Comments on: One in 10 parents not getting first choice primary school – study

By: lesley

lesley — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 09:29:49 +0000

This is just a shortened version of the plight of my 11yr old grandson Charlie. He is the youngest of 3 brothers, all of them having done well at primary school, all reaching level 5s in sats etc., my daughter managed to get the eldest of her children into a decent local secondary school that was right for him, he was not given any of the preferences she put on her form, he is now in sixth form doing his A levels. The middle brother has a place at the same school on the sibling criteria and is taking his gcse maths a year early, so as you can see she is very much impressed with the school, the school is very family orientated. In 2009 when it was Charlies turn o go to secondary school she obviously put down the same school as her first preference, she also put down other preferences , he got none of them an d was offered a place at the nearest school with a vacancy, this is the worst performing school in a London Borough which is at the bottom for education, Barking and Dagenham, she refused and appealed and subsequentley lost. This was discussed with Charlie and the rest of the family and it was decided that he would be taught at home until such time a place became available at his first preference. The education dept. took the sibling criteria away, but all the details of this from the when and why’s were very sketchy, supposedly done on a parental vote, we have seen very little evidence of this

By: Ali

Ali — Sat, 20 Feb 2010 23:16:32 +0000

In a system where Primary admissions are managed by the infant class size legislation, and there is no “choice advice” – to Secondary, where there is choice advice which is falling short of de-mystifying admissions – is it any wonder that parents are dissatisfied.

Parents also hold anecdotal ideas about admission that are from the past and misguide their judgement.

As Jean says, each Local Authority sets its own admissions criteria to suit their demographics, but within that, admissions vary in VA schools whose governing body still set their admissions criteria on an individual basis This just adds even greater complexity.

www ParentsTakePart com

By: Jean

Jean — Sat, 20 Feb 2010 07:41:08 +0000

Many parents find the current system incomprehensible at even the most basic level. This article talks about ‘choice’ but when you look more closely, you find that as a parent you’re not expressing a choice at all – it’s a ‘preference’.

In adddition the admissions code isn’t applied in the same way in all Local Authority areas – each has their own refinements.

I applaud the research for bringing some of the issues into the public domain, but I suspect it has only scratched the surface of the problem.

By: Lee Ingram

Lee Ingram — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 12:41:22 +0000

The elepephant in the room – open door policy/mass immigration?