Primary school places : a solution

[aliceBB]

Up to one in six UK children won't be going to their parents' first choice of primary in September:

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-32162021

 

What's the situation like in Sheffield?

 

I cannot help thinking that the solution is to go back to catchment areas and make children go to their nearest local primary. If parents can't bear the thought of their local school, they will have to move.

 

Stop all the nonsense with parents pretending to be devout until they secure the faith school place...only to abandon their religion instantly and even move out of area...knowing their other children will be able to get in automatically (although that may change).

 

Make walking the main method of getting to school and end the current mayhem, congestion and pollution of the school run.

 

Make a school place dependent on residence, full stop. So if parents move out of area, the child/ren will have to move schools, too. Children will live near their schoolfriends and will grow up with more sense of community than if they were shipped out to schools miles from where they live.

 

It worked just fine before parents were brainwashed into thinking they had to behave like consumers in every aspect of life...it would work now.

Edited April 18, 2015 by aliceBB

[The Joker]

For once, Maggie Thatcher's flying monkeys can't blame the immigrants, because the Roma parents are happy to send their kids to the local primary school instead!

 

Indeed, one school was recently built on Skinnerthorpe Road and most of the kids enrolled there are of Roma descent!

Edited April 18, 2015 by The Joker

[Grenoside123]

Absolutely agree. We wanted our son in Grenoside Primary so we sold up and moved to the catchment area to make sure that he got in. I would not have let him go to the catchment school where we used to live!

[aliceBB]

For once, you can't blame the immigrants, because the Roma parents are happy to send their kids to the local primary school instead!

 

Indeed, one school was recently built on Skinnerthorpe Road and most of the kids enrolled there are of Roma descent!

 

I do not 'blame the immigrants' in any case.

 

The only proviso I'd make would be that children whose first language is not English would need to be taught ESL until they can access the curriculum in English - it's not fair to expect teachers simply to 'cope' with non-English speakers in the same class as children who are fluent in English. It's not fair on anyone, least of all the children.

Edited April 18, 2015 by aliceBB

[The Joker]

I do not 'blame the immigrants' in any case.

 

Apologies, I did not mean YOU personally; I know you wouldn't do that. I have amended my original post!

 

The only proviso I'd make would be that children whose first language is not English would need to be taught ESL until they can access the curriculum in English - it's not fair to expect teachers simply to 'cope' with non-English speakers in the same class as children who are fluent in English. It's not fair on anyone, least of all the children.

 

Excellent idea. I am aware of the some junior schools in North Sheffield where this is a problem because non-English speaking children are being taught in the same classes as English speakers, and the entire class is being held back.

Edited April 18, 2015 by The Joker

[aliceBB]

Absolutely agree. We wanted our son in Grenoside Primary so we sold up and moved to the catchment area to make sure that he got in. I would not have let him go to the catchment school where we used to live!

 

That approach is arguably going to result in the creation of some 'sink schools', but given the current OFSTED regime, they wouldn't (presumably) be like that for long. And I do think the advantages of children attending local primaries outweigh the disadvantages. I went to a very socially mixed primary in Pontefract, but it was comprehensive in its intake - any child living locally could attend - and children were not subjected to the stress and pressure of their parents fighting for a place for them.

 

It's bad enough the way it all kicks off when secondary school places are being applied for - primary school children don't need the nonsense.

[Guest sibon]

 

Make a school place dependent on residence, full stop. .

 

That's pretty much what happens in Sheffield Primaries anyway. There is priority for certain, vulnerable children, then it is catchment all the way.

 

The allocation criteria are here

[loraward]

For once, you can't blame the immigrants, because the Roma parents are happy to send their kids to the local primary school instead!

 

Indeed, one school was recently built on Skinnerthorpe Road and most of the kids enrolled there are of Roma descent!

 

Migrants fuel UK baby boom: One in four now born to foreign mums

A MIGRANT baby boom is driving Britain's population to grow faster than any other country in the EU.

 

From 3 years ago.

 

Prof John Howson, senior research fellow at Oxford University, said the shortage of places for five-year-olds was the “biggest problem” facing schools in England.

 

He warned that successive governments had failed to properly prepare for the surge in applications, which has been caused by rising birth rates and the effects of immigration.

 

From 2 year ago.

 

A quarter of a million extra school places are needed by next year, the National Audit Office warns.

 

The biggest baby boom since the 1950s combined with high levels of immigration have been blamed for the huge shortfall.

 

Secondary schools face an overcrowding crisis due to Labour’s failure to deal with the effects of immigration.

 

A leaked government document reveals that within two years, classes will struggle to accommodate tens of thousands of pupils.

 

From now.

 

The cost of creating places for the 880,000 extra pupils expected in England by 2023 could push schools to breaking point, council leaders warn.

 

The population increased, most of the increase came from immigration, and immigration caused a massive baby boom because they are having more kids than anyone else.

 

Its not the fault of immigrants obviously, but it is the fault of government immigration policy, the government must have known that allowing so many people into the country would cause the problems we now face.

Edited April 18, 2015 by loraward

[aliceBB]

That's pretty much what happens in Sheffield Primaries anyway. There is priority for certain, vulnerable children, then it is catchment all the way.

 

The allocation criteria are here

 

I'm relieved to hear it. My brother's experience in London (Acton/West Ealing) was enough to drive him out of the capital into the wilds of Wiltshire where his children went to the local village primary and did absolutely fine. He regrets the anxiety and stress of their pre-school years, when all anybody every talked about was which primary they had 'got' their kid 'into', its OFSTEd report, its Key Stage 2 results, how many hours homework the kids were set, how many of them went on to prestigious secondaries, blah, blah, blah.

 

My kids also went to our local village school (just across the road from our house, which made life very simple!). That only had two classes (so three year groups in each class), but they wanted for nothing - it was excellent. I cannot imagine having to 'choose' a primary miles away and having to get them there. Nightmare.

Edited April 18, 2015 by aliceBB

[The Joker]

I went to a very socially mixed primary in Pontefract. . .

 

Good Old Pontefract, home of Yorkshire's best potatoes even if it is in the wrong part of the county

 

That's pretty much what happens in Sheffield Primaries anyway. There is priority for certain, vulnerable children, then it is catchment all the way.

 

I know of some parents in my area that send their children to Primary schools in the better areas of the city, to increase the chances of their precious little buttercup getting into their chosen Secondary school.

 

As the chosen Primary is a feeder school for the chosen Secondary, little buttercup is a higher priority than other out-of-catchment children, based on the admission criteria alone.

 

I worry for the mental state of the parent. . .and the child because as aliceBB says:

 

primary school children don't need the nonsense.