Reaction of Richmond Parents to the 2013 Primary Admissions Round

The following quotes come from emails sent directly to RISC, or posted on RISC's facebook page.  We've also included some quotes referenced to Mumsnet.

 

  • "We applied for our 2 nearest schools plus the next nearest non-Catholic school which is a C of E. We got none of them and were allocated [a school] which is about twice as far away as the nearest two over subscribed state secular primaries....."
       
  • "We have not been offered a place at any of the six state schools we listed. We are on the waiting list hoping a place will be found... Our closest schools are COfE and Catholic. We are not church going/ practising."
       
  • "I am also one of the 8% [who didn't get any of their 6 choices] despite living 400m from the new Sir Richard Reynolds school....SRR was our first choice. We're not Catholic, but went for the safe choice based on proximity to home."
       
  • "I have just been told that my son is not being offered a place at primary school (at this time).  I .....feel that the fact that 4 out of my 6 closest schools are church schools and my lack of faith has been a major contributor to this.  I applied to 3 of those 4 schools (plus 3 others) as they are my local schools..."
  • "We live in Teddington and are not religious.  We applied for our 6 nearest schools in the order of proximity to our house - Collis, StM&StP, Stanley, Sacred Heart, Hampton Wick Infants and Hampton Hill Infants.  We got our 4th choice - Sacred Heart - a Catholic School.  We would have really prefered our son to go to an inclusive community school, but there just are not enough places.  In this area there appears to be an excess of spaces in Catholic Schools."
  • ALL school places should be allocated to children according to the distance they live from a school. 4 year olds should not miss out on a school place because their parents do not attend church. It is totally unfair. (No personal offence meant at all to people who attend church, it is a personal choice like many others in life. We go to church sometimes and that is our choice) If a school does a lot of sport, is preference given to children whose parents go to the gym every weekend? No because that is discrimination! (Just for the record changing the admissions rules would make no difference to our own situation. We were offered our nearest school, even though it was not on our list, and that is totally fair and we cant complain about it.) I just feel for many people who have missed out on a place at their nearest school because of the admissions criteria for church schools. It has to change.
  • "I know a lot of Teddington families (me included) disappointed to have been offered no place at any of the Teddington schools. We all seem to be being offered Buckingham Primary in Hanworth. It is 40min by bus/walk from Teddington" (from Mumsnet)
  • ”I spoke to St Mary's [and St. Peter's, in Teddington] and the admissions so far worked at 49 sibling places, 16 distance places, and 25 church. The catchment area is so far 300 metres. Wow. Massively down on last year, where the Head told us in former years it had been 550 metres.” (from Mumsnet)
     
  • "My daughter...did not get allocated a school at all out of the 6 that we chose. This was either due to distance or religion."
     
  • "Our daughter....has received no offers from any primary schools. Three out of our closest 4 schools are C of E - cant believe it! Council told us that there are 86 children currently without places - not sure where they are going to go, as our top two picks told us they hardly ever have anyone decline an offered place...then we are more than 2km away to the next school. Just cant believe it.
     
  • "I live in twickenham and I want my children to go to school in twickenham however I am not prepared to attend church just to get my children into schools."
     
  • "We have not been offered a Reception place for our daughter for this September's intake. Our nearest schools are all church schools."
  • "... everyone we know got into [St. Mary's and St. Peter's]. Unfortunately I feel like some people (well the ones who did get in, from DD's pre school) give me a slight look of "well, if you WILL choose to not go to church..." Or maybe that's my own paranoia speaking." (from Mumsnet)