Belleville catchment area Post Reply

[actuallyadad]

We were amazed to see some people we know put their BTC flat on the market and move to SW17 the week after the eldest kid got into Belleville, blatantly holding off moving until he was in and the next one would be.

[actuallyadad]

Also this whole sibling preference thing is over rated. I have two kids in two different schools BTC and it's not a big deal. Ok slightly less convenient but the schools are 10 mins walk apart so it's totally do-able. It really is not absolutely necessary that your kids go to the same school. Surely parents' convenience shouldn't be the priority here.

[Wheresmyschool?]

We were amazed to see some people we know put their BTC flat on the market and move to SW17 the week after the eldest kid got into Belleville

I also know people who've done this. If you drive around the Toast Rack in the "summer fair" season there are all those houses with "support the XXX school summer fair" "for sale " boards outside the houses and I can't help but wonder "you've got a 3 million quid house and you've nicked a state school place" .

I also feel it's hard to blame people. We all do the very best for our children (tutoring, outbidding people on houses in good school catchment areas etc etc) so although I find this a particularly vulgar method I can't bring myself to blame them. If I could afford to bid more for a house in a great catchment area I would do and so let my wallet bully someone else out of a place which is also vulgar I guess.

If we had enough great schools it wouldn't be a problem!

[actuallyadad]

totally agree.

I always think those Summer Fair boards are outing catchment dodgers - the council should investigate wherever one is up!

yes I'm always amazed by the number of people with expensive cars and houses who don't send their kids privately too.

[firsttimerSW11]

I think that everyone should be entitled to a state school place irrespective of how much their house is worth or what their income is. Presumably they've paid their taxes. It's no different than Paul McCartney being entitled to a winter fuel allowance!
Either way it's entirely possible the people living in the Toastrack (the example used above) lived BTC previously and therefore are entitled to have their place.
And really, despite all the noise about HW and BV, I doubt the council is all that bothered about who lives where. What's the upside for the council itself to investigate? Zero.

[actuallyadad]

Yep I agree about house value not making you less entitled. I just mean if you could go private why wouldn't you? And if you have a 3m house you probably could afford the fees.

[abfab]

We could afford private but send our children to state schools because we believe the ones we are lucky to have BTC are as good as the private schools, and our children benefit from being part of a more diverse and representative community.

I totally disagree that private automatically = better or that people who can afford to pay shouldn't take state school places - in an ideal world, surely children would all be educated together regardless of how much money their families have?

[actuallyadad]

well each to their own of course, and I'm sure the state schools here are great, but you can't argue with the class sizes. 30 ish in state school, 17 ish in a private school. It's got to make a difference to the quality of education which I think is worth paying for if you can (.

[actuallyadad]

PS I don't think there is a realistic diversity argument either. If the catchment areas are not abused so every kid lives in a c.£1.5m+ house (or £1m flat) within 300m of the school that's hardly real diversity!

[abfab]

The state schools are actually significantly more diverse than the private ones. Yes, there are plenty of children from affluent families at Belleville and Honeywell, but my children have also had several classmates who live in social housing (there is actually quite a bit BTC, and some children from further afield join the school in later years), in care and with quite severe special needs in their classes. There are also many more children from ethnic minorities at Belleville and Honeywell than at the local private schools. Every single one of those children benefits from mixing with a genuinely diverse group and they learn at an early age that people are people whatever their differences.

I agree class size is definitely a factor, but only one. If you have well behaved children, 30 is fine. The private school kids probably get a bit more attention, the state school kids probably learn to be a bit more self-starting. Pros and cons, as you say each to their own.

[snowpea]

do people really apply from mother/uncle house etc ?

do the council check?

you hear stories but Im not sure if they are true

[juliantenniscoach]

Councils have checked and people have been disqualified in Hammersmith & Fulham but I don't know if Wandsworth have. How much checking this Council does I'm afraid I have no idea. I cannot imagine the number of people intentionally defrauding runs into double figures though for Belleville & Honeywell but perhaps I'm being naive?

[jonathan @ hamptons]

When both my girls started in reception in BV we were visited at home by their teacher, as were all the other parents so that the teachers could meet them at home before they started in school . Of course it's not an infallible system but it's a pretty good way of weeding out people who are 'living' in a one bed flat with three children, or staying with relatives.

I totally agree with the comment from abfab about the diversity in the state classes as I love the fact that our children benefit from being part of a more diverse and representative community. I don't think that it's a fair comment that state schools have a worse teacher to children ratio as BV is often used as a teacher training school and my eldest also had someone in her class with special needs, so at some points she has had four or even five teachers in her class which brings the ratio down to 6 or 7 to one.

It is patently absurd to say that if you're better off you should be expected to pay for private education - the high earners already pay more than the rest for state school, it's called tax.

Jonathan

Hamptons International
98 - 100 Northcote Road
020 7924 2170

[actuallyadad]

It's interesting to see so many state school parents say they like the fact that the classes have special needs kids/kids from council estates etc when that is exactly the kind of diversity many private school parents are paying to avoid!

[actuallyadad]

Simple test - look at the number of kids dropped off by car. Unless they have a disability, any kid driven to school probably lives outside the catchment area.