Primary School Admissions Procedure

floss78 · Jan 26, 2010 7:49AM

I know this topic is jumping the gun but was hoping for advice about my perplexed-ness (think i just made that word up, ha ha).

I'm becoming increasingly worried about not getting Alfie into my first choice of primary school due to hubby & I choosing not to get him christened. Neither of us is religious, hence why no christening. BUT the primary school we'd like him to attend is a CofE school and in the event of over-subscription, baptism is a criteria they look at.

What I was wondering is, how often do schools get over-subscribed and what are the chances of Alfie being turned away?

There are other schools in the area but are in (sorry if I'm not being PC) what I would describe as a 'rough area' and looking at performance tables & ofsted reports, they don't do well at all. A good education is so important to me and I want the best for Alfie but I'm so worried about this now!

What to do??!!

Shell xx

MUMMYA · Jan 25, 2010 4:08AM

Hi, I don't know much about this maybe some of the teachers on here could help I would be intereseted to know the answer there are so many schools near us I am unsure which is the better school and I'm not really sure how to check the offsted reports xx

CatWoodley83 · Jan 25, 2010 4:23AM

I'm not to sure on CofE but we looked into putting my older son into a RC primary school. We had to provide his baptism certificate and details of the parish we attend. They also wanted to know my previous parish details as I had been in the area for less than 5 years. Preference usually first goes to those who regularly attend Mass in their parish, then those with siblings already in the school and lastly by distance to the school. We have since checked all our local schools with ofsted and found the non religious schools are doing better then the catholic one so we didn't put his name down in the end.
If you go to the school they should be able to give you an application. In the book it tell's you how many children applied for a place, how many were turned away and requirement's each school has set out. Sorry I waffled on a quite bit!

Cat xxx

floss78 · Jan 25, 2010 8:18AM

Annette, try these links for information about schools local to you:

http://www.dcsf.gov.uk/performancetables/primary_09.shtml

http://schoolsfinder.direct.gov.uk/

Hope that helps.

I think I might contact the school to at least register him (although I know that doesn't guarantee him a space) and check what their policy is on christenings etc and see if they can give me the info about places applied for & people turned away for last year. Thanks Cat.

Shell xx

treacle28 · Jan 25, 2010 9:10AM

g/c but I am a teacher in a CofE school and it doesn't make a difference in our school. You can find the info on your local councils schools websites of admission numbers for each year - you should be able to find how many they can take and then how many they actually take, for example they could have space for 60 per year and take 49, meaning they are not usually over-subscribed, or they could actually take in 60 each year, meaning they probably turn some away. At the school I work in we work on catchment first, then siblings, don't even know if baptism comes into it at all. There are 2 types of CofE schools- voluntary aided and voluntary controlled - mine is controlled so religion doesn't affect intake, voluntary aided does more so, but still takes in non CofE children. This page might be useful. http://www.cofe.anglican.org/info/education/faqcofeschools/ Again, the info on what sort of school it is should be online - http://schoolsfinder.direct.gov.uk/
HTH

lisao · Jan 25, 2010 11:07AM

Ive already got Hollys name down for the school I want because they only take 12 a year. Its an Irish school and as I dont speak Irish I wanted to make sure she learns it cos I wont be able to help her and its compulsory all the way through secondary school.

floss78 · Jan 25, 2010 4:41PM

Thanks for that info Treacle.

Just checked out the figures of the school I'm looking at. It is voluntary aided and looking at the sub notes there is an emphasis on baptised children,particularly those who parents regularly attend worship. The number of places available last year was 30, the number admitted was 30.

Bugger, that's me screwed!

treacle28 · Jan 26, 2010 7:49AM

Sorry it's not what you were hoping! It's still a while off though, you might not be in the same place by the time your lo goes to school. We are hopefully moving soon and the catchment school for the new place is so not going to be the one my son goes to so I'll be stressing over this soon too! Even though he's only a month older than your son!

Primary School Admissions Procedure

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