Tyrrell Road..is this in the school black hole?

[prdarling]

Thinking of moving house to Tyrrell Road and wondering if I'd be in trouble for a school place?? Any residents have experince they can share. Thx

[toast]

Not a black hole. You would have no trouble getting into Rye Oak or Goose Green both less than half a mile away.

[mrs.lotte]

However you would not get into Goose Green (or at least not in first round of offers) unless you actually put it on your list. It is currently oversubscribed i.e 2 full reception classes and a waiting list. Don't make the mistake of thinking that if you dont get into heber/goodrich/st anthony's/dulwich village etc then you will get goose green - you won't, it will be Camelot or John Donne or Peckham Park or suchlike.

I have observed children travelling to Goose Green from Camberwell, Nunhead and beyond, walking past children who live in ED and are on waiting list and that is because they put it down as a choice in the first place!

[Fuschia]

Put your closest school down, yes. You will have priority for that school over and above other families for who it is not their nearest school. It seems this year places went to families for whom a school was their closest Southwark school, and rarely to families just on distance.

[Coach Beth]

Fushia - well said. The distance is a very, very rough guideline and just changes every year depending on the intake. This year for example, St. John's accepted no one who was outside 200 metres for instance - two years ago, a friend of mine child got in (not on either a church nor a sibling place either) who lived 700 metres away. The best thing is to put your closest Southwark state school somewhere on your list - even if it's number 4. Otherwise, you might end up at a school very far indeed as Mrs. Lotte said.

[Fuschia]

Rye Oak looks to be a nice school.

Actually, I'd be careful about movong within the central ED area, where you are closest to Heber, say, but not close enough! That's where the "black hole" will be... where you are more than, say, 500m from your closest (and very oversubscribed!) school. If you are within a few hundred metres of ANY school, and you put it down, you should be guaranteed a local place, which is the issue atm. This will be all the better for the larger schools, or those that haven't been that popular. You can put in a FOI request to the council if a school can't tell you how their nursery and reception places were allocated last year.

[toast]

Hope it does not put you off the area,

I'm feeling much more optimistic about school places now and hoping this crisis will give local schools a real boost!

Less popular schools they should improve really quickly with help (the council really needs these schools to improve fast due to the shortage of local places). The intake of these schools should become more representative of the area as people will have no choice but to send their kids there and this should in turn encourage people to send their kids there. Just don't do what a lot of people did and not put down any of the less popular schools leaving them a very long commute to a school they didnt choose!

[The Nappy Lady]

Well said Toast. If we all support our local schools we should soon see vast improvements.

[prdarling]

Not put off Toast, already here in Ryedale, just looking for more space. Want to stay around here, so Goodrich or Heber - this side of ED. Not sure what happens if I put Goodrich first and then actually wind up closer to Heber? God it's a headache.

[Wiz]

We live in Crystal Palace Road, just round the corner from Tyrell Road. We didn't get any of our schools choices for our daugher who started reception a few weeks ago (and we put close choices). We were given Bessemer Grange (behind Sainsbury's). To be honest, I had never even heard of it but we have been more than pleased with it so far. The classes are small and really well run. The head of early years is incredibly pro-active and the school is currently having a ?5m childrens centre being built on to it. I would definitely say it is at least worth a visit. It takes us 20 minutes to walk there so really not that out of the way.