andanotherthing

Curmudgeon you say: "Historically being offered in the first round is as good an indicator as any that you are within the catchment of a specific school How do you think parents glean the information when the school says both it has no catchment and that the greatest distance was 2000 metres" Don't parents look at what the school's policy actually says - i.e. that they calculate by 'safe walking distance'? And then you ask yourself where you live, given safe walking distances, in relation to the past greatest distance? And surely being historically offered in the first round isn't any sort of indication of being in within the catchment when the school says it has no catchment and applies 'safe walking distance'. I suppose that if you're really unclear you'd ask the school what map it used before you relied on Bing (and then I guess you'd be pretty confused if they told you they used a map that was based on driving routes not walking routes; you'd be pretty uncertain about what your legitimate expectation or choice really amounted to in light of the school's publicly stated policy). I'd not personally rely on DirectGov schoolfinder unless I could be sure that its map was also based on 'safe walking distance' rather than 'straight line', which is what lots of maps (and estate agents!!) use - but perhaps I'm odd in that respect. Sorry - I don't have kids and I haven't been through the psychological torment of secondary school admissions. I'm just a near-neighbour of the school. I've no idea where Heber School is or why its postcode would be relevant. Not being picky - just can't respond without another google effort! Over and out.

I've been following this thread with interest. I live within a snowball's distance of the school (actually a bit further than a snowball but within a couple of hundred metres). I was among the many people who signed a letter in support of the campaign, even though if I had kids it would be extraordinarily unlikely that they wouldn't get in based either on 'safe walking route', 'driving distance' or 'straight line'. I signed the letter in support of the campaign because it seemed to me that the way that the stated admissions policy was being applied made for a school that isn't really a 'community' school. And that saddened me, because I had previously been really impressed that the nearest secondary school to my home, in such a mixed community, housing-wise I mean, came out as OFSTED 'outstanding'. I liked the idea that the school was somehow part of the glue for that community; making it an 'outstanding community'! Anyway, it turns out that not only was I idealistic, but also plain wrong - because it wasn't consistently a school for the whole community; it was often a sort of doughnut-shaped community because of the effect of the Wanley Road exclusion. And another thing.... I'm having trouble understanding the rationale for the argument of parents who say that their choice has been retrospectively removed, or that their understanding that they had a reasonable or good chance of their kids getting into Charter has been (unfairly?) shown to be wrong - thwarted I suppose. I had a bit of a google, and there's nothing on the internet that I could find to hint at the fact that the school wasn't applying its stated policy - aside from one post by James Barber in October last year. So any expectation that your kids might get in *because* you sort of had a 0.7km jump-start over kids relying on a Wanley Road route to school would be based on chatting to other parents, scouring back-issues of local newspapers and so on. In other words, it would be an expectation based on rather untransparent sources of information. Sources of information that wouldn't be available to everyone equally, but only to people who had some sort of inside track within the community. Or did anyone ever get the school itself to confirm, publicly or not, but formally and *in advance*, that it wouldn't be allowing Wanley Road for the year in question? I might be wrong, but I don't think the school's been prepared to do that and has remained silent, simply relying on appeals to deal with any complaints that arise subsequently. De facto what is being defended, it seems to me (at least without further information which I can't find on this thread), is that some parents had a legitimate expectation that the school would continue to apply a fair policy unfairly. i.e.: "It's not fair that the school can't continue to behave unfairly. We had an expectation that they would continue to be unfair; we had an expectation that there would continue to be a difference between what the school says and what they do and that they would fail to incorporate the results of successive successful appeals into their administration of their policy"... I'm not sure it's very fair to claim a legitimate expectation based on the unfair application of a perfectly permissible and fair policy... Surely the only really legitimate expectation for parental choice is that the school, a public body (notwitstanding its Academy status), will apply its own publicly stated policy?

Those events are on Saturday not Friday

I just found out completely by chance that this has been cancelled as I was searching for the start time on the internet. I read the advert in Southwark Life and liked the sound of 'The Colour Thief': it somehow felt like it might make the thing much more creative and festive than the usual sort of November 5th event. I didn't think I was being a sucker for political correctness - just a sucker for a good free festival within walking distance. I guess whoever led the lobbying for it to be cancelled didn't feel any sense of responsibility to all the people who'd read the original announcement - many of whom will no doubt show up on the night and be disappointed. Anway, does anyone have any alternative suggestions for a blind date this Friday now some Councillors have put out the fireworks?

I'm loving the new system; don't give a damn what colour the bin is; and would like to pass congratulations to the Council for improving the waste collection system at a time of cutbacks. I'm loving not having to put bins out twice a week; loving being able to recycle food waste including non-compostables like meat and cooked food; and loving that I only have to worry once a week instead of twice a week about advertising I'm not at home because of the bins dumped on the footpath to my front door). I am not loving, however, the decision to cancel the fireworks in Dulwich Park (which is why I've registered for this forum).