Tooting Primary School Post Reply

[Cloud]

Thanks all. Really helpful. One more thing came to mind - did anyone else find it weird that there are some Wandsworth Council employees randomly working on the top floor?! I don't know how I feel about that, presumably they have all been CRB checked and there are appropriate safety measures in place... But I wondered whether anyone has asked the headteacher about that. Thanks.

[balhamite]

Cupcakesw12 just wondering where you saw that the nearest 4/5 schools had reception places last year? From the wandsworth brochure it looks like sellincourt, Franciscan, furzedown and penwortham were all full whereas tooting had places?

[Cupcakesw12]

Goodness, I would never post on here without doing my homework!

The information I have received regarding those primary schools not being at full capacity and which in previous years had a waiting list (Sellingcourt/Franciscan/Hillbrook/Trinity St Marys) first came from WBC and then from the schools themselves when we actually visited them.

Tooting Primary is full, which again is outstanding confidence for a school that did not have a working telephone number at the start of the term!!

On another note, did you see the Head teacher of Pimlico Free School resigned today four weeks into their first term…

[Medway]

HI Cupcake - I don't want to re-ignite the Rutherford House post - but I am interested in your comments re this school. I am still trying to get to the bottom of why the school makes me uneasy and I think you have helped me clarify my thoughts...the money does not add up. How on earth can Rutherford afford more teachers and TAs and pay them more (apparantly salaries are higher than at other WBC primaries) on the same pupil contribution as other schools? It seems too good to be true. Can I ask you why you made a swift exit from the meeting? (please feel free to PM me if you don't want to share publically...) I'd really appreciate it.

On another point it makes me upset that 5 primaries are not full at reception yet WBC approved 2 new free schools last year...again - this does not ADD UP. Money for educating our youngsters is now being spread more widely to support more schools.

[Cupcakesw12]

Hello Medway,

Happy to share on the forum, already had my knuckles wrapped for daring to suggest I wanted to send our little one to Kumon classes!!

And yes, I do not wish to re-ignite the whole Rutherford House string (what am I missing here, why has the string you started had over 2800 views in 10 days?!) so I hope by answering your question with my honest opinion/feelings, I do not get attacked again.

From my other postings, I have shared our experiences on how we have gone about trying to select a primary school for our daughter, and my husband and I have pretty much visited all the primary schools in the area to try and really get a real feel of what primary schools have to offer.

First and foremost, we want a safe nurturing environment for our little one to grow and develop and be as happy as possible. I want to be able to trust the leadership staff of the school, and this is where my issue arises. I am going to relate two separate incidents (out of many that I have become aware of) which have occurred during Rutherford open days either attended by us or our friends.

The first was an open event where our friends met the headmistress. Out of many of the questions she was asked and found difficult to answer, one was about catchment distances- now the answer they were expecting was “the standard speak” one in metres, what distance range the current entry were coming from (all headteachers will have access to this information from their present years entry, Tooting Primary did), but they were told 5-10 minutes drive (?!) from the school, a completely baffling answer and one you could see left the group quite puzzled.

The second was the open event which I mention above in which the ratios were quoted as 1:4, again baffling especially as financially it would be near impossible and we note that there have been no new recruitment ads anywhere for TAs since they appointed their first two (or maybe they are appointing internally, I know not). So we left in a hurry as we simply did not want to hear anything else that did not make sense or tally with what we had learnt from all our other visits.

We now know of at least 10 sets of parents (I have been talking to the majority of them this week) who have attended the open days and there seems to be a consensus of opinion regarding being left a little confused after their visit. Could this all be related to the intense focus on free schools and what is/has been transpiring e.g Discovery, Derby, Pimlico, free school meals stats etc, again I don’t know, but what I do know is that I have always trusted my gut and it tells me this will not be the right place for our little one because we simply do not think we can trust the leadership.

Hope that answers your question.

[LauraBrown]

To be fair to the Rutherford House staff, they were actually telling the truth about admissions distances in that it was just under 3km which might be reasonably characterised as a short drive (maybe not in rush hour!). Sounds like Tooting Primary School staff were a little less accurate in their response (500m vs 9km?).

Either way, I'm sure both schools just felt embarrassed because in Wandsworth, a tiny admissions distance is considered to be synonymous with an excellent school and therefore they were worried about people judging them on this metric. Which would obviously be unfair based on the first year of applicants!

From your remark, I'm worried I might have offended you with my comments about Kumon - sorry if I came across as narky, I didn't want to seem like I was attacking you, it's just something I feel strongly about so wanted to share my view.

[ready2pop]

Cupcakesw12 what you say about Rutherford's budgeting not adding up is interesting.

Why Bellevue education which runs 9 succesful private schools here and in Switzerland, and is apparently owned by a swiss venture capital fund with predominantly Russian investors, suddenly wants to run state schools is also a bit of a puzzle.

As well as Rutherford House they are also setting one up in Islington this year.

Now at the moment state schools cannot be run by outside companies at a profit but Michael Gove has said that if the Conservatives are elected in 2015 they would allow profit making companies to run them for a profit (i.e. they want to but can't get it past the lib dems at the moment).

So Bellevue may well feel that the free schools are a useful speculative investment.

Bit of topic I know but interesting as to what the management's aim may be.

[Cronut]

ready2pop,

you seem to be very knowledgeable...

so let me ask you, having read your post, the question comes to mind is who owns the building and could it be sold off in the future for "luxury flats"?

[Medway]

...if and when the Russian Investors at the back of the chain get fed up of waiting for UK State Education to be 'for profit'. Again I question the motivation of the Bellevue Group (not the individuals at the coalface who want to set up a good school, but the backers) - private schools fine, but State schools - what is in it for them??

V interesting that this is a hedge fund...I think those in the school now should be fine, but will be interesting to see what happens over the next few years