Anyone else getting nervous?

According to a school receptionist some school catchment areas were as small as 500 meters this year, 15 children would have had to take places OVER 2 miles away.

Local parents made real progress this year using the press and lobbying their local MPs and did manage to get a one off solution this year but next year will be worse and we may not have the high profile support to get heard.

If anyone has already set up a group on this forum let me know and i would love to join.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit was 2009:08:07:06:38:53 by toast.

This year st.john's catchment was less than 300m from the school.
I am intrigued by this one off solution - what was it? I live in east dulwich, my son did not get into any of his 4 choices, i was associated with a group of diverse parents lobbying and publicising the issue but have not noticed any "real progress". I understand that the council believe that there was a babyboom in 04 and this year was a one off. Looking around; I doubt that.
No new schools will be built by 2010, all the schools we applied to (st j, h, g and dkh) seemed dead set against expansion.
One solution may be to support the less popular schools eg goose green, rye oak, bessemer grange. It may be that with a wider demographic, involved parents and a bit of goodwill they could be good options for 2010 and beyond.

mrs.lotte Wrote:
> I am intrigued by this one off solution - what was
> it?

See post 10 in this thread: [www.eastdulwichforum.co.uk]

a one off "bulge" extra class in one of the local schools, apparently

Thank you Fuschia
Very interesting - do you think they are planning on telling any parents about this?!

mrs.lotte Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Thank you Fuschia
> Very interesting - do you think they are planning
> on telling any parents about this?!

I don't know, I only heard it on here! I'd guess they are offering the extra places that have been made available, to children on the waiting list, or moving into the area with no school place. I'd be very surprised if it's just a one year thing, though!!

Hmm, Mr Google he find some interesting stuff:

[www.hernehillforum.org.uk]

[www.southwark.gov.uk]

Did they ever create the additional school in Nunhead/ED that they predicted would be necessary?

[www.southwark.gov.uk] THis was several years ago, and I presume resulted in the expansion of heber, for a start...

[www.southwark.gov.uk] School Org plan to 2008

Bessimer grang in particular did really well this year (again found out via reliable grapevine), Goose Green Nursary is wonderful and with the extra places freed up at Dog Kennel Goose Green will have less of the estate pressure and improve fast.
Look at me the Robert Preston of the Dulwich school world

But it still wont be enough.

Southwark schools are getting really good (where else could young M/C families afford to move over the last few years). Like i have said elsewhere the admissions people are working really hard to look after us but clearly seriously underestermating 2010 demand. Admissions are really responsive and helpful but the local MP's have been shocking. It took Tessa Jowell to step in to get things moving. Have the local MP's not walked down lordship Lane? Toddlertastic!

I am lobbying MP's now the local election will be slap bang in the middle of the May's admissions chaos following our letters in April. They need gently reminding of this. This area rocks for kids and once they get a grip of local needs it will be the perfect place to live.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit was 2009:08:08:09:39:02 by toast.

PS local schools may be dead set against expansion but it's not their choice. The council can and have forced these things through and it may be the only solution until they can build another school near the Rye.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit was 2009:08:08:09:41:28 by toast.

But Tessa Jowell is the local MP - do you mean the councillors? Yes, I was disappointed by them too but unbeknownst to me they had put pressure on the council on my behalf, just didn't tell me till much later. The admissions at Southwark have been just awful in my experience. Perhaps they've upped their game due to this year's catalogue of errors. But 2009 admissions need to be sorted out still; though you mention the 'bulge' class I know nothing of this and am in regular contact with someone senior in children's services at Southwark, and though you think Goose Green is an unpopular choice we're still at no. 6 on the waiting list!

Though I hope what you say is true, and there are places freed up at schools this Sept in 2009!

One solution may be to support the less popular schools eg goose green, rye oak, bessemer grange. It may be that with a wider demographic, involved parents and a bit of goodwill they could be good options for 2010 and beyond.

Don't touch Goose Green. I made the mistake of thinking 'support your local school, it can't be that bad' and put my son in the nursery (feb '08). He wasn't very well looked after (came home soaking wet one day, poo in his pants another, lots of bruises on his legs) and then just as he was about to start reception the primary school failed the Ofsted inspection on every level (and i've been told twice more since). The headmaster who had wowed us when we looked round promptly left and so did we. One year of private school fees later and hopefully he's got a place at St J from September. Can't believe we actually chose Goose Green over St J's in the first place. Doh!

My experience of the Goose Green Nursery was really positive. Yes there are some challenging kids but the sesions are increadibly well planned and resourced. There is plenty of creative project work and a whole lotta love there. The rest of the school does have its problems but it will improve, lets face it with Dulwich families having no other choice and its location its going to radically change in the next couple of years.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit was 2009:08:08:20:37:51 by toast.

llama, I'm sorry to hear that your son had bad experiences and don't blame you for finding another option at all. I don't have any experience of the nursery past or present but do know that a new head has been in place for some time and there are lots of new teaching staff and investment.
Of course you should share your experiences; that's what this forum is all about but things do move on, people have different experiences and rather than tell people not to touch a particular school i would advocate that people keep an open mind and go see the less popular schools and decide for themselves. I wish I had; we put down the 4 most popular and ended up with a school some considerable distance away. After much heartbreak (and deposits to the prep schools) we have been offered and accepted ... Goose Green.

Given that our options (like many others in ED) are very limited we are willing to give it a chance; we've been very impressed with the head, the changes we have seen and the pta and naturally I hope our experience is better than yours.

I'm not nitpicking or seeking to hijack this thread to be about GG - it didnt fail the original ofsted on everything, the early years was rated as good at that stage, it subsequently had an ok interim report and then an inadequate one (about the same time st john's was rated satisfactory and dkh fell from outstanding to satisfactory) So I think what I'm trying to say is not to get too hung up by ofsted. I didnt even go and see GG because of that first ofsted but when I did and spoke to staff and pta I was very pleasantly suprised.

Same is true of others I expect; they get a reputation and then it's a self fulfilling prophecy and everyone wants to add classes to "satisfactory" schools which is hardly likely to help them improve.

I'm not saying I know the answers just trying to make a suggestion that people should cast their net a little wider in 2010.

They also have the best school fate/ carnival in the whole of ED!
Any hay...
Back to this thread!

As Mrs Lotte points out you may be lucky to get anything withing a mile of your home! So get petitioning your councillors asap.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit was 2009:08:09:11:09:05 by toast.

A thought struck me from reading the thread about the 2009 applications.

If I read the posts correctly there are one or more "black-holes" as illustrated by the rough and ready JPG I have attached.

Current policy seems to be that if a child lives in a "black-hole" the child will be "leap-frogged" out into the white borderlands.

This strikes me as an irrational policy and is therefore capable of a legal challenge.

Can anyone draw an accurare map rather than the illustrative circles I have used to stand for catchment areas?

Is there a lawyer here who can comment on the process for challenging an irrational policy?

MacRoban

Ooohhh.. I liked that!

Well put.

I would love to know too, especially as i live in a 'black hole'.

Macroban, I don't think that's right. I think the admissions policy has in it "Children for whom x school is their closest school"

Yes, I'm right.

That criteria comes before pure distance to the school

(i) children in public care (looked after children)

(ii) children who will have brothers or sisters attending the school at their time of entry

(iii) where professional evidence indicates that there are particular psychological, medical or
social needs which the local authority and headteacher agree can best be addressed at the
school

(iv) children for whom it is their nearest Southwark community school measured by the shortest
safe walking distance

(v) children living nearest the school measured by the shortest safe walking distance

So children living in Macroban's "black hole" would actually be prioritised, for their CLOSEST school, above children who may live closer but who also have another closer school.

It really is best to put down your closest school, I'm sure most people do. The problem comes when almost all places go to siblings...

Regardless of the Admission Code, I think a key thing to come out of this year's fiasco is that East Dulwich is in need of a new primary school, that there is a gap (AKA 'black hole') around the Gardens/Peckham Rye/Forest Hill Road area of SE22 which is not really v close to any school. Nick Stanton (Chief Exec of Southwark Council) said this himself in one of the many meetings I've been to this year. Sadly there seems nowhere for such a school to be built.

Rumor has it that Harris boys site used to be a primary school, they robbed Peter to pay Paul.

There are SO many toddlers in Dulwich, 2004 can't have been a one-off baby boom year!

Some councils (e.g. Kingston) seem to publish a lot more information about admissions than Southwark, e.g. about the furthest distance from the school of the children admitted, number of applicants to each school vs the number of places. (http://www.kingston.gov.uk/browse/education/schools/school_admissions.htm (see "primary school admissions booklet 2009", which has lots of information)

It might be worth someone doing a freedom of information request to Southwark to get similar information.

I recently went to a meeting where both Southwark and Lambeth were represented. Southwark Admissions rep said that they'd always had capacity in recent years so this year was a surprise to them. Their aim was to get children into a school within 2 miles of their home which they'd achieved (that obviously excludes people like us offered Southwark school 2.6 miles away, who turned it down and went to Lambeth instead even though we live in Southwark). They didn't talk about the long term. Lambeth, in contrast, had acknowledged some ago that there would be a problem and have a long term plan to increase places by 2012 I think. They have earmarked community schools for expansion (though not church schools because apparently they don't have to!) - their long term aim is for child to have a primary school within 500m. Unfortunately, they don't seem to have the funding to achieve this!

I think Southwark admissions follow a national policy so would be the same as Kingston. I cant see that they give 'nearest school' enough consideration if there are all of these 'black holes'.

Smiler Wrote:> It might be worth someone doing a freedom of
> information request to Southwark to get similar
> information.


I have, actually!

That's great Fuschia, did you find out anything useful?

Toast - I wasn't suggesting that Southwark would have different admissions policies, it's just that information is always useful and Southwark don't seem to publish it.

Smiler Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> That's great Fuschia, did you find out anything
> useful?

No answer yet.

HerneHilly, I found a document on the wed dated 2004 where southwark predicited there would would a huge demand for primarey school provision. They have just chosen to do nothing about it. I also have a copy of a letter sent to Harriet Harmen from the head of St Anthony's in which he states

"You will be aware of our staement of case to increase our admissions number to 60 which, in Februaury of this year, was copied to you, another member of parliment for a local constituency, senior members of the dcfs, every local councillor and senior of the local authoritywith responsibility for planning. No reply from any of the above was received and yet we are told that this area of London is in desperate need of primary school places.The East Dulwich Forum has tales of parents being offered schools miles from home."