money this policy will actually raise as opposed to cost.

Am I the only one that thinks this poster wishes to start a heated debate about private education?

I’m really sorry you in this position , Im seeing first hand my friends son go through this uncertainty , he is a kind kid, obviously he will have to adapt to whatever school he gets placed in , it’s the worry for his mum (my friend ) that when he asks what school am I going to , she can’t tell him where he is going and it’s causing him massive anxiety ..such a terrible worry for any parent whatever the circumstances . It’s taking its toll on her so much so that I’ve stepped up to try and get some concise advice .. which I have to say lots of comments have very kindly offered 💕, I’ll prob not comment further on this thread , my first question to the group was nothing to do with politics , i find it very sad a post about children’s well being has turned into a political slanging match , someone asked earlier why didn’t my friend post herself , I’m glad I have shielded her from some of the extremely judgmental comments that have absolutely no empathy for a child 😢

Self-evidently not, if you read the thread. I don't, personally. I was the first person to mention independent schools because I wondered if a school might be closing with little notice. There are going to be lots of threads like this because there are going to be families who realise it just isn't affordable any more. It remains to be seen whether they are few in number or many, but there's no doubt they will exist, and why shouldn't they ask for advice on the MN Education topic?

I bet there is a lot of brinkmanship going on here.

How is this private school going to find new students in the middle of year 9? If they can't, they will be losing £27k per child per year. I suspect that a deal will be done to keep the children in school.

But also, re the parents, don't they have to give notice? Won't they be committed to next term anyway?

I know the head of a private school in sw London. She says it's the recruitment of new pupils they are worried about, not the retention of existing pupils. They are not passing on the vat. They are having a wage freeze, no capital expenditure etc.

I bet this school cracks when there is a huge exodus.

@2010louises - if your friend is not too far from a train station into London, then suggest also that she looks at secondaries further into London that are not far from the stations en route into London. There are loads going into London and there may be more vacancies there. Please also remind your friend to keep her DS calm, he is going to be fine, she can use any extra money saved towards tutors in the future. In the mean time, if he is out of school for a few weeks early next term, it may mean she can successfully appeal for her preferred school. He should get online if that happens and work ahead in things like Sciences on Seneca or Maths on Dr Frost (free educational websites) and maybe practise his languages on DuoLinguo. Read some good books on the GCSE English syllabus etc. There is no need to panic, they are legally obliged to find him a place.

Please also remind your friend that her DS only has to go to the school allocated until end of GCSE. By Sixth Form, all the grammars open up as well again as long as he does well in his GCSEs. So the focus has to be to keep him calm and studying etc.

Some of the posters have been really nasty! A current Year 9 would have missed 6 months off school in Year 4 (from March 2020 to September 2020) and then another whole term in the Spring Term of Year 5. They may already have trauma from this and so do the parents.
For a Government to then inflict another quasi out of school period on a child and their parents who has already gone through this, is unconscionable.

If it were my child I would go see the GP and get a note to state it is causing anxiety etc and bringing up Covid trauma and then I would try and use the Fair Access Protocol sooner rather than later on Bromley Council.

@Arran2024 - private schools are waving the notice fees for some parents who really cannot afford it - because think about it, the Government will probably want VAT on notice fees as well! So anything the school charges from January will be VATable. It is an anomalous situation so they may wave it quietly for genuine cases.

Private schools on the whole did much better with covid teaching than state, so playing the 'covid disruption' card won't wash.

This is no worse for the pupils than say a parent needing to relocate at short notice requiring a new school. It is unfortunate, but stuff happens.
The parents need to use the same admissions rules as anyone else.

At least they can use money saved on fees for top up tutoring if needed.

@2010louises https://childlawadvice.org.uk/information-pages/fair-access-protocol/

Send this to your friend to read up on it. Anxiety will be a medical condition. If he is genuinely properly anxious because of the situation/not sleeping etc, he is now vulnerable and the GP should record it and the Council will have to find him a place. I would be getting a paper trail in any event because Governments should not get away with inflicting these kind of policies on vulnerable children deliberately.

@TeenToTwenties - it will be down to the GP to diagnose not you.

I answered in good faith in case it wasn't another private school fees complaint (especially as 'big' incidents can and do lead to groups looking for a new school at the same time).

Non selective secondaries with spaces within easy travel by car/bus/train from Bromley/tram from Beckenham;

Oasis Shirley Park - 119/194/tram, 5 minutes walk
Orchard Park - 119/194, 6 minutes walk
Shirley High - 119/194 + 5 minutes walk
Oasis Arena - tram
Harris SN if Beckenham is full - train + 6 minutes walk
Coombe Wood might have spaces, tram + 3 minutes crossing the road

1-2 boys per school, all sorted within 15 school days (legal timeframe to handle application).

And if there aren't any spaces right now in Bromley (which I doubt as they've spent loads on increasing capacity in the last two years unlike most parts of London, it's more due to it being just over a week since Census Day when funding is set and the two weeks until the Year 7 application deadline of 31st), it's perfectly normal for places to open up straight after Christmas as it's when people start moving house or changing schools ready for year 10.

You are so kind for taking the time to type / give all this information, from my heart Thankyou , it’s very much appreciated and im
sure my friend and her son will feel the same x

Don't get anxiety needlessly added on a medical record just to get a school place. This could have repercussions - what if he wants to be a fireman or pilot etc?

Come off it. March 2020 to September 2020 is not missing 6 months of school.

Private schools generally have 2 months off for the summer break and then you’ve got the Easter holidays within that time too.