Dog Kennel Hill/Charter Schools?

[EdithG]

Hello all - We need to move house soon (growing family!) and we're thinking of moving to Dog Kennel Hill, so kids can go to that school. Do people still like it as much as they used to? How close to the school would we have to go?

And looking ahead to secondary, where do we have to move to to give our kids a chance of getting into the Charter? All tips and thoughts gratefully received, thanx!

[macroban]

For The Charter in Spring 2005, if my memory serves, the catchment area was residence within 1.6km of the school gate as measured by a piece of cotton zig-zagging roads on the A-Z. The catchment area may have contracted since then. Why not phone the school?

[chuff]

I know that Charter is very popular now and there are a distinct lack of good state secondary schools around. Kingsdale always had a terrible reputation but seems to have turned things around completely and is now a local favourite too. I would think that you will need to live fairly close to either school to be in with a chance as there are many families living nearby. Dog Kennel Hill seems quite a way from the Charter School but as macroban said 'phone the school' they will probably have a map with the marked catchment area they can send you.

Then again if they bring in the lottery system then you would have as good chance as anybody else in ED!

There are still rumours that the old waverly lower school is going to be a boys secondary but who knows what sort of school it will be...

[EdithG]

Is it true that the head is leaving Dog Kennel Hill soon?

Someone said Goose Green is a good school these days - what do people think?

[Ma]

Hi, I have a son attending Charter and many of his friends live on Dog Kennel Hill, so dont worry

[chuff]

ma - that's good news, I didn't think the catchment was that large.

[Scruffy Mummy]

Yes, I've heard Goose Green primary has become quite a good school now. And it's nearer Charter School so if you live nearer Goose Green you have a better chance of getting in to Charter I guess.

A friend of mine went to visit Dog Kennel hill and was told the head is leaving soon.

I think the best thing is to go and visit these schools anyway. I think it takes a while for a schools reputation to catch up with current reality - and you don't really know unless you go and visit whether you like it or not. Or whether it would suit your kid.

[macroban]

> Yes, I've heard Goose Green primary has become quite a good school now. And it's nearer Charter School so if you live nearer Goose Green you have a better chance of getting in to Charter I guess.

It's not closer (check a map), but it's the child's place of residence, and not the primary school attended, that determines whether a child is within the catchment area.

[Huguenot]

It appears from this link that the Charter School don't so much restrict parents to a catchement area, as instead prioritise those who alrady have kids at the school, and then create a pecking order for those kids that live closest.

Hence it's not so much whether you're in the catchment area that will influence the outcome of an application, but how many kids who live closer to the school than you do want to take up places.

As a result you can't gauge your options by whether current pupils live near you...

[clare]

The pecking order for those kids that live closest is not a pecking order-it's simply those who live closest get in first. All community schools give priority to siblings -that's what contributes them to being part of a community. I think it would be a disgrace if they didn't prioritise siblings (unless of course you lie successfully about where you really live and then you should be publically humiliated and have your own monstrous headline in the SLP.)