Month: September 2011

Primary School Admissions

I am researching Primary School Admissions in Enfield for 2015 for my twins Harry and Poppy who will be starting school then.

I want to send my children to the closest community school to my home which is Walker School at 0.563 miles away; a not unreasonable request. I have checked with Enfield School admissions and had my children been starting school this year they would be unable to go to our closest community school. This leads me to believe that there are insufficient Primary Schools in my area.

I have sent this email to Enfield Council today:

Thank you for your reply. As you know from my original email I am interested in the admissions process as I want to send my twins to the Community School closest to my home.

I have reviewed the data that is freely available on the London.gov.uk website and obtained data using the “Excel Custom Age Range Tool for GLA Projections Data”.
 
I have reviewed the projection for children aged 5 in the year 2015 and also 2016 to take into account the fact that school year admissions start in September; and then divided by 2 to get only one years data. In Enfield the projection of children aged 5 for 2015 is a total of 4650 children (boys and girls).
 
I have also reviewed the admission numbers for Enfield in 2011 and by comparing the data it appears to me that there is a shortfall of approximately 550 places.
 
As you see my workings out are crude and based on the data I have sought; I do not know what process Enfield follows as I am working from the email reply I received below, nor do I know what other factors are taken into consideration.
 
Please can you let me know what the projections are for Enfield’s 2015 Primary School admissions? What process Enfield follows to ensure there are sufficient primary school allocation for the Enfield population in the future? Does this need to be a Freedom of Information request?
 
Yours truly,
Gonul Daniels

 Please see my previous post for the previous email. My calculations may be incorrect but if you don’t ask you don’t know!


Primary School

I had my twins Poppy and Harry in April this year and I am now looking at the options for their Primary School education so that I am not shocked or disappointed in 4 years time when they are due to start.

The closest Community Primary School to my home in Bourne Hill is Walker based in Waterfall Road and approximately 1/2 mile from our home. Walker School has an excellent Ofsted report and is the primary school that I want my children to attend.

My next door neighbour’s children go to Firs Farm School because they could not get into Walker School and another neighbour’s children go to St Monica’s Roman Catholic School. Therein lays my problem!

Based on this year’s Primary School admissions from the London Borough of Enfield I would not be able to get my twins into the closest community school to me, and would therefore have to accept any school offered to me by Enfield’s School Admission Service.

All other schools within a 1 mile radius are religious schools and they have their own admission criteria based on their religion.

I wonder if the number of school places provided in Enfield meets the needs of the borough?

Enfield has kindly replied to my question regarding where they obtain their statistics from and I quote:

In common with most other boroughs in London, Enfield Council subscribes to the School Roll Projections Service of the Greater London Authority, who produce annual forecasts of pupil numbers for each year group for the primary and secondary sectors in our schools, including the 6th form. These forecasts, which also include numbers in academies, are based on a number of factors appertaining to Enfield, including trends in pupil numbers over the previous four years, birth trends, data on known new housing developments and migration (both national and international). Projections are provided for a 10 year period and are produced each year following the annual census of pupil numbers in schools, which is carried out each January. These most recent pupil numbers are also used to inform the projections.

 I have 4 years to work out what to do next!