Campaign to open another bilingual stream at Wix Post Reply

[St Ockwell]

Hello All,

I am totally behind enlarging the bilingual intake of Wix school as my child has been on the waiting list for a bilingual place for 4 years and we kept getting queue barged by folks moving in closer to the school then us. It has felt very unfair that the queue isn't really a queue and has led to a lot of frustration and heartache.
Sadly Wandsworth council have been very un organised and keep moving the goal posts but this year only siblings got in and that doesn't include being a sibling of a child in the Lycée annexe at Wix. We gave up in the end and moved our child into the French lycée (which is also over subscribed but doesn't depend on distance, but on the child having french nationality) and by that forfeited our younger child's options at Wix even though he is in the nursery there he hasn't even been given a place in the classic stream, let alone the bilingual stream. Even though his sibling was in the classic stream for 3 previous years and is still in the same building! So wix cannot even accommodate it's own nursery children with siblings on the premises, which is what really gets my goat. Yet they have had 4 open days to promote the school!
Wix Primary/Annexe de Wix/Wandsworth Council seem to be a bit confused as to whether they are 3 separate schools, 2 schools or 1 school with 3 streams: The French Lycée has committed to taking all the council bilingual children into their secondary school (dependant on passing a test), but Wandsworth council aren't prepared to count siblings from the Lycée. Not very reciprocal! Unless the French Lycée is able to find new premises for another secondary school in south London they will be hard pushed to accommodate all the bilingual children from Wix let alone Shaftesbury.
I also agree that bilingual schooling in primary is key as it's when children easily learn another language and if a child can speak/read/write fluently in another language by the end of primary school then 2 or 3 hours a week of that 2nd language in secondary school will be sufficient to keep it alive and well in the childs brain. So therefore not opening more bilingual primary school places because there isn't enough secondary school places isn't really an excuse. And anyway, there aren't enough secondary schools in London, let alone bilingual ones!
Allegedly it is all to do with premises/funding so the more people who write in to Wandsworth council the better! Maybe try to write and phone Andrew Blakely (ablakely@wandsworth.gov.uk) who is responsible for the bilingual list at Wandsworth council as well as Councillor Jonathan Cook.
Pass it on!

[livegreen]

I am now confused.

Is the Fench Lycee a private French school for French nationals only ?
Is it paid for/subsidised by French Government?
does it at both primary and secondary focus on the national French Curriculum ?
I ask as we appear to have a shortage of good state primary school places in our area at present and I am not sure whether this offers a solution to most parents or just a subset of French Nationals.

I support the idea of bilingual streams in primary schools But would be concerned if this was being aimed at French Nationals and was not open to all residents of Wandsworth regardless of nationality.

Could you let us all know as this is not clear.

[kiwimummy]

There are 2 schools in Wix, and a class provided in partnership between the two schools.

1. Wix School - English language tuition provided by the Council.
2. Lycée - Fee paying school, not solely for French nationals but due to pressure of demand, this frequently ends up being the case.
3. Bilingual class - offered in partnership by the two schools - 14 places reserved for children from the Lycee, 14 places reserved for children from Wix School.

For the 14 places reserved for Wix School, admissions is through Wandsworth Council. There is accordingly no nationality or French language ability required.

[Scotland]

In response to the comments about Wix English side (Classic, its called), the senior management team have taken very seriously the comments from the last Ofsted report (2009) "Fewer gain the highest available level in maths than in English”. There are now targeted booster classes in place for both lower and higher ability children, particularly in KS2. The results of this can be seen in the last KS2 exams where in maths half the class got the high level 5 grade making it in the top 20% in the country. This year a few children will even sit level 6.
The first bilingual class has not yet reached KS2 exams (Yr6) so their attainment has not yet been published. But I can say that in the French national exams at the end of YR3 and the English one at the end of Yr2 they did well above average in both. A remarkable achievement, given they do only half the week in each language. I should also point out that the Lycee doesn’t stream children at all, either in the bilingual stream or the French classic.
Can I emphasize that it is the same English teaching (same management, same standards, movement of teachers between the streams etc) across both streams of English Classic and Bilingual. So if you consider the English standard high in the bilingual stream then its at least as high in the Classic stream. Indeed in the early years, the Classic stream will be ahead of the Bilingual as the bilingual children don’t do formal reading or much writing till Yr1. That said by the end of KS1 they have largely caught up with the Classic stream – both streams demonstrating excellent results.
So this may lead you to conclude that the difference between the streams is not so much to do with teaching and results but perception. As Governors we are very ambitious for the whole of Wix school. We are also aware we need to do more to publish the improved results at Wix, help improve perception and are in the process of updating our website. Hope this helps. Sorry if I don’t reply quickly but my 4th child is only 3 months!

[emben12]

St Ockwell - do you mind me asking how far away from the school you live? I thought the catchment area for the classic stream was quite big.

Scotland - thank you very much for taking the time to respond. It is very much appreciated and encouraging to hear that senior management are working to resolve the issues highlighted in the ofsted report. I'm very impressed you found the time to respond at all with four children!!

[kiwimummy]

Another vote of thanks for Scotland for replying to those questions, it's reassuring to know the governors and teachers have been focussing on those issues and getting results.

[mumble]

Tcat distance places are offered for the classic school is around 1.5km I think.
The lycee is a private school with no relationship to Wandsworth council so I think it is unlikely they will start offering sibling places, it is akin to attending school in Dunstable as far as the council is concerned.

I am amazed there is so much movement for a class with 14 places I guess some of it will be children attending the lycee if a place comes up there.

[mumble]

Out of interest how are places offered around Clapham common? Can you go across it or do you have to go round?

In terms of opening a further stream I'm sure the whole school could go bilingual and there would still be unmet demand!! I to would say forget about waiting for places in South Ken who knows what will happen between reception and secondary school, it seems to be just avoiding the issue TBH the council doesn't seem to worry quite so much about the huge numbers of Wandsworth children forced to go out of borough for secondary school or the even larger number who don't get the school of their choice.

[emben12]

I believe that previously you had to go around the common via lit roads. However, apparently that is changing this year and now distances will be measured as the crow flies.

I did receive a response from Jonathan Cook as well. He said the school and council are well aware of the demand for another bilingual stream. However, the main argument against did seem to be the lack of space for the Kensington Lycee to accommodate these extra children at secondary level. I agree with Mumble that there are many other issues regarding secondary accommodation in Wandsworth so it seems to be a strange argument against another bilingual stream. I'd say lets push to open another bilingual stream and worry about that at a later date.

I'm not sure where we go from here......

[mumble]

I guess first person to ask would be Scotland (the poster not the country!) I know there was some talk of Wix taking over the site that Belleville has just started using. I'm under the impression that was stymied by the council but I'm not sure I ever heard why.
......
After that I'm not sure if the school is going to open the places then it needs to come from current parents, if what I think above is right then it looks like the council isn't really interested in doing so.
I assume since lack of funding has been mentioned that bilingual places are more expensive than others!?

[littlebalckbear]

I echo other's thanks to Scotland for taking time to respond in the way that you have (especially with the constraints on your time!). It's unusual for prospective parents to have this type of dialogue with school Governors - it is very much appreciated. I look forward to the update of the website in due course.

I wrote to the Council about 2012 offer distances for the Classic stream;

'the furthest child (non sibling) currently holding an offer of a place in the Classic stream at Wix Primary School for reception 2012 lives 757 metres from the school. This distance could increase if we receive declines and make further offers.'

I am sure this distance will increase but nonetheless it does represents quite a shift from last year when first round offers where made to applications living 1,764 metres away. So perhaps there is a growing awareness of the improved results at Wix?

UB

[mumble]

I'd say that distance is about right 1.7m is larger than I remember it being, however I've posted recently about another school having an initial distance this year that would have given us a place whereas a short while ago we were still on the W/L in year 1!!

So I guess I'm saying that for some schools distances are getting larger maybe the effect of fewer children and more places is finally coming through.

[littlebalckbear]

Sorry mumble, I am not following your point. Wix's distances have got smaller not larger.

[mumble]

I can only speak from experience and an overfull memory. The 1.7 distance in the Wandsworth brochure is the final distance the 700 something you are talking about is initial distance, from my memory high 700s seems about usual for initial distance and I think a few years ago the final distance was about 1.4 or 1.5 so the distance is going up.
But there are other schools my memory tells me where the distance is going up which I presume is the effect of more places and a steadying off of the birthrate.

[littlebalckbear]

My memory is not great either so for the record I've looked up the distances. Initial offer first, final offer in brackets.

2012 _ 757 (TBC)
2011 _ 1,764 (1,778)
2010 _ 1406 (1689)

I am sure the final offer distance for 2012 will increase but it is noteworthy that the initial offer distance is significantly lower than in the previous two years.