Southwark Primary School Admissions for Sept 2013

[GinaG3]

I will look in to Bessemer, I'm not quite sure how though. How do you apply to go on wait lists this late? Its on direct P4 route so not too bad if push comes to shove and still closer to me than Langbourne! Renata and James both already suggested Ivydale and Bessemer earlier on, my daughters best friend got in to Bessemer as their 1st preference. Would be nice if only it wasn't for distance.

[Cora]

Email southwark admissions ASAP to go on Bessemer list...at least it will be easier to get to than Langbourne and you will be in a fantastic school where your child already has a friend. Then you have back up while waiting on the other lists....would think the southwark positions are pretty unlikely but you should be much higher up on Horniman....

[Abney]

I CANNOT believe how complex this system is. WHY OH WHY if this happens every year isn't there some more guidance published on what to do next - all the questions about waiting lists. I still don't fully understand. It's great that Southwark are putting on the drop in surgery thing, but Lewisham don't offer the same service. So if you live on the border, it's even more confusing (as previous poster has mentioned).

I also feel that each time I call admissions, be it Southwark or Lewisham its a game of 'ask the right questions, get the right answers'

ITS CRAZY.

Surely some extra pages in the massive brochure on admissions would be helpful - particularly as this problem isn't going away any time soon. It's left to worried parents to come on a forum and work out what the hell is going on!

[Abney]

The other thing that worries me is that all the people who are happy with 2/3/4/5/6 choices - are they told that they have been automatically added to waiting lists? I know MOST of my friends have NO IDEA about this. They've only found out through me! So surely that would leave a lot of people on the lists? Tell me the council sends reminders for people to come OFF lists?

[Otta]

Surely as soon as people accept a place they are taken off all other waiting lists?

[Curmudgeon]

Only the ones below the place offered so if you accept 3rd choice you remain on 1st and 2nd

[Cora]

No, if they accept a place they stay on the waiting lists of those schools higher in their preference. They will be taken off a particular schools list when they are offered a place and turn it down.

[GinaG3]

Did anyone else offered Langbourne where they didn't apply just get a call about an open day?

[Otta]

Curmudgeon Wrote:

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> Only the ones below the place offered so if you

> accept 3rd choice you remain on 1st and 2nd

I suppose I can see some sense in that, but it seems to further muddy and already muddy picture!

[Abney]

Otta Wrote:

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> Curmudgeon Wrote:

> --------------------------------------------------

> -----

> > Only the ones below the place offered so if you

> > accept 3rd choice you remain on 1st and 2nd

>

>

> I suppose I can see some sense in that, but it

> seems to further muddy and already muddy picture!

Exactly!

[GinaG3]

Just had this in an email from Southwark, and they have also added me to Bessemer waiting list. Feeling a tad more confident.

'We have just had written confirmation from our colleagues in Lewisham

Admissions that Southwark residents need to inform me if they want to go

on Lewisham waiting lists, my team will then send this over to Lewisham

and they will action. I have also been informed by Lewisham that

waiting list positions will not be provided to parents until 2 May.'

I've just been emailing southwark admissions address and talking to Anita. Advise you to contact her if your in the same position as me, just to make sure everything works out as best as possible.

[GinaG3]

Should I just be logging on to Southwark now and rejecting my offer? If I forget come the deadline, they will automatically assume I want the place, right? So reject it now and hold out hope for a place somewhere else? I'm ever so confused with this one. Just know, I DO NOT want this place.

[Renata Hamvas]

Hi all, I've had clarification from Southwark about what Lewisham are doing. Lewisham will add 'out borough' children to the school waiting lists when LAs start the file exchanges on 26 April. Their waiting lists will be compiled from 2 May and these will include late applicants too. They will not give parents any waiting list information until after this date.

With regards to waiting lists and offers. On offer day everyone was offered the highest place they could be or allocated a place, and then automatically placed on the waiting lists for Southwark schools higher than the school offered. This meant for example if you had applied to 6 Southwark schools and didn't get into them, you would be put on all 6 waiting lists. If you got your second choice school, you would be on the waiting list for your first choice one. Waiting lists are generated using the same admissions criteria as in the original application process. If offered a place at a higher ranked school parents can and often do turn it down, particularly if the place comes up towards the summer holidays and beyond.

Renata

[Abney]

I had a very strict warning about 'rejecting' a place from Lewisham just now. Do it, and you're on your own was more or less what they said.

I too have no intention of sending my child to the school suggested (it's too far away) but feel like I should accept to 'stay in the system'? Not sure really.

[Renata Hamvas]

Abney, you were given this advice as by offering you a place, Lewisham have fulfilled their obligation to do so. If you turn it down, they have no obligation to find you another school place, so you could be left with no school place.

Renata

[Hillstop]

I've read on another forum that the further distance for Horniman this year was 250 metres. Not sure how far you are Gina but that might help you figure out your likely place on the waiting list.

[GinaG3]

Were 0.436 miles which according to google equates to 786 metres from Horniman. I know last year the furthest place given was 369 metres. Just going to have to see what happens I think. Such a lottery.

[midivydale]

Does anyone know what tool they use to calculate the distances between home and school?

[RobMiller]

midivydale, they use their GIS (geographical information system). We found this tool which is based on Google maps but gives you distances based on specific points (rather than general postcodes): http://www.daftlogic.com/projects-advanced-google-maps-distance-calculator.htm. Beware though, it may give a slightly different result from the GIS so you can't fully rely on the distances it gives. You also need to know where the admissions criteria measure each point from (I think that's in the booklet we got before the application deadline).

We'd echo some of the sentiment about the process, we're not happy with what we've been offered... But I have to take my hat off to Anita in the admissions team and Liam from the schools preference service. They've been amazingly fast getting back to us at what must be an incredibly busy time. Thanks too to Renata for her speedy responses to our questions.

[Emski]

midivydale Wrote:

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> Does anyone know what tool they use to calculate

> the distances between home and school?

I've tried Google maps (giving us a distance of 420m from Goodrich), freemaptools as suggested by a previous poster (417m) and daftlogic as recommended above (438m). Yet Renata says that Goodrich has offered a place to applicants 457m away. We didn't get in, so I have no idea how or where they're measuring from...

Would agree, though, that Anita and the admissions team have been great with their quick responses. I emailed earlier asking to be added to some extra waiting lists, and she replied positively within a few minutes.

(NB anyone with queries about Goose Green - it's recently become an Academy, so you need to contact them directly instead of Southwark as they're no longer a community school).

[Pickle]

Emski, the distance figure will (I think) include offers made to siblings - some of whom will live further away than "new" applicants through having moved house since other family members started at the school, or simply because the catchment used to be wider. In my children's classes at the school there are kids who live near ED station, and others that are on the Forest Hill side of the Horniman.

[Emski]

Pickle Wrote:

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> Emski, the distance figure will (I think) include

> offers made to siblings

I'm not sure, Pickle - Renata said:

"Goodrich last place distance offered was 457 metres. Heber had a last place distance offer of 263 metres."

I understand that as an offer made on distance only. Renata, can you clarify?

20-30metres currently seems to equate to 5-10 places down a waiting list, so it would be helpful if Southwark could provide the means by which parents could accurately calculate distances I think.

[simonethebeaver]

I asked for clarification of this a while back and haven't had a reply yet!

[Indiana]

http://www.walkjogrun.net/

Pickle/Emski : last place distance means non-sibling offers.

I use the above website to plot rough distances. If you click on 'create route' you can plot the distance from your house to the school gate (my understanding is they use school gate on their GIS software). It will do it as the crow flies.

It won't be exactly the same as the results from their GIS software but is pretty accurate.

[Indiana]

PS This previous thread provides more info :

http://www.eastdulwichforum.co.uk/forum/read.php?29,668055

You need to know which main gate they use as it can also make quite a difference it seems...