Secondary School Allocations

[Renata Hamvas]

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

[email protected]

[malleymoo]

Does anyone know at what time do they reveal what school has been allocated online? Someone at school said morning and another said 5 pm tomorrow ? It would be helpful to know when to start checking as otherwise u suspect my daughter will wake me up extra early and will be very disappointed if not online yet !

[Renata Hamvas]

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

[dollydaydream]

I was told by my local council it is 5pm if you filled in your form online, and by post will be on Wed.

Good Luck everyone!!

[Vik]

Yep, just checked the allocations webpage and it says 5pm tomorrow for e-applications, postal will go out first class tomorrow.

[malleymoo]

Thanks all. I cant quite believe we have to wait till 5 my daughter has driven me crackers for days and couldnt sleep tonight! good luck everyone.

[Vik]

Same here, we should be OK though as have a sibling place but that hasn't stopped him driving me crazy about it!

Best of luck!

[BB100]

At home we haven't talked about it so my child didn't know the results were out soon. Then she went to school yesterday and the other kids told her. She came home very anxious.

Why can't they publish results in the half-term hols so they all go back to school knowing already rather than some knowing and others waiting desperately for the post.

[mrrafs]

We didn't get our child into any of the schools on our list, we didn't get into our nearest school (live in ED) - we are or have been both teachers and our child is in some top sets in her school... if we send our child to the school offered, we are more than likely reducing her future choices of further education.... (as the A results are one of the lowest in london and bottom of the LA). reeling with the shock... not sure what to do, will contact our MP.... eek!

[Renata Hamvas]

.Mr Rafs,

Please contact me and I will try to help you.

[email protected]

02075255223

Cllr Renata Hamvas

Labour Councillor for Peckham Rye Ward

[intexasatthe moment]

mrrafs ,just posting to offer sympathies .

I know from experience how awful this is .

Hope Renata can offer support and help.

[tiddles]

gosh I feel so sorry for all stress and disappointments caused to families at this time of year. It is not much help right now whilst you are still reeling, but many people do get somewhere they want on the second round (and later too). It is dreadful that your children are put in this position as well.

Get on that phone and take up all the offers of help that any councillors offer

out of interest, how did people get on with hassling the local authorities last year when they were in a similar predicament?

very best wishes

[nunheadmum]

This is still some way off for us as eldest has just started primary but with the current talk this week of increasing fair banding and lotteries, I wonder how this works where schools have particular focus.

I'm thinking in particular of Harris Girls. I know lots of parents at Ivydale are hoping that the improvements at the school will continue and see all the kids getting a good education. Selfishly, a good school on our doorstep would be really practical for our kids. But if the school's focus is Sport, Health Sciences and Enterprise, what happens if you have a child who wants to pursue a more academic bent? Will a school with this focus ever be able to cater for the academic subjects as well as a school with a more e.g. science or language focus? If the allocations become ever more random and hence you stand a fair chance of being allocated simply your local school, what happens if that school doesn't meet your child's needs. (It could equally work the other way - an academic-focused school being allocated to a child who would be more suited to a school with more vocational aspects.)

I don't mean to talk down any schools or say that academic is better than vocational - every child should be encouraged to achieve a good basic education and what will give them the best future in life and make them happy and different schools providing good basic education and then specialising in different aspects seems to make some sense. But if schools specialise and kids don't really then have choice as to which they go to, it seems to undermine the concept and risk making a mockery of the whole thing.

Is there an angle to this that I'm just not getting, that explains how it should work? Maybe once all schools are providing a good basic education, if the more vocational side of education is valued, the academic schools will become less sought after...but is that realistic?

[yummumbums]

My child is bitterly disappointed having been allocated the school in last position on our list and we only put that down as an emergency option! Although we are disappointed some people have been less fortunate than us not getting a place at any school or none of the schools on their list at all. This is such a horrible process for the children and the parents, now all we can do is hope for a place popping up whilst sitting on waiting lists. Good luck everyone!

[intexasatthe moment]

nunheadmum - most secondary schools offer the same curriculum ,nonwithstanding any specialist status .

I think the specialist status is a hangover from a few years ago when schools could access a bit of extra funding if they applied for this ( I'm sure someone on here will know more about this )

I think some schools that aren't vey popular /struggling to climb up the league tables do offer less academic exams alongside the traditional GCSE's .

And I think such schools focus their efforts on those students who are struggling to achieve the magic C grade and that this is at the expense of children who can get a C but would benefit from extra support etc to get a B . So maybe don't stretch the just above average student enough .

Don't know if that helps .

[newgirl85]

Feeling the same! After applying to the only schools in our area that matched the criteria (mixed, non-denominational) my daughter was offered a place at an all-girls school. It is our closest one, but it is simply not an option. Dreading the appeal process but will take it as far as I can - and think ultimately will refuse to send her to the allocated school (don't know what the consequences of that would be but hope not to have to find out!) The system is deeply flawed and ; at once giving you a 'choice' and denying you any real 'choice'. I feel your pain!

[Peckhamgatecrasher]

Take heart people. We were allocated our fifth choice initially. As the weeks went by No. 2 and then No. 1 made an offer.

[Mark Dodds]

Collectively we are to blame for the utter baleful nonsense of our eduction system. We allow it to happen. Education is simply not a high enough priority in our national consciousness. This stupid lottery system that fails so many people is the result of a perennial endemic neglect of education as a basic priority in our lives. Consider just how BAD this situation is right now and then Imagine where we would be if Labour had not pumped all that money and energy into those Foundation schools and Academies in Southwark and Lambeth over the last ten years? Imagine that! Imagine where we would be now.

For 2011 entry my eldest son had listed in order of priority:

Kingsdale

Haberdashers

London Nautical

City of London Academy

Charter

Walworth Academy

Pimlico was in there somewhere as an ambition but we were told categorically that NO ONE from SE5 would get in. Not like two years ago. He also made a particular request that he would not consider any faith school.

Instead he has been offered a place at St Thomas the Apostle, an all boys' Catholic school. And a not very good school either. IF he DESPERATELY WANTED to go to a faith school that had good achievements he would simply NEVER get in - he has never attended church, is atheist, his parents do not attend church - and so on. He would not be considered for entry, ever.

We could accept an offer for a place in a poor secular school just as a matter of disappointment and general unjustness of a lottery system but the hypocrisy double standards and downright transparent stupidity of a place in a Roman Catholic, all boys' school to be made available, is just repugnant and deeply offensive - to those of faith as well as those of us who are humanist.

Parental, or child, choice. Stupid.

[brezzo]

really sorry to hear your boy didn't get a suitable offer. I would guess that he was offered St Thomas the Apostle as your third choice down was another single sex boys school and the computer programme saw this and assumed you would settle for any undersubscribed boys school.

If I were you I would get on the phone to councillor and schools on your list - people will drop out and places will become available - it won't feel like this today but things will get better

[Cora]

Not at secondary school stuff yet but interested to know where people in East Dulwich nr Goose Green end of Lordship Lane have been offered if it is not Charter or Kingsdale.....

[Ann]

I agree with Peckhamgatecrasher, places will become available. With my daughter we never got first choice but did eventually get 2nd and 3rd, although her's was the first year of the pan London admissions and trust me it didn't work!

This thread however does echo the thread from a couple of years ago when so many local parents were disappointed with primary school allocations; local schools are horrendously over-subscribed, namely Kingsdale and Charter. You will then get allocated the nearest school available completely regardless to any 'preferences' expressed. It's a lottery unless you've subscribed to a Faith, an Independent or (not available locally), a Grammar.

Mark Dodds is right, a lot of local schools are better options now than a comparitively short time ago. I remember when Charter was William Penn, Kingsdale was a no-go area and London Nautical sounds like a fantastic school now but wasn't always.

I can only hope that the Harris Academies prove to be a success, they could be fantastic schools locally in years to come. I sincerely hope so.

Added to say pupils at St Thomas the Apostle can do very well. I know for a fact ex-pupils have gained scholarships for Dulwich College and Alleyn's Sixth Forms. I've been told that the more academically able boys are well 'catered' for. This has come from staff members known to me who have nothing to gain from me, I'm an ordinary member of society, no political agenda's etc. Not meant to patronise Mark Dodds or any others. I can understand frustration at being allocated a faith school when not requested, Brezzo has made a good point; your third choice was all boys and that's what you've got.

I suspect(like Primary School) you will get the nearest school with availabilty regardless to what you asked for.

[Renata Hamvas]

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

[email protected]

02075255223

[BB100]

I'm sorry for everyone who didn't get the schools they wanted, it is a most unpleasant time. If it is any consolation there will be more spaces freed up in two weeks time when parents decide to accept their private school offers and given the number of private schools in Dulwich it should be enough, especially with it being a low-birth rate intake year. Just hang on in there...

[nunheadmum]

Renata,

I see that you (and Harris) are quoting a 90% figure for 5 GCSE's but the league tables only state 49% - can you clarify on what basis the 90% is calculated? The value added figure shows that the school is doing a good job and GCSE results aren't the be all and end all. But it would be good to be clear on what the stats are really telling us. Does the 90% relate to a percentage of those who sat the exams rather than the whole year group?

Thanks!

[Renata Hamvas]

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