Primary school place allocation chaos has started!

[Fliss]

"This year there is a common system for the first time. As long as that doesn't mean accepting a place somewhere removes you from the other LA's request list, it's OK..."

Yes Fushcia, that's something else to worry about! The problem is that we don't seem to know how the councils are doing this. Are they allowed to act with absolutely no "transparency" like this? I thought "transparency" was the key word these days. The various policies and guidelines etc that are available seem pretty obtuse, to be honest.

[Fuschia]

Useful: to find distance betwene your postcode and closest Lewisham schools

http://www2.lewisham.gov.uk/lbl/streetmap/finder.asp

[Alec John Moore]

A pan London process has been used for a few years now for secondary school transfers. Sorry to raise that spectre at this stage in your child/family's life but such a system does address some of the problems you are facing. The supporters of this system say it does help a high percentage of applicants get their first choice place. It also helps iron out the anomalies between the different systems and timings of decisions by different boroughs. Obviously, this is a particular problem if you live in border territory. Our experience of the secondary transfer process is that you are automatically placed on the waiting lists of the schools you applied to but were not offered a place at. You can also ask for that to be done quite easily. There are problems with how some schools use the system but that's another thread. One thing that I cling to somewhat is that it is a long process and it isn't over when you get the initial offer of a school place, there is some movement in the summer and places do come up in your higher preference school, don't they? I don't know how much that would apply to primary school applications. I'm hoping sibling policy still applies for our youngest otherwise we'll be joining the ranks of the highly disgruntled of East Dulwich brigade.

[James Barber]

The pan London process is being applied to Primary school admissions next year I beleive.

Southwark council officers believe that with the extra time they've been given on top of the pre arranged bulge class options that they can increase the percentage getting their 1st choice by one or two percent.

Waiting five working days enabling more kids and parents to get their 1st choice seems sensible.

I will find out if I can release the expected 1st choice percentage or not.

[nunheadmum]

'Expected 1st choice percentage' - sounds to me like most of the work has been done if they're close enough to be giving percentages when the difference is as small as one or two percent.

Sorry just don't believe the excuses being given for the delay....it's all political as far as I can see.

[toast]

If they know that all those who gave Heber as 1st choice are in they know where everyone is going! Wish i had put Heber first, could not risk not putting our nearest as first choice. Feeling sick!

[toast]

> Waiting five working days enabling more kids and

> parents to get their 1st choice seems sensible.

Five days???

We are waiting a bit longer than that!

[tallgirl]

Yes the delay is more than 5 days we should have heard about our Southwark Primary applications NOW not after the elections. Fairlawn has a bulge class and that has not prevented Lewisham council from releasing the primary school outcomes on time.

[hpsaucey]

Hi there - if I understand what SOuthwark told you correctly then its wrong - at least it was last year. We got offered places in both Southwark and Lewisham. Did they misunderstand and think that you were asking if you could get offered two places in Southwark when you were asking about being offered places in different boroughs?

H

[Rhubarb&Custard]

James Barber Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

>

> Southwark council officers believe that with the

> extra time they've been given on top of the pre

> arranged bulge class options that they can

> increase the percentage getting their 1st choice

> by one or two percent.

> Waiting five working days enabling more kids and

> parents to get their 1st choice seems sensible.

> I will find out if I can release the expected 1st

> choice percentage or not.

Sorry - but who are you trying to kid here? They've had since January to do all the paperwork and figure out who goes where. Sounds like election bilge at play.

And it's not 5 working days; Southwark applicants find out on May 10th - so that's over 2 weeks later than Lambeth and Lewisham.

[Fliss]

hpsaucey, I have since spoken to Lewisham and was told that Southwark and Lewisham have shared no information so far, so you can get offered places by both councils. I told the woman I spoke to at Lewisham that I had spoken to Southwark and didn't really get an answer, and she said that when you phone Southwark you get put through to a call centre not the actual department, so the person you speak to might not know. How rubbish is that????

And yes Rhubard, I agree with you completely, the blurb that these people are putting out makes no sense at all.

[toast]

One thing that really messed the system up last year was families holding accepted offers in both boroughs. 6 children didnt turn up at Goodrich last year as they had gone to Fairlawn/ Horniman/ Moved or gone private and not bothered to inform admissions that they did not need their place. That left 6 children really messed around, they missed the home visit, settling in and had already had a couple of weeks at a different school. Southwark spent over ?100,00 last year chasing up 'missing children', largely due to families not informing admissions they did not want the place they had accepted.

[misticnutmeg]

This whole school chaos really annoys me. Most of all you parents that live on the border of southwark and lewisham try and take all the places availalble at Fairlawn or Eliot Bank which are both outstanding schools. What really annoys me is that all the toffee-nosed parents come from the East Dulwich area and try to get a space for their child at both schools. Thank god that the council has taken resposibility for allocating places for children as the school would be run by a bunch of Toffs who could probably afford to send their children to private schools anyway.

[Mellors]

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[Eliza.D]

I don't know if this is useful but their is a School Preference Service. The information card say's 'Support and advice when applying for a School place'. The number is 020 7525 5211.

I have every sympathy for your anger and frustration and hope it is soon resolved to your individual satisfaction.

[toast]

Edited as decided not worth it.

[Alec John Moore]

It is worth saying that all our children have a right to a place at a state school. We need to be calling for a system, and working to improve any system, that allocates places on a fair and transparent basis. The system must not make assumptions about the identity or status of the applicants. It's also worth saying that we can't always get our first choice and that if all the schools we lived near were "really good" then this would be less of an issue.

[James Barber]

Hi nunheadmum,

I spoke to the officer in charge on Friday.

They are trying completely different scenarios and re running all the admissions with each scenario to see which scenario gives the best overall outcome. This is far from trivial.

1% is something like 30 kids and 60 parents.

But whatever is said now the allocations come out 10 May and we'll have done everything possible to maxmimise 1st choices.

[hpsaucey]

Hi there FLiss,

Had the same last year. Rang Southwark Education dept three times about something to do with catchments and got a totally different answer each time! Lewisham seem much more on the ball.

Good luck!!!

[tallgirl]

Southwark council is now set up with a selction of call centres, it's hard to get to speak directly to the people you want to speak. Sorry James, I'm not satisfied with the reasons given why the primary school outcome has been delayed by 3 weeks, we heard from Lewisham a week ago and we have to wait to hear from Southwark for another 2 weeks. Surely it's a very silly idea that this result so important to us parents will come out a couple of days after the council elections, we don't even which party will be running the council then!

[prdarling]

As far as I can see the Lib Dems are all about excuses - it's so blatantly political it's ridiculous.

James Barber et al are just coming up with nonsense at this stage. James has said on this site that one of the reasons Southwark is taking longer is that they are organising bulge classes while Lewisham is not - well we all know that Fairlawn has a bulge class. Last night I even had one LD councillor at my door suggesting that Lewisham have released their places early (err no, on time) because the application process had to be completed earlier than Southwark (err, no both were 29 January).

They can't get their facts right on what must be one of the most crucial issues to the ED electorate and it looks to me like they are making it up as they go along. I have ZERO confidence in them.

[toast]

It's not really on to leek the good news about Heber while sitting on any bad news until after the election.

[James Barber]

I don't believe I've leaked anything about Heber School having a bulge class. Heber school had called a meeting with interested parents to talk about a bulge class. That meeting took place yesterday and I was assured the invites had been sent out last week.

The original date of releasing the primary school admissions results was 29 April. Its been delayed by six working days to 10 May. I've stated before that its been delayed by five working days but was wrong by one day. Sorry.

prdarling, It appears I'd been told wrongly that Lewsiham was not organising bulge classes. I stand corrected. Sorry. They are organising 17-22 extra reception classes for 510-660 reception kids depending on who you ask and what you read. I've searched Lewsiham Council website and via google and I'm not able to find anything stating the number of classes or kids affected.

Southwark to my knowledge have so far tried five completely different scenarios for where to place reception kids in possible bulge classes and permanent expansions. Last year across all of Southwark 3 bulge classes created - Goodrich, Crampton and Lyndhurst (1/2 class). It appears this year a similar order of magnitude will be needed across Southwark - in the East Dulwich area most likely Heber School will have a bulge class.

[tallgirl]

Ah James, so we should have heard this Thursday (the 29th) about Southwark primary school applications, this would have given a week for parents like us, who held Lewisham offers to decide on these, as they would know the Southwark outcome before the 5th May decision deadline for Lewisham. The six working days you mention equates to almost two weeks as it includes two weekends and a bank holiday, the bank holiday weekend is when many parents would have the chance to sit down and discuss the outcome of their primary school appication so the delay is very significant. Whatever you say, the delay can only have been for purely political reasons, as surely it's not good for council staff to deal with parents trying to sort out their options TWO working days after local council elections???? I guess for example, we won't even know who is executive member for education in the council on the 10th May?

[Smiler]

Re. the "scenario planning" by Southwark to allocate places in the buldge classes / expansions: this doesn't fit with the statement in the letter to parents from the Heber Head (see the other thread), which strongly implies that the bulge class places, at that school at least, have already been allocated.

Whatever the situation actually is, it seems to be bad handling for Heber to have divulged admissions information at this point, ahead of parents being notified. Instead, the head could simply have advised current parents of kids at the school that there would be a bulge class, and left it to the Southwark team to notify parents of allocations.