Proposed change to school admission arrangements Post Reply

[littlebalckbear]

I had no idea that Wandsworth are considering changing the admissions arrangements for schools to a 'as the crow files' measurement (rather than the current shortest walking distance along roads that have street lighting). The public consultation closed on 3 February so it's too late to have your say.

I just wondered if anyone knows when the outcome of the consultation will be know? If the changes are approved they will come into effect at the start of the 2013/14 academic year.

http://www.wandsworth.gov.uk/admissionconsultation

[kiwimummy]

oh fabulous! the year our daughter starts school, when we will be living in the house we bought based on the old method of calculation.

i didn't see this consultation anywhere, and i read the wandsworth guardian from time to time - surely it should have been in there?

[dancing_queen59]

Does this mean that people further away will get more chance although people still living closest to the school will still get the better chance irrelevant of how it is measured.

[OoloK]

To be fair when we visited school earlier this year, headmasters were talking as if it was a done deal.... I know it doesn't help, but I had the feeling that answers to the consultation were not going to change the outcome....

So stressing for everybody this primary school issue!!

[AbbevilleMummy]

Am I being thick, or does it not really make much difference?

Surely, if you could get into a school under the current rules, then you are bound to still be extremely close as the crow flies? So the same children get in regardless?

So you will still need to live on the doorstep of the school, its just the number of meters is going to get a lot smaller, right? it's going to be like 200m from Honeywell or something?

Or am I missing something?

[supergirl]

I agree with abbevillemummy

[OoloK]

It probably won't make a huge difference between the common, but it will for people leaving the other side of a park which has no roads and where the current calculation will have to go around the park/common or for people leaving the other side of a rail way. It will also make a difference in areas such as southfields. One of the best school is on a straight road with no off roads, currently missing one big residential area... I would expect the already super tiny catchment area to shrink even more...

[littlebalckbear]

I think it won't make a different in the majority of cases but presumably it must make some difference somewhere otherwise the Council would not have had to do a public consultation?

As OoloK says, I can see how it will benefit people who live physically close to a school but because of road layouts, parks, train lines etc the route with street lighting is convoluted meaning they don't get a place. Under the new arrangements these people are more likely to get a place, thereby knocking someone else off the list who would have got in based on the walking route.

I agree that overall it won't make a huge difference in certain areas and I can certainly understand kiwimummy's frustration at a change in system just before your child starts school...

[kiwimummy]

It definitely affects us. We will have more competition for the same places, and I'm really not pleased.

[secondtimer]

It's been said time and time again, but until the sibling rule is changed we will have an ongoing catchment congestion system in our primaries.

Several of my son's reception class moved house before we had even gotten to the autumn half term because the parents knew the younger siblings would now have priority status. The ironic thing is that many didn't even move that far... Just back to their homes 500-600 metres away!

The crow flies rule stops individuals being unfairly disadvantaged by the commons etc. however the sibling rule disadvantages most if us bar the landlords. a community school should be a community school.. End of!

Rant complete!

[dandelion53]

How is it a community school if your siblings aren't at the same school as you?! That would be dreadful.

What about the family that hasn't moved but the catchment shrank in the couple of years between siblings. Or a family who genuinely outgrew their house and needed to move, or had to move due to finances, within the community but not within the catchment.

Of course siblings should be prioritised to go to school together.
People cheating the applications process with temporary rentals could be tactled in a different way but removing the sibling policy would be really unfair. Most people don't cheat so why knee-jerk remove something that makes sure families all get to go to school together?!

[tgjmummy]

I agree that it is important siblings go to the same school, however with 60+ of the 90 reception places at Honeywell being taken by siblings via the priority rule I think it is important that children who genuinely live on the school's doorstep are not losing out just because some people can afford and choose to rent temporariliy then move back to their family home. I wonder if some sort of priority area for siblings could work. I agree this would need to be wider than the usual catchment but until something is done to make renting less of a attractive option landlord and estate agents will just keep taking advantage.

[kiwimummy]

Agree the temp rentals are really impacting on people who are local.

The people we bought our house from had 2 kids in one of the very sought after schools between the Commons. We could not figure out how they did it as we are well outside any possible catchment zone and there's no way we'd ever qualify (it's not the school we want anyway).

Then it was explained how they'd taken a short lease in the local area when the first kid applied - all the while having our property which they owned.

[gcatuk]

I find that the real issue here is not the admissions process per say, but the amount of places and the amount of good schools. No matter how many times the admissions process is re-hashed it still remains that there are less places in desirable schools than pupils wanting to be admitted. So, in that sense, I think it would be fairer for the council to spend time addressing that issue and ensuring that there are good schools everywhere and spaces for all the pupils inthe area. That way people would not have to spend years, time and money trying to beat the system to get admitted.

It's only natural that we all want our children to have the best possible education and that we try everything within legal reach to get them to the good schools, specially if they are a stonethrow away from our houses. So I understand those families that decide to rent a few yards closer to the school just to get admitted. In their minds, they live in the catchment area, and pay the same taxes as everyone else and therefore feel entitled to a place. They have the means and they use them. Who wouldn't?

Maybe if Wandsworth counlcil spent all the time and effort they have on changing the admissions rules on improving schools and amount of places available, the whole admissions process would not be such an issue.

I do have to say that the crow's fly method seems fairer, but for all those who have spent the last few years trying to secure a place by ensuring they meet the old method criteria, the goalpost has been moved and it's no wonder they are upset. I would be too.

[MGMidget]

I get the impression there is a London-wide move towards straight line distance calculations?