Richmond secondary school admissions?

[FishEagle]

Hi,

We've been touring state secondary schools in the borough of Richmond, where most admissions criteria (except Waldergrave Girls and Christ's) operate a feeder school system. Does anyone know if you can get hold of stats on the percentage of kids admitted to year 7 that come from feeder schools? Reason I ask is that our primary school feeds into a school we really don't want our DS to attend, so we're in the position of wondering if we have to move him in his final year to a feeder school of a secondary school we do like.

While we are naturally reluctant to move him just for one year, competition to get into the few high schools we do have in Richmond is so tough, that we may have to. Has anyone else had to consider this?
Thanks!

[admission]

I think that you need to establish whether there is space in this other primary school before anything. If it is a feeder for a popular secondary school I would have thought that it is quite likely to be full. An appeal will not be easy as very few panels will accept that you want to move schools to get into a secondary school as a viable reason to admit.

[stillfeel18inside]

Give the borough education department a call - we did this last year and I remember there was a printed pamphlet that showed on the back page the number of people who got in from "link schools" and for the really popular schools like Teddington, I seem to remember it was almost 100% (but check on this!) I would be tempted to move him, to be honest, if you're going for a school that's very popular.

[MrsTweedy]

You don't say what year your ds is currently in, but people we know moved their children in yr 4 to the feeder school of their chosen secondary as they were warned that they would not get in in yr 6 as the waiting list would be so long.
I'm guessing you're on the Sheen side of the borough, which makes it more tricky!

[sheenite]

Don't worry my primary school fed into the local secondary and I deliberately didn't include it on my submission form. Just because it's your linked school doesn't mean you have to go to it. If you do live in Sheen, I highly recommend you look around Grey Court, it's a very good state secondary school which you should easily get into. The other alternative is to start going to Church (which I know most of the mums did in my class) and get the minister to sign a foundation form for Christ which will give you a guaranteed entry.

[Fiddledee]

If you are wanting to go to Teddington then you need to move him asap

[jackstarbright]

Just moving to a feeder school might not be enough - it also depends where you live.

I've heard that feeder schools have a 'cap' on places and will allocate these on distance from the secondary school. So you need to check that out too.

Also - if you are looking at Teddington School, then I suspect the main feeder schools will be full for years 5 and 6.

[prh47bridge]

Jackstarbright seems to have confused a couple of issues. In Richmond all children in linked schools get priority for the relevant secondary school. There is no cap on the number from an individual school. If there are more children in linked schools applying than there are places, distance is used as the tie breaker.

As Admission says, primary schools that feed into popular secondary schools are likely to be full. A desire to get into a particular secondary school is unlikely to convince an appeal panel to admit the child.

[jackstarbright]

Prh47bridge is better informed than I .

But the effect is the same: attending a feeder school will not guarantee a place at the linked secondary school when the school is over-subscribed with 'feeder school' applications.

Then it also depends on distance from home to school.

[corlan]

Hi FishEagle,

Last years figures of who got in where, are published in the admissions brochure which you can download here - the table is on page 22.

If you phone the admissions office at the council, they can actually tell you whether your child would have got into the school of their choice last year. ( you need a crystal ball for this year I'm afraid!)

Good luck - hope it all turns out OK.