Mumptious

Thank you very much for your reply. I'm still a little fuzzy as, if I'm not mistaken, and I really could be, Wandsworth criteria favours siblings over locality? Hence the practice of parents moving into the catchment of a school long enough to get one child in, then moving wherever they want to because the siblings are guaranteed to enter too. But I am happy to leave the matter here, regardless.

In answer to your question, I have two small children, and we will be placing the oldest in to primary school in 2013. To be honest with you, I find the allocation of state school places on the grounds of religion (or ethnicity) to be deeply offensive. I cannot help but see it as discrimination on factors that are completely beyond the control of the child, and which is therefore unjust. Exacerbating this, Wandsworth, due to some quirk of history, has far too many religiously selective schools already (mainly Christian though, with I think, one Muslim-selecting school). Adding another, albeit currently unrepresented, religious school only makes matters worse for Wandsworth, as I think, we should be decreasing the number of religious-selective schools in the borough, not increasing them.

We are a multi-ethnic, multi-faith society. And I believe that our state schools should, indeed must, sbe resolutely secular, while allowing spaces for our children to congregate and practice any faith, along the lines of any group identity they want, while offering a study of religions and other groups that promotes tolerance and civic inclusivity. I am aware that I am in a minority (though one which is growing, I suspect). So, with that, I hope your school succeeds in educating its pupils to the highest of standards.



Regards
chelseadad

test test

Chelseadad
Thank you for your question. In this case you have misunderstood and I will gladly clarify this specific detail in our admissions policy. Firstly the sibling admissions criteria follows the faith/open place designations (50% / 50% or 15 faith places / 15 open places) and does not sit above those designations. Therefore in the case of over-subscription (which is the issue that you are raising) i.e. more than 15 Jewish siblings or open place siblings apply in one year (both scenarios are possible) then our over subscription criteria kicks in for both faith and open places. They will be applied by Wandsworth Council in the order of preference used for other similar schools.

It is also worth considering that if we were planning to open in a predominantly Jewish area (of which there isn't one in South London), the scenario that you describe could be the case but, as the Jewish community in South London is very spread out, it is very unlikely to be so.

On a personal note I understand your scepticism. I am a parent of two children who did not qualify for any of our over subscribed voluntary-aided church primary schools. Like many parents there were no school places for our children in our neighbourhood because we didn't go to church.

Also like many parents you are probably wondering why we want to open a Jewish school and welcome such a large percentage of children through open places. I know that this is a question that I am asked regularly. I feel it is important for you to know that the amazing team behind South London Jewish Primary are not all Jewish and we represent a broad make up of socio-economic backgrounds. So fundamentally we are committed to the school reflecting the diverse community that we choose to live in and giving some of the children that need it most access to a high quality primary education.

We feel that the free school (50/50) model is our chance to open a pluralist and cross-communal learning environment for all our children.

Chelseadad - may I ask if you have small children and if you have experienced issues with getting them into schools? Would consider our school as an option for them?

Best wishes
Mumptious

Mumptious

Thank you for your reply above, it has been helpful for a sceptic of your school project, such as me. Could you clarify a point: when you wrote that, and I paraphrase, priority will be given to siblings as long as that category has space, isn't this exactly the point many of us have been making? It appears to me, and I am aware that I may have misunderstood, that siblings of religious entrants can be admitted under both the religious criteria AND the non-religious criteria, which leads us to the possibility (probability?) of a dominant religious make-up of your free school.

I am genuinely interested whether or not I have the right answer here, so I welcome any clarification you can offer.

Papinian
Firstly thank you for your long and detailed response on this matter. It is much appreciated. I am sorry if I came across as negative in anyway it was never my intention and I was simply trying to respond to the negative feeling or misinformation on what we feel is a positive and exciting time for education in Wandsworth.

My apologies also that our full and detailed admissions policy is not currently posted in full detail on the website. It is as we speak being approved by the Dept for Education and the local authority. As soon as it is complete it will be reposted to the website and I will gladly post it here for all to see. It should also shortly be available via the Wandsworth Council website and primary schools admissions brochure.

Finally my apologies if it appeared that I didn't answer the previous poster's query. Our application to the DfE was based on a 50 / 50 model and we have no plan to deviate from this. Being able to offer this model is what makes the free school process so special. In summary the schools admissions policy is simple 50% of places will go to children from the Jewish Community and 50% of non-faith places will go to children allocated by the usual local authority criteria such as distance, cared for children, etc... Priority will be given to siblings but only when available places within a category permits.

Finally on the subject of working with other schools (Jewish, non-faith and other faith) I would like to clarify that we have spent a significant amount of time working directly with a wide range of schools across the UK including Jewish schools in London, Birmingham and Glasgow (some of the top performing primary schools in the UK) where the make up of pupils is in some years 25% Jewish places and 75% non-faith places. A model of cross-communal religious tolerance is one that we are totally committed to. The amazing group of people working tirelessly to open this school are local people from a wide range of backgrounds and faiths and are committed to building a school that reflects the unique environment we enjoy here in South London.

I hope that I have clarified some of the points that you raise and that you accept my sincere apologies for any earlier confusion.
Best wishes
Mumptious

Related to the original subject, but not to the current discussion on the Jewish school: Wandsworth Council's plans for a new school on the Putney Hospital site are under threat. See this topic for more details:

http://www.nappyvalleynet.com/new-prima ... 22776.html

I have mixed views on the south London Jewish school. I am a supporter of faith schools. I think there have been many good faith school initiatives in south London. One example is St Cyprian's Greek Orthodox Primary School in Thornton Heath which gives an opportunity for the Greek and Greek Cypriot community in south London to have a school where their religion and Greek language is taught. To me, this isn't a lot different from the role the Ecole de Wix has for French speakers in Clapham.

Any new state primary school will absorb pupils that would otherwise have gone to other state or private primary schools. Assuming that the large majority of those pupils would have been going to state primary schools, places in those other state primary schools are available for other parents.

However, I am concerned by the response from Mumptious above. A poster asked a legitimate question as to whether, as regards the 50% community places, siblings of existing pupils will have priority over all others and, if so, doesn't this mean that the faith percentage will become a lot higher than 50% as siblings of pupils admitted on the faith basis will take up a portion of the 50% community places, even over non-faith applicants who live nearer the school. Rather than explain how this will work, or set out the detailed admissions rules, Mumptious asked that "we try to avoid speculating on what people believe will or will not happen with admissions". Well, if the admissions criteria were set out then we wouldn't need to speculate would we? And why aren't the admissions criteria set out on the website that Mumptious linked to?

Where I am from in Dublin, many non-Jewish children attend the only Jewish school, which is accepted by the Jewish community as otherwise they would not have the numbers to keep it open. That fosters a very open and tolerant atmosphere. I would encourage Mumptious and those involved in the south London Jewish school to look at this and other models for Jewish schools as some of those in north London have had some rather distasteful practices to say the least - one having been condemned by the courts as practising racial discrimination.

Catholic and C of E schools with no children of other faiths? Of course Jewish and Muslim children go to them too, even if they are in a minority, and most are very happy at them (and, btw, do a lot to promote tolerance and open-mindedness in those school populations).

Why shouldn't the same be true in this school?

Petal,
To answer your question yes all Jewish parents in South West London send their children to either Catholic, C of E or state primary schools. And even though state schools are not religious they still celebrate all Chritian holidays.
I agree there are not enough schools in sw London. All schools.

Why is it assumed that children what make up the 50% non-faith places will not have siblings too?

Off-topic: I heard a rumour that there is an official challenge to Belleville's Forthbridge site admissions policy. Does anyone know if this is true or not?

Carrakane & Vives09:

Those of us who complain about this religiously selective (a key point here) school are doing so because, particularly in Wandsworth, we have an over-representation of faith schools (In one part of Wandsworth 9 of the 16 schools in the vicinity select on faith). With this school particularly, as has been pointed out, the 50% places determined on Wandsworth admissions policy will mean that, before long, the schools composition will be largely determined by it's religious configuration and not the local, due to the sibling policy.

Now you may disagree with us, but those of us who object do so because we need more good schools for Wandsworth residents. This school, does little to address our problem, and in the medium term may do more harm than good. I remain opposed.

Well said carrakane! A lot of the feedback seems very negative - a school is a school and will ease the pressure on places in the area. This one seems to have a lot of energetic and positive support which can only be good all round as far as I can see!

As a local family, I am sad to read that some people think opening a faith school is discrimination. The UK is full of faith schools and there is no way around that. Where this school ends up, it will be about the LOCAL community too! Think about your local CofE school, there are many local kids in it, not just church places. This will be the same for the Jewish School.

All the groups that applied for the Free Schools worked VERY hard to make them happen. If anyone feels that their area needs more schools - put together a group and apply for a Free School! Or see if you can help out a group that is already working on a proposal! Several people involved with the Jewish School application were LOCAL residents from a variety of faiths. I would hope more people can look at the positives a new school can bring, rather than focusing on negative feelings.

You say it's inclusive but half the places are not inclusive are they. Half the places are excluding anyone who is not Jewish.

The other half will prioritise siblings (as per Wandsworth) which inevitably will mean that some will be taken by the siblings of the children that entered the school not on distance but because of their faith.

I am not against faith schools and you may write whatever statement you want on the school website but the school is not FAIRLY inclusive is it?