Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!
Landmark school admissions ruling for Haringey mother.
Pupils cannot be denied a place in their preferred schools simply because they are full, a court ruled yesterday.
The landmark High Court judgement is likely to give hope to thousands of families who challenge the schools they are allocated each year before independent appeals panels (IAPs).
In the case, the mother of an 11-year-old girl took her battle to London's High Court after an appeal panel rejected her choice of secondary school because it was full.
The mother - referred to as M - wanted her daughter (MC) to be educated away from her London inner city neighbourhood and its problems of crime and bullying. The mother had applied to a popular and oversubscribed school but she was rejected by Haringey's schools council admissions service.
The ruling means M and her daughter are entitled to a fresh hearing before the IPA.
This was the first High Court case to examine provisions of the new schools admissions appeal code 2009. It will provide guidelines for parents and education authorities in the future.
More on the ruling here.
The landmark High Court judgement is likely to give hope to thousands of families who challenge the schools they are allocated each year before independent appeals panels (IAPs).
In the case, the mother of an 11-year-old girl took her battle to London's High Court after an appeal panel rejected her choice of secondary school because it was full.
The mother - referred to as M - wanted her daughter (MC) to be educated away from her London inner city neighbourhood and its problems of crime and bullying. The mother had applied to a popular and oversubscribed school but she was rejected by Haringey's schools council admissions service.
The ruling means M and her daughter are entitled to a fresh hearing before the IPA.
This was the first High Court case to examine provisions of the new schools admissions appeal code 2009. It will provide guidelines for parents and education authorities in the future.
More on the ruling here.
Tags for Forum Posts: haringey heartlands, school funding
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by John McMullan on
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Yes it is possible to have a calm and ordered school without "tanks/bouncers in the playground", it's called a Grammar school.
Just walking around the playground with a cup of tea and a bouncer's menacing demeanor is all I'm talking about. Of course there will always be uppity bouncers who actually enjoy teaching the lessons too but you can always deny them membership of the NUT to discourage that.
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Permalink Reply by Julie on
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All the local secondaries have a Safer Schools officer based at the school. This gives the police a profile with the kids and breaks down a few barriers.
Grammar schools don't have any kind of monopoly on good behaviour. Far from it. The brightest kids can be the most challenging and disruptive. The ones who pass entrance exams can be the most arrogant about it too. Go and have a look at Gladesmore and see how much rioting is going on in classrooms. Then pay Latymer a visit. You might be surprised, you never know.
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I completely disagree with having a policeman in a school. One of my friends was caught with pot at school when he was 16. He was briefly suspended but is now a university lecturer. I doubt a policeman would have been able to turn a blind eye to that.
Sounds like Latymer and Gladesmore need to make examples of a couple of the worst culprits, expulsion actually has an effect on those kids.
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Sorry John, I wasn't clear. The point I was trying to make is that I think Glademore's a really good school. Latymer's the Enfield Grammar school everybody wants their kids to get into. These schools might be a lot more similar than people think. Gladesmore may even be better.
On the exclusion issue, in my experience, unless you have a really good behaviour policy and high expectations, one lot of kids gets kicked out and others just take their places as school villains. You have to be serious and systematic and you have to praise and reward the pupils who are behaving themselves.
Smoking pot, and having it in school, is illegal. Schools would have to report possession to the police, even if there wasn't an officer on the premises. I'm really against turning a blind eye when teenagers break the law. The safer schools officers aren't there to catch wrong-doers. They're there to educate kids about the risks they're taking with their lives when they go off the rails. When an officer took action against a crime (extortion, in fact) by arresting a pupil in his Geography lesson, he got into a great deal of trouble with his senior officers and the LA. Mind you, the boy concerned was really shocked and didn't do it again!
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And what if one of the kids hits another one? Is that assault that they'd get arrested for? That happens all the time to kids at school.
Police are, IMHO, there to solve crimes and catch criminals, not educate our children about right and wrong. What would have become of David Cameron at Eton (where they would NEVER allow a police officer) if he had been prosecuted for possession?
Yes, you can be very impressed by policemen coming into classrooms and it must have been very frightening for the kid being arrested but you are handing over a job that was traditionally a teacher's.
Orwell must be turning in his grave. -
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Permalink Reply by matt on
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... career advice.
Education Business Partnerships play a role with careers information, particularly by work experience for secondary school pupils. The Tower Hamlets Education Business Partnership (EBP) is often quoted for its links with 'City' firms; for being a success for both the pupils and for the firms themselves.
The Tower Hamlets EBP has a useful website with info on current schemes, current budgets and a clear remit. I don't see the same at the Haringey EBP website.
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Permalink Reply by Kate Lloyd on
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The Tower Hamlets EBP is excellent - I have experience of it as a volunteer, and have taken part in delivering citizenship lessons to year 11s at Morpeth School and doing lunchtime French classes (my firm also helps with reading and numeracy lunchtime classes) at a local primary too. It's fun and rewarding for us and, we hope, for the pupils too. Do Haringey do something similar?
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Hi Kate, excellent to hear from someone who has done this. Something positive for a change!
Do Haringey do something similar?
This is what I'm trying to find out because schools obviously need very good support from outside agencies and schemes. The Haringey EBP website doesn't show or say much which isn't a good sign, only something about using young business mentors from the borough.
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Tower Hamlets contains Canary Wharf. There are many institutions in Canary Wharf that seem to engage in competitive philanthropy, especially locally. One such firm that I have worked at allowed employees extra holiday to do volunteering in a local school that they had "adopted" and I'm sure it looked good if you were going for promotion.
What I'm saying is that for that reason alone, Tower Hamlets and Haringey are not comparable.
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There may be an element of competitiveness, certainly in the way big companies seek to improve their reputation and profile through "corporate and social responsibility" (although I'm not sure how widespread the offer of extra holiday for volunteering is - we certainly don't have that incentive), and clearly the profile of businesses based in Haringey is very different to those based in or near to Tower Hamlets. But there's no reason why Haringey couldn't encourage local solicitors, accountants, office and shopworkers etc to go into schools and offer some time to help read/do numbers with pupils.
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'Partnerships' shouldn't have to be within the same borough. Businesses & other organisations could come into the borough to help & mentor children within our schools. Surely this already happens.
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That certainly was the case with City companies and Islington schools eight or nine years ago. I'd be surprised if Haringey's secondary schools aren't benefiting from similar arrangements.
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