Harringay online

Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!

Hiya, Wondering if anyone else living near us is in our position... We found out earlier this week about school admissions and discovered to our dismay that we were (in the 6% of people) not offered any of our six choices which were all within the local vicinity. We live on Uplands Road. if there are more of us perhaps we could put pressure on the council to build
extra provision nearby for this year.

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Background to the problem  set out.

Which School were you offered, Alex?
Hi, we were offered Seven Sisters primary school. Last inspection - inadequate. It's 1.5 miles away when we have at least 20 schools nearer, here in crouch end.
That's crazy. Such a long trek! I wouldn't worry too much about Ofsted results though, Gove seems to be setting schools up for failure with the new markers. I don't know much about Seven Sisters school, have you visited? My kids went to Tiverton, not great on paper but a wonderful enriching happy school, my kids did very well.
Thanks. You're right. I'm not so worried about Ofsted. more about being in our community.
Will you appeal? I feel for you Alex, and good luck :-)

Hi Alex

Seven Sisters was last inspected by Ofsted on 10th and 11 December 2013. You can download the report here: http://www.ofsted.gov.uk/inspection-reports/find-inspection-report/...

The school was given a Requires Improvement rating. In the four categories by which schools are judged the school got two 'goods', and two 'requires improvement'. Several other schools in Haringey have similar inspection outcomes. The school has made massive changes and improvements over the last couple of years as acknowledged by Ofsted in the report. 

 Our Head Teacher and staff work tirelessly, and the Governing Body is driving things forward. Oftsed  acknowledged that Seven Sisters is an improving school. The inspection was very rigorous and recognised our work in raising standards and expectations.   The inspection was not a routine inspection but actually requested by the governing body because we wanted to make sure we were on the right track to sustain our improvement programme.

We work very closely with the local authority school improvement team and we have an ongoing and healthy debate which involves challenge and support from all sides. 

You may decide this isn't the school for you, but I do want to set the record straight about our Oftsed inspection. You are very welcome to visit and to talk to me about Seven Sisters.  My contact details are below. 

Regarding the bigger picture, the reason there aren't places is because the government will not allow local authorities to build community schools and existing ones can only expand if there is space and capacity.

Instead the government only want academies and free schools where as you know, any premises seem to be OK. 

All the best

Zena

_____________________

Zena Brabazon

Chair of Governors, Seven Sisters Primary 

Cllr, St. Ann's Ward (till May 22nd)

PS. My contact details

zena.brabazon@blueyonder.co.uk

07985 119 590

Hi - do you know if Seven Sisters still has places available for Sept? We didn't get any of our 6 choices and we found out today that we are incredibly far down on all our waiting lists so I started doing some research on the internet and Seven Sisters Primary looks perfect for us. I have contacted the council and the school and asked them about admissions but if you could give me any extra information, I would really appreciate it. We were allocated Stamford Hill Primary but as I work in a school in Walthamstow myself and my husband works shifts we simply could not get our son there and get to our respective jobs on time and so we declined the offer. Seven Sisters is on the way to work and has a breakfast club which means it would fit round my hours - I'm keeping my fingers crossed that we get in!

Thank you,

Charlotte

Some advice:

Forgive me if it seems obvious and/or you already know it.

Waiting lists

First make sure that you are on the waiting lists for the six schools you applied for.

Then, on top of that go on the waiting list for any schools, not in your six, but (for you) acceptable and closer than Seven Sisters. There is quite a lot of movement on waiting lists; especially if a bulge class is created somewhere which can have all sorts of knock on effects. Anyway movement on lists  does not stop until a couple of days into the autumn term actually...

I  do not know about Harringey schools really, so this post is not intended to "knock" Seven Sisters, but to take on board your point about distance and community.

Regarding lobbying, this is a local election year, so why not use that. Contact all your local candidates and ask them what they think should be done.

Thank you. Good suggestions. I am meeting councillor today. I met Lynne Featherstone mp yesterday. That's why I wanted to get an idea of how many there were near us.

Poor you.  Just for the others in the future, I'd imagine that part of the issue is that your closest, Weston Park, has had to take in at least two bulge years in recent years therefore the sibling priority might be quite overwhelming now it reverts to a single form entry as there's really no space left for any additional classes.  When I looked a few years ago (I live on Uplands), the catchment was already down to 0.3 mile and we were nervous about our chances.   I guess parents, in the future, may need to think even harder about the order - eg put Rokesley first?  I guess it's also worth asking the schools what they expect in terms of sibling applications as they should have some idea from their nurseries?   Maybe that's what you did, in which case, even worse luck.    Others' suggestions of what else to do now seem wise.

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