Help... need school recommendations

[Bobbaz]

I am in the process of completing my Son's school application form and whilst I have always known what school I wanted him to get into (and moved house to one nearby a couple of years ago) I now need recommendations for other good schools in the area to add to list just in case he doesn't get our 1st choice. (We live near to Goose Green so something not too far away would be ideal). Any suggestions would be massively appreciated!

[mrs.lotte]

Primary or secondary?

If primary then I anticipate that you have been following the threads on the subject. We too live near Goose Green and our boy did not get into st john's, dkh, heber or goodrich (the latter 2 by some considerable margin). On reflection Goodrich was a wasted choice as it was patently too far away.

The furthest child away to get into st john's was less than 300metres from the school.

We had a miserable few months before being allocated Goose Green in the second round; so far (only 4 days!!) that's going really well. It was important for us that our son went to a local school and the walking to school buzz is superb.

I think they are changing the process this year allowing 6 choices. Fushia summed it up perfectly in an earlier thread; apply to your nearest school, if you put down schools that you understand to be good but have no chance of getting in to you will probably be allocated a school which is undersubscibed on the other side of the borough

If it's secondary that you are looking for - sorry for wasting your time!!

Good luck either way

[Coach Beth]

I agree with Mrs. Lotte - don't make the mistake that many parents this year made of putting down only very oversubscribed schools - with the baby boom and lack of primary school places, many were allocated schools several bus rides away. What happens is that if you don't put your nearest community school on your list, then you lose out to parents who did put that school on their list - even if they put it at number four. We live near Goose Green too and put Goose Green School down on the list although it wasn't our 1st choice. But as it is our nearest community school, I put it on. (as a church School, St. John's doesn't count as your nearest community school). I'm very glad we did as my friends had tales of woe at being offered schools near Queens Road Peckham and near the Old Kent Road!!!! Anyway, it's all working out fine - the school is working hard to turn around and the reception teachers are lovely AND are experienced teachers (one of the benefits of being in Special Measures is that they can't hire inexperienced teachers) My boy is with several friends from nursery and they are all settling in fine.

Good luck!

[Fuschia]

Also, use all your choices. Only putting down one or two won't give you any more priority for those schools... and you may end up just being allocated the nearest school that has spaces.

[sillywoman]

Mrs Lotte summed up the situation re primary applications perfectly, but I can't agree about secondary schools. Mine are at The Charter and have friends there who come from the area around Goose Green (we don't live very far from you ourselves), My friends daughter lives the other side of Peckham Rye and has just begun at Kingsdale with many of her ex classmates. So if it's secondary you're after, apply for both, or either. you'll definitely not be wasting your time.

[Wiz]

Our daughter didn't get into any of our 4 choices. Our closest school is St John's (we are 400m away) but our other choices were also sensible. Saying that, we were offered a place at Bessemer Grange which is 20 minuetes walk from our house. Our daughter has now had 4 days at the school and is really enjoying it. The classes are small which is great and I have to say I have been extremely impressed by the school so far. The communication from the school since the place was offered has been excellent and the head of early years is very pro active. The school has currently had a great deal of money invested in it and is having a childrens centre being built on to it at the moment. It is definitely worth taking a look at.

[Coach Beth]

That's great Wiz! I've heard many positive things about Bessemer Grange and if our boy didn't get into Goose Green, that would have been definately on our list of schools. For parents worried about admissions for next year, the best thing to do is look around the school and talk to parents who are already there. Also look to see if there is a PTA presence - however small it might be. I went to the PTA coffee morning this week at Goose Green and it was great to see a diverse range of parents getting involved. To me, that's more important than any Ofted report!!! I also recommend that parents make contact with each other through the forum - GG parents who use this forum going into reception formed a group over the summer, meeting up in the playground on the weekends so when our children started reception, they had some friends already. And we parents knew each other as well.

[Ann]

It's so nice to hear your children are settling in so well. I know many of you didn't get your preferred schools but it has prooved things are not always as bad as you think. I hope some of the parents with younger children find encouragement from your positive attitude.

[CT Wac]

Just wanted to mention that its not just that kids are not getting into 'top'/ preferred schools. There is a real shortage of places, and kids are not getting to go to 'local' schools, leaving them frozen out of their community. Please dont undermine our community by suggesting that its just snobby parents making irrational choices.

[Bobbaz]

Thanks everyone for your comments, some really useful advice and tips which is greatly appreciated!

From the sound of things Bessemer Grange is looking good, any other suggestions are greatly appreciated.

Also does anyone know if there is anywhere you can look to find school open days at all or would I just

be better off just calling direct and making an appointment (or using the PTA as suggested by Coach Beth)?

[mrs.lotte]

Schools do have open days but you can also call to make an appointment. Talking to parents who have children at the school who are also involved with the pta would, imo, be a very useful guide; possibly more so than ofsted or sats.

CT Wac; I do understand the concern of 2010 parents; it's all still raw for me but if your comments relate to my post then I can assure you that I am not in any way seeking to undermine our community; far from it, we chose a local school in Special Measures over a very well regarded private school precisely because we want to support our community. The message I and I think other posters (not speaking for them just my interpretation) are trying to convey is; if you want a local school; put down your nearest school and/or one of the traditionally less popular local schools. I didn't put GG or BG down and was initially allocated a school outside our community; i didnt even bother to look at GG never mind put it down on my list, I wish I had it would have saved me a lot of heartache and I hope that by sharing that experience it saves someone else a similar fate.

[craigy]

I am sure this question has been answered on other threads so apologies if this is repetition but regarding St John's- if it is not a community school and but it is your nearest how are the places there allocated? I am aware that they have 35 faith places and 25 non faith so how are the non faith places allocated then?

[mrs.lotte]

The admission criteria is on their website but basically the church places are prioritised, of the remaining 25 places, 2 are ring fenced for hearing impaired children then looked after children, special education needs (not sure what order), siblings (siblings made up a third of the intake this year) then, finally - proximity to school. If it is your nearest school then you would be prioritised over someone who lived closer to the school but it wasnt their nearest school e.g if they lived closer to st j than you but closer to Goose Green than st.john"s

[Wiz]

Hi

We live 400m from St John's and didn't get in. We applied for an open place. For 2009/2010 entry they only allocated something like 25 church places. 34 open places were offered and 23 places went to siblings (the highest ever). The school gave me this information when I asked. In terms of distance from the school, which is the next criteria after church places, siblings and special needs, the furthest place they were able to offer from the school was 291m!

Any way, we ended up with Bessemer Grange (not one of our choices) and we love it - see my post above.