Belleville catchment area Post Reply

[Mrs Doubtfire]

http://www.nappyvalleynet.com/mums/view ... 220#p71220

According to other thread 274m catchment.

[FrenchMummyInLondon]

Salcott road too here! (between Northcote and Webbs)
And my daughter is in too!

[danijeanne]

Vhopeful - we live in Ashness and got a place, we are Webbs road end. However friend on Grandison got offer too.

[DidNotGetCaught]

Per Wandsworth Council the April 17th (2013) distance to Bellville was 274m and Honeywell was 232m.

attached is the map with both catchment areas indicated

NappyCatchment.jpg (92.3 KiB) Viewed 5033 times

[KatherineHepburn]

I assume that these distances will increase substantially by September though? That is a tiny catchment. Although I don't doubt that it covers a heck of a lot of kids. Our street is nearly all families.

[DidNotGetCaught]

Sadly, I would not count on big increases to these distances. As a circle's area increases with the square of its radius, a 50% increase in coverage area by September (and that seems overly optimistic) equates to only another 50 meters or so.

[WandsworthResident]

DidNotGetCaught - is that map available on the Wandsworth website? Could you post a link if so, please?

Thanks!

[DidNotGetCaught]

No, it's not from the council website. I made it using Google maps and the radius data that they provided on the phone this morning. Google maps does not normally have a circle tool but I found one at http://obeattie.github.com/gmaps-radius/

[WandsworthResident]

Thanks - very helpful! The council should produce something like that - shows just how hard it is to get in as even just a few metres decrease in catchment takes in a huge number of houses.

Your map also shows the irony of eg living on the corner of Grandison and Chatto = no school. But live on the corner of Leathwaite and Chatto (a matter of metres) and you are in catchment for both Honeywell and Belleville!

If helpful although Belleville was 402m on first offer last year, it moved in the end to 469m. Honeywell was 366m and moved to 450m. Clearly there is a big reduction in first offer distance this year, but it WILL move a bit.

[Mrs Doubtfire]

For Belleville a (realistic?) 25% bigger catchment area by September represents an increase in distance of 32m. Not a lot...

120 places / 276 meters ...so a sibling or applicant every 2.3 meters?

System is broken. Would be interested to know furthest distance for sibling accepted and would argue there should be a cap on that distance.

[FrenchMummyInLondon]

Wandsworth resident, can I point out that those "fake" circles not fixed catchments but just a representation of the admission results?

You dont have two schools if you are at the crossing of Leathwaite and Chatto... You are only accepted in one school. In reality, the catchment is not a circle but points from where the children live to the school - the circle in only a represenation of the distance of the child that live the furthest from the school that got a place.
For exemple, if someone living in the "middle" accepted a place a Howneywell, it probably increase the "circle" of Belleville.

Hope that what I am trying to say make sense It dont find myself very clear...

Also you are comparing last year "catchment" and this year, but there are not comparable at all due to the change in the measurement
I am curious to see if the "catchment" really reduce... probably some got a chance to get in and some lost the oppportunity...

[WandsworthResident]

Yes of course I understand that you don't get two places, but on the rough basis of current offers, if you live in certain roads you have your pick of places at the point that you apply. Other people only metres away from these prime roads will currently not have an offer from either school, both of which they live no more than 300m from. Obviously the actual catchment area is a wiggly line not a circle but it still demonstrates that there is a point beyond which you can't expect to get a place in the first round for a child who is not a sibling.

The change from as the crow flies to straight line will have made a difference to a number of people undoubtedly - some who would have got in last year now won't have and vice versa. Without knowing the exact distance for every applicant from their front door to their nearest gate you won't be able to be exact, in the same way that the difference in sibling numbers from year to year changes things.

So this rough measure is all you have to go on, and it's still worth noting that things moved last year, and continue to move within the school year as people often move away.

[papinian]

(1) PRIORITY AREAS NEEDED

Priority areas are needed to sort out the Between the Commons primary school farce. If priority areas can be used in other parts of the borough there is no reason that they cannot be used Between the Commons. This would mean that those living in the priority area would get preference over siblings living outside of the priority area.

There was a consultation on this which recommended priority areas for Belleville:
http://www.wandsworth.gov.uk/info/10000 ... ltations/6
which was approved by Wandsworth Council.

The response from Belleville was to obtain academy status so that it can set its own admission policy and it is clear that it has no interest in changing it from what it currently is. After all, those with the greatest voice at Belleville are the existing parents, many of whom would be adversely effected as they are now living outside the priority area.

However, the consultation said that only about 25 places (not sure if out of 90 or out of 120) at Belleville are being taken by siblings that live further away than the nearest non-sibling. If those 25 siblings lost their preference a few would be reabsorbed anyway by the extension of the cut-off distance. Maybe 20 places would be freed up, but that is not a lot is it?

(2) WHY NOT HIGH VIEW, FALCONBROOK OR ALDERBROOK?

I am at the other end of the borough so I don't know these schools except for Alderbrook but can they really be so bad compared to Belleville and Honeywell?

The most recent Ofsted reports for each of these three schools give a positive, albeit not glowing, picture of them - generally "good" with some room for improvement.

The problem I think is that none of these three schools are Between the Commons but are all seen as been in "outside", almost foreign, areas that most of those living Between the Commons would never pass through otherwise. In the case of High View and Falconbrook they are literally "on the wrong side of the rail tracks". Living Between the Commons so much of social life relates to primary age children. I doubt that fathers at Falconbrook are going to be setting up a micro-brewery together like the fathers at Belleville.

Being in a faith community I am conscious of how it helps bring together people from different social and economic backgrounds - it gives us something in common. Unfortunately, I don't think that Between the Commons has that.

[KatherineHepburn]

I really don't have an issue with the sibling policy.
It is nice for siblings to attend the same school and much easier for the parents who need to drop them all off at 9am.
The big discussion seems to be the 'horror' that families might dare move out of the 300m catchment zone before all of their children have started to attend the school. This is daft - people move for a variety of reasons. Sometimes they have no choice and the house prices here literally force people out.
Imagine if you moved up to Canford/Bowood Roads area...you are still between the Commons but are you expected to take the older sibling out of their school and move to a school much further away just so you can take them all together?
I loved having my older sister at the same school when we were growing up and we moved a few times during those years. It gave us stability and comfort.
Changing the sibling policy would be a poor move.

[Mrs Doubtfire]

I agree siblings should have priority but cap distance to for example 1,000m. People gaming the system and moving in over application period to subsequently move far far away (not sure how common this is though) should not have sibling priority, or indeed be able to keep the children in the school.

Some school require you to stay within catchment throughout your time at the school which to me seems sensible.