Primary school applications- choice or lack thereof!

[furley-yap]

Dear parents,

1) Is your child/ren due to start primary school in September 2013?

2) Do you live in the SE19, SE21 and SE26 areas (near Sydenham Hill station), where there is basically a "black hole" in terms of primary school provision- there is only one Southwark primary school, Langbourne (30 places)?

3) Would you really like for your child/ren to be accepted in these well-regarded schools but know that your chances are practically zero- Kingswood, Paxton Primary, Elm Wood, Dulwich Village Infants, Eliot Bank?

4) Does any of the above cause you some real concern?

If you answer yes to the above, then please read on.

Earlier this year, I filled in a survey form issued by Southwark Council about various local issues. One of the comments I made was my concern and dissatisfaction with the choice and availability of good primary schools in Southwark. I received the following response from Councillor Lewis Robinson (councillor of the College Ward in Southwark and Leader of the Conservative group) on 29th May:-

"You raised the important issue of local choice of primary school places in your local area. I strongly agree with this and the problem is likely to get worse over the next few years unless Southwark acts to address this problem. Early this year, I met with a group of local parents who had concerns about this issue and pressure on local places, and I raised the matter with the Council. Not surprisingly, the Council had to put extra "bulge" classes on at Langbourne Primary School to provide places for local children, who otherwise would have had to travel up to three miles to get to school.

This is not a long term solution to the problem, which I believe will involve creating permanent extra classes at local schools in Lambeth, Southwark and Lewisham primary schools in a co-ordinated manner to ensure sufficient places and choice for parents who live in the Dulwich area. I will be continuing to campaign to address this problem in the autumn and I would be more than happy to meet with you and any other parents concerned about this to discuss the matter further"

Since then we have met twice including a meeting with five other mums on 18th August. We agreed a follow-up meeting which has now been set on SATURDAY 29TH SEPTEMBER, from 10AM TILL NOON, at ST STEPHEN'S CHURCH on College Road. This is the second year that Lewis is working with parents to get the council to make more lasting and effective changes in this part of the borough.

As a parent with a child who is to start school next September, I will work with anyone who wants to help solve this problem, whether Tory, LD or Labour, so that I can fight to ensure that Matthew gets the education that we believe he deserves. A choice of one school is not a choice at all. If we can all lend our collective voice, we can be the force for change. After all, we are all taxpayers and/or "paid-up" members of society so we should be listened to by local authorities and councils who are democratically elected.

The voice of ordinary people like you and me can make a difference, so if you want to lend your voice to the cause or indeed share your own problems/insights, please do come along to the meeting, and please pass this on to anyone who you think will be interested.

One thought to leave you with- out of 198 applicants in the whole of Southwark who received NO offer of a preference of their choice, 60 came from the Dulwich area. This represents nearly A THIRD of all unsuccessful applicants, and it is strongly suspected that these 60 come overwhelmingly from College ward.

Even if your child is not due to start school till 2014 and later, if nothing is done to address the problem the lack of viable primary school choice will persist. Any questions, please don't hesitate to contact me on [email protected] on this message thread, or on 07788-273129, spread the word! And please do let me know if you can attend on 29th Sept so I can gauge numbers. Hope to meet you all soon!

Regards

Jackie

[espolea]

This is a real problem for so many people, I attended this first meeting and feel we can really make a difference if we make enough public noise!!

[furley-yap]

An update from COuncillor Robinson:-

"

I have now had a meeting with education officers at the Town Hall, which has been productive to some degree and I should be able to discuss the following with parents;

1. Primary school places for applicants next year in Dulwich

2. Primary school provision for future years In Dulwich

3. Choice of primary schools in the local area

4. What the local authority is doing and what I will be doing.

"

Reminder, meeting this Saturday 29th September, St Stephen's church, College Road, 10am till noon