Renata Hamvas

For those of you linked up specifically to this thread, and still looking for a school place, there is an open mornbing at Deptford Green on Thursday 24th March at 9.15. To register your attendance and to be sent a prospectus email info@deptfordgreen.lewisham.sch.uk Renata

Hi Dorothy, Harris Boys School do admit on distance. They have a banding system and you get offered a place in relation to your distance from the school, in relation to where other children in your child's band live. They currently have waiting lists for all bands. Last year they had movement on their waiting lists right up until September. Due to Kingsdale's location, if it would change it's admissions criteria to one based on distance, It would be unlikely that any East Dulwich residents would be offered places there under distance critera. If you draw a circle 1km around Kingsdale school, it cover a big chunk of Lambeth, and a chunk of Lewisham and southern parts of Dulwich eg the Kingswood Estate and Upper Sydenham. At secondary school level many pupils cross borough boundaries, eg Southwark pupils at Aske's, Lewisham pupils at the Harris boys and girl's schools. The admissions system itself works on a pan-London basis. Southwark secondary schools are continually improving. Their success has lead to some of them being very oversubscribed. The more oversubscribed a school is, the more disappointed parent and children there will be when the place allocations are released. Our goal should be to strive for all local schools to be good, so that our children to thrive to the best of their abilities at whichever school they go to. Renata

Hello James, I have in the last couple of weeks been helping parents from wards all over the south of the borough. It is clear that readers of the ED forum span quite a distance and for some, Deptford Green is close to where they live, and convenient to travel to, particularly those close to the Lewisham boundary. I don't find your comments above particularly helpful. I know parents whose children are going to Deptford Green school in September, they have seen the school and applied to it on their CAF form. They have spoken very highly of the school, which in 2010 had 69% of pupils obtaining 5 GCSEs and for 53% this included English and Maths. For the information of interested parents, like a couple of Southwark Schools, it is a building site at the moment (being rebuilt under Schools for the Future), but this will be completed by September. The school website is www.deptfordgreen.lewisham.sch.uk so that parent can look for themselves. I don't think that Dulwich College Prep comes into the equation for many Southwark parents! The shakedown of school places has already started, so over the next few weeks there will be movement on school waiting lists. If I hear of any other schools that have places and opportunities for visits, I will post on this forum. Renata

To those of you who are still without a secondary school place for 2011, there is an open morning at Deptford Green School, Amersham Vale,SE146LQ for 9.15am on Thursday 24th March. This is a mixed comprehensive school, in the borough of Lewisham, for a prospectus, email info@deptfordgreen.lewisham.sch.uk . This is purely for those who don't have a place in one of the schools they applied to and for 2011 entry!

and again!

For parents with year 5 children, some of the posts above indicate what is important for you to do in preparation for the 2012 allocations. There are no hard and fast rules that will ensure that you will get a school of your choice, but doing the following will increase the likelihood of success. Be aware that the suburban grammar schools (Kent eg Dartford, Sutton etc) are increasingly having exams before CAF forms go in, entries need to go in in summer term with tests typically in September. Visit as many schools as you can, not just within Southwark but in neighbouring boroughs if you live quite close to a borough boundary, ie East Dulwich and Nunhead.(eg Haberdasher's Askes, Deptford Green, Bonus Pastor in Lewisham). If possible visit yourself in year 5 and with your child, to a shortlist in September of year 6. If possible and you want to see more, go to more than one open evening/day. Speak to parents with children in the school or post on here for opinions. Carefully read the prospectus and admissions criteria for the school. Do you satisfy them? Note that schools that select on distance will vary their catchment from year to year dependant on numbers of applicants and where they live. If the school selects on a particular ability, be aware that this selection is highly competitive and your child will probably need to be outstanding rather than just good in the field of selection. Be aware that level 5 predictions are not exceptional, they indicate that they are above average (unless your child is eg in year 4 and already level 5). Do be aware that some schools are very oversubscribed and therefore do put down 6 choices and make sure of a correct order of preference. If your prefered schools are very popular, try to put down schools that you have a very good chance to get a place, in the remaining places rather than 6 very oversubscribed schools. Be realistic, if you live 3 km from a popular school which typically takes pupils up to a km away, unless they have a special need only met by that school, or a sibling there, they will not get a place there. It is fine to have 1 or 2 long shots on your list but you are likely to be disappointed if you put down 6 such preferences. Schools such as Kingsdale and Bacon's College that allocate by random allocation are basically operating a lottery system. The more people who apply to these schools, the lower your chance of getting a place. If you live close to a school operating such an admissions policy, living close to the school does not give you priority over someone living further away. If applying to a church school, look at the religious criteria they use to select. These can be quite varied, date of baptism may be important for some schools or being in a feeder primary may be more important for others. Some Catholic schools offer places to children which practice eastern orthodox Christianity (eg Greek) but others do not. For the current applicants, scroll up to see the details of the advisory service at Cator Street SE15 Schools do not know where you have placed them, but they do know if another school has offered you a place that has removed you from the pot for the subsequent rounds of place allocation that occur prior to the 2nd March offer day. If you have got your order wrong on your form, it is worth contacting the school below the one you were offered in case they are willing to put you on their waiting list. I know of two children this occurred with last year, one got an offer at the lower placed school in May and the other in October. Remember that if you wish you had placed schools in a different order, you may have not been offered a place at your preferred school anyway! Dunamis2011 - if you live close to Haberdasher's Askes Pepy's road site (check your exact distance by using the Post Office postcode to postcode checker) it may be worth contacting the school to find out if you would have been allocated a place on distance. If so, discuss whether it would be possible to go on their waiting list. Kingsdale is a popular school and there are many parents who wish they were in your shoes! Please contact me by e-mail or PM. Renata

I'm bumping this up in case parentts affected by this issue haven't read it.

Dear all, a couple of people have highlighted the campaign to extend the 63 bus to Brockley Rise, just past Honor Oak Park station. Both the Lib Dems and the then Labour Candidates (now the Peckham Rye Ward Councillors, myself, Victoria Mills and Gavin Edwards) were campaigning on this matter. Since being elected, we have continued to campaign on this. Cabinet Member Barrie Hargrove, Council Leader Peter John and GLA representative Valerie Shawcross and ourselves have been lobbying TFL and the Mayor to extend the route by a mere 4 bus stops to Honor Oak Rise. TFL have costed it at 600k per annum? Which seems a huge amount for the distance! They have cited that passengers can use the P12. The problem is that yes, if you are travelling from Peckham or Nunhead you can use the P12, however from ED you have to walk up the hill to the P12 bus stop which is not ideal for the elderly or those with buggies. Also, I don't believe any assessment has been carried out on the passenger numbers during peak time on the Honor Oak part of the P12 route. There doesn't appear to have been any extra P12s to cope with extra passenger numbers (also boys from Harris Boys use this bus). Do any ED residents do the 363/63 + P12 combination to Honor Oak Station. If so, how do you find this combination? As the ELL is now open to Highbury and Islington, I think more and more local residents will use this route, especially if the are heading to north London for work/pleasure. It's such a logical move to extend the 63 and I'm sure that many local residents would use it. We haven't given up yet! Renata

Not received the secondary school offer of your choice? The School Preference Adviser is on hand to offer independent, impartial support and advice to parents and carers. Come and see him on any of the dates below at: The Southwark Learning and Business Centre, Resource Centre, Cator Street, London, SE15 6 AA Email: schoolpref@southwark.gov.uk Wednesday 9th March 9:30-12:30 13:30-15:30 Thursday 10th March 9:30-12:30 15:30- 18:30 *(Sunshine House) Friday 11th March 9:30-12:30 No afternoon session Monday 14th March 9:30-12.30 13:30-15:30 Tuesday 15th March 9:30-12:30 13:30-15:30 Wednesday 16th March 9:30- 12:30 13:30-15:30 * Thursday 10th March - Evening Session @ Sunshine House ? 27 Peckham Road, London SE5 8UH Renata

To clarify a bit on waiting lists, Charter selects on distance (after siblings etc) so would have one waiting list.(true for any school that doesn't use banding) Kingsdale and Aske's both use banding, Kingsdale uses Southwark's 3 band system while Aske's uses it's own system of 9 bands. Each band has it's own waiting list (true for any school that uses "fair banding" or any other banding system)ie these schools have waiting lists . In Aske's case, as they go o distance and band (and "music), you may know a child living further from the school than your child, the other child has a place while yours doesn't. This is because the two children are in different bands and the location where the children live from the two bands is different and the number of siblings. In 2009 one band had an area of 0 due to the large number of siblings who were in that band, while a couple of bands were over 1km. In Kingsdale's case there is banding and scholarships in maths, music and sports. Distance to the school plays NO PART in the selection process. Not received the secondary school offer of your choice? The School Preference Adviser is on hand to offer independent, impartial support and advice to parents and carers. Come and see him on any of the dates below at: The Southwark Learning and Business Centre, Resource Centre, Cator Street, London, SE15 6 AA Email: schoolpref@southwark.gov.uk Wednesday 9th March 9:30-12:30 13:30-15:30 Thursday 10th March 9:30-12:30 15:30- 18:30 *(Sunshine House) Friday 11th March 9:30-12:30 No afternoon session Monday 14th March 9:30-12.30 13:30-15:30 Tuesday 15th March 9:30-12:30 13:30-15:30 Wednesday 16th March 9:30-12:30 13:30-15:30 * Thursday 10th March - Evening Session @ Sunshine House ? 27 Peckham Road, London SE5 8UH Renata

intexasatthemoment, I don't have the answer at my fingertips, but there is more information on their results here: http://www.hgaed.org.uk/48/exam-results Fatherjack- the initial system works like this. Schools have different admissions policies eg Kingsdale has a lottery system while Charter/Harris Academies/Aske's broadly go on distance from the school linked with banding results. Schools DO NOT know which order you have put them in. This changed a couple of years ago to prevent schools selecting pupils on their older of preference. London operates a Pan-London scheme. Parents apply for up to 6 schools and each school gets the details of any child who has applied to them. The school X, may then band the pupils or select on musical or other ability. The pupils are then ranked by things such as SEN, siblings, scholarships/ability in the schools speciality if relevant, within the different academic bands (LEA test or the school's own test). If for example, the school has an intake of 100 pupils per year, the details of the 100 top ranked children are flagged up and sent back to the central computer for crunching. This is done by a set date for all schools. Some pupils may be eligible for a place in school X, Y and Z but X may not be their highest available preference school eg third on their form, but school Z has indicated they fit their criteria and they put Z second on their form. In this case the school Z will be informed that the child is on their offer list, while for schools X and Y they will need to take the next child down on their rank list. The data flows back and forth until the list of pupils matches the number of spaces for year 7 entry. For some schools, they won't fill their places with people who applied to them as many of them may have put other more popular schools higher up their list. There are also pupils who unfortunately weren't high up enough in the rank order to get allocated any of their preferred schools, they are allocated a school where there are still spaces by their LEA. This system does mean that a child A, putting a popular school sixth may be offered it, if their top five schools didn't have them high enough in their ranking order. Also, a child B, putting the same school first, may not get it, if they were ranked below A. The rank orders are used for the waiting list orders. In two weeks time, parents need to accept/decline the school offered. Even if unhappy with the offered school, without confirmation of a place at another school, parents should accept the offer made. Some children leave the area/country after applying in the Autumn and others decide to take up places at independent schools. This releases up some places after the initial acceptance date. Offers are sent out to people on the waiting list of the schools where places have become available (normally just before the Easter holidays). These offers are accepted/declined, releasing another batch of school places. This goes on until September in a trickle down fashion. I know of a few children changing schools in the Autumn as a place became available at their desired school. This is why, if you are unhappy with you allocated school you should not rush out to buy uniform, as you may be contacted in August with an offer from the school you and your child wanted! When you contact admissions departments at schools that you applied to and weren't offered, be aware that they don't know where you positioned them on your form. It is important to find out your position on the waiting list and to indicate realistically your chances, find out how much movement there was on the waiting list last year. You should also highlight any changes to circumstances, eg if your child has recently been statemented, you have a sibling at the school that you forgot to enter on the form, or who has recently moved to the school from another one. Also, in the case of schools allocating on distance, if you have moved closer to the school. These points are also valid for appeals. Other grounds for appeal include your child being ill eg on the day of a music/11+ exam and you have proof of their exceptional ability, eg grade 5 piano at aged 10 or SATs level 5 in all subjects in year 4. If you have no real grounds for appeal, your appeal is unlikely to be successful. I hope this is helpful for the parents out there going through a time at the moment Renata Cllr Renata Hamvas Labour Councillor for Peckham Rye Ward Renata.Hamvas@southwark.gov.uk 02075255223

Harris Girl's Results: The figure of 90% is for 5 GCSEs, that of 48% includes both English and Maths. In this year's year 11 60% have already passed their English and Maths and this is before the summer GCSEs, so this figure will increase. I highlighted this because I think that many local parents don't realise how much the school's academic results have improved in the last couple of years. Renata

Intexasatthemoment is correct, not many appeals are successful. However, many places do become available in the shakedown, from waiting lists, all the way until the beginning of September. Renata Cllr Renata Hamvas Labour Councillor for Peckham Rye Ward

To those of you that have e-mailed me this evening and that I haven't responded to yet, I'll try and do so in the next hour or so (sorry, gym club/homework/bedtime got in the way!). Do not dispair if you haven't got any of your choices yet, if you have applied to 6 (some realistic!)schools you have a good chance to be offered one of your choices in the next few weeks. Remember when you contact schools that they don't know in which position you put them on your application form. Those of you offered a school you haven't applied to, it is always worth phoning the school and seeing if you can go and visit. Remember that schools can improve very rapidly under good leadership eg Harris Girl's Academy is in the top 2% nationally for added value score, in 2010, 90% got 5 GCSEs (A*-C) and 60% of the current year 11s already have got a grade C or above in English and Maths (this is of course will go up with the GCSEs in the summer!). Renata Cllr Renata Hamvas Labour Councillor for Peckham Rye Ward Renata.Hamvas@southwark.gov.uk 02075255223

.Mr Rafs, Please contact me and I will try to help you. Renata.Hamvas@southwark.gov.uk 02075255223 Cllr Renata Hamvas Labour Councillor for Peckham Rye Ward

I had posted the below on thew other thread on this subject: message Re: Help - the 1 O'Clock club needs you Posted by Renata Hamvas February 18, 11:45PM Hello everyone, I am one of the Local Councillors for Peckham Rye Ward. We are aware of how important this facility is for local families. I have been in contact with Children's services at Southwark Council. There are no plans to close the facility down but to change the way it is organised. Currently, it is directly run by the council, but it is planned that during 2012 the running of the Facility will pass to another group (probably a local Children's centre). It may be run in conjunction with other groups eg local voluntary organisations. This should lead to a greater number of activities being held in the club house for local families. Renata Labour Councillor For Peckham Rye Ward Renata.Hamvas@southwark.gov.uk 02075255223 Peckham Rye Ward Surgeries 1st Friday of the Month-Rye Hill Estate TRA Hall, Peckham Rye SE15 6.30-7.30pm 2nd Saturday of the Month-East Dulwich Community Centre, 46-64 Darrell Rd SE22 10-11am (not in August) 4th Thursday of the Month-Nunhead Library, Gordon Rd SE15 6.30-7.30pm (3rd Thursday in December)

This year, it's different to previous years, 5pm today for online applications and postal applicants will hear tomorrow as these are being posted out today. Good Luck everybody, Renata

I am aware that the Secondary School Allocations are out tomorrow. Please contact me if you are unhappy with the school your child has received and need my help. Renata Cllr Renata Hamvas Labour Councillor for Peckham Rye Ward Renata.Hamvas@southwark.gov.uk

Goodrich, Fairlawn (Lewisham School but close), Ivydale (Nunhead), St Francesca Cabrini (Catholic) Renata

Dear all, sorry, I haven't been on here since my last post- half term! I have three children and therefore very aware of the need to have facilities for young children and to keep their parents sane! The consultation and changes aren't going to happen for a while (next year), and nothing has been firmed up yet. When I know more I will post it here. What I do know, is that the facility needs to be used for more than just a one o clock club. it is good that you are forming a parents group and thanks for your emails (and those of you who have approached me in the playground too). In terms of the rebuilding project, it will cost about 400k to rebuild the facility. 200k were earmarked and the rest was due to come from Surestart and Playbuilder. This money has been pulled, so the rebuild is up in the air at the moment. The problem has been that the cuts are huge and have come so fast. Not only those that affected the council's budget directly, but other ones such as Surestart. Once I know more I would happy to meet up with parents at the one o clock club to discuss. Renata Cllr Renata Hamvas Labour Councillor for Peckham Rye Ward

It is probably best to contact the school as I know that last year some primary schools in Southwark went back at the end of August whilst other went back nearly a week later! Renata Cllr Renata Hamvas Labour Councillor for Peckham Rye Ward

Hello everyone, I am one of the Local Councillors for Peckham Rye Ward. We are aware of how important this facility is for local families. I have been in contact with Children's services at Southwark Council. There are no plans to close the facility down but to change the way it is organised. Currently, it is directly run by the council, but it is planned that during 2012 the running of the Facility will pass to another group (probably a local Children's centre). It may be run in conjunction with other groups eg local voluntary organisations. This should lead to a greater number of activities being held in the club house for local families. Renata Labour Councillor For Peckham Rye Ward Renata.Hamvas@southwark.gov.uk 02075255223 Peckham Rye Ward Surgeries 1st Friday of the Month-Rye Hill Estate TRA Hall, Peckham Rye SE15 6.30-7.30pm 2nd Saturday of the Month-East Dulwich Community Centre, 46-64 Darrell Rd SE22 10-11am (not in August) 4th Thursday of the Month-Nunhead Library, Gordon Rd SE15 6.30-7.30pm (3rd Thursday in December)

Rye Oak's Ofsted Report has been published today, and I'm happy to report that the school has been rated as good by the inspectors. Cllr Renata Hamvas Labour Councillor for Peckham Rye Ward Renata.Hamvas@southwark.gov.uk

I'm glad to hear that you are sorted Tor, keep me posted on how things are progressing for you prdarling. It's likely that Southwark's offer replies are currently being collated and that in a couple of weeks the situation should become clearer. Cllr Renata Hamvas Labour Councillor for Peckham Rye Ward

Hi Fuschia, it sounds like you've been through a distressing 48 hours:(. I hope that you manage to get things sorted . I' m one of the councillors representing Peckham Rye Ward, and if there is anything I can do to help, please contact me.:) Cllr Renata Hamvas Labour Councillor for Peckham Rye Ward Renata.Hamvas@southwark.gov.uk 07535932319