Primary Schools Admissions crisis in London

Christine Phillips's picture
 1
I originally posted here because I am fighting to get a school place in Haringey, London for my 4-year-old daughter.

Since then, the Evening Standard has reported on my case, and discovered that one in five children did not get their first choice of school, and more than 11,000 children are being educated in temporary classrooms in London.

My case is being investigated by the Local Gvt Ombudsman, but the Dept for Education today commented that our case was one of the most dramatic examples so far of London's primary schools' admissions crisis. May be comments of this kind are inevitable but unhelpful; I don't want a party political war, just a school place.

Importantly, Haringey has told us that they are looking into setting up additional classrooms in the borough, a process that will also include engaging additional teachers.

I don't understand why this is happening five weeks into term and it suggests that we are not an isolated case. Better planning anyone?
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Comments

Rebecca Hanson's picture
Tue, 11/10/2011 - 13:26

It's difficult to call on that one from a distance Christene. In most areas of the UK populations are much easier to monitor and plan for than they are in London. Incompetence seems the likely answer but really there needs to be an inquiry by someone credible into the details of what data was available, whether it was correctly interpreted or not, if so why things when to wrong, if not what the chain of action should have been and where it went wrong and so on.

Most LAs plan efficiently and effectively for primary school places so it should be possible for lessons to be effectively learned.

It sounds like you're doing a great job in pushing things on. Has your daughter's place been confirmed yet?

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