Shared catchment area for Great Berry Primary School and Lincewood Primary School in Langdon Hills is proposed (From Echo)
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Shared catchment area for Great Berry Primary School and Lincewood Primary School in Langdon Hills is proposed
10:40am Friday 22nd January 2010 in
PARENTS fear the creation of a new shared catchment area will force siblings to attend different schools.
Essex County Council has proposed to create a new shared catchment area for Great Berry Primary School and Lincewood Primary School in Langdon Hills, which it claims will make the selection process for pupils fairer.
But parents with children currently at Lincewood, who live outside the catchment areas of both schools, oppose the move. They fear the changes will split up siblings.
Both Great Berry and Lincewood have an intake of 60 children each year.
In recent years Great Berry has been oversubscribed, which means children living in its catchment area have been enrolled at Lincewood.
But the current selection process means in some cases, children living close to both schools are sent to Great Berry, while children close to Great Berry, but further away from Lincewood are sent to Lincewood.
John Schofield, county councillor for Westley Heights, approves of the proposals and said they would help.
He said: “The current situation means some parents and children are walking past Great Berry Primary to get to Lincewood Primary, past parents who would have had less distance to travel to Lincewood primary.”
But Paul Hodghton, 34, of Suffolk Drive, Langdon Hills, said he was worried the change would mean his daughter Sally, three, would be split apart from her older sister Robyn, five, who currently attends Lincewood.
He said: “I know we live outside of the catchment area so there was always a risk, but this would shift the goalposts and make it even harder.
“Other parents are worried about this and we don’t know how we will manage to take the children to two places at once.”
Headteacher at Lincewood School, Tim Eastwell, said he sympathised with parents in Mr Hodghton’s position and they would be consulted before any action took place.
He said: “I am very sympathetic with their plight and their views will be discussed further by the governors in March.”
The consultation period runs until February 12. For more information, call 01245 436708.
Comments(6)
sarah_l_jones26
says...
7:25pm Fri 22 Jan 10
..There is nothing more annoying when people complain about the worry of their siblings getting in when they have enrolled older children into a school outside their living area..Above Suffolk Drive is not in Langdon Hills...it's catchment school is infact Merrylands...if rules were followed properly this situation wouldn't arise and children in their catchment area would get into their chosen school... I say schools/ local council's need to do stronger checks to keep out children that shouldn't be in a school out of their catchment.
sw82
says...
8:38am Sat 23 Jan 10
Just because you live in a catchment area of a school does not mean you HAVE to send your child there especially if you do not think its a good school, not all people like ourselves can afford a house in the catchment area of our preferred school.
We followed the 'rules' properly and got our child into Lincewood our preferred school and I'm sure siblings of children already there did not have to scarifice their place for us.
The problem lies with Great Berry School who do not have sufficient places for all the children in their catchment area.
...There is nothing more annoying when people moan about the possiblity of being given the priority to what we think is another good school if they do not get their catchment school.
Isaac Hunt
says...
9:03am Sat 23 Jan 10
sammyp
says...
11:51am Sat 23 Jan 10
The Great Berry school is in an area of very dense populatation and is oversubscribed from the families within it's immediate catchment area. If these families cannot get a place at Great Berry then they have to look elsewhere. In many instances Merrylands is the next nearest school (not Lincewood) but these families are not prepared to accept this as an option.
Comments posted here about following "rules" and "keeping children out" are unfortunate and ill educated. The "rules" are printed in black and white for all to follow and are refered to as the Admission Policy. If we are suggesting that schools are closed to all that live outside of their immediate catchment area, then what kind of protectionist nonsense is that? Have you not noticed the bus loads of older children going to Billiericay, Brentwood and Wickford? Should this be outlawed as well? The rules are there to ensure fairness and freedom of choice, regardless of postcode. Common sense must prevail that siblings of primary school age cannot be split and sent to different schools regardless of where you live!
Gabellclan
says...
2:31pm Wed 10 Feb 10
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Phil0 says...
5:17pm Fri 22 Jan 10
The new admission policy is being brought in because Great Berry wants to keep its numbers down. According to Essex Councils own forecasts this will soon mean that both schools are oversubscribed and pupils in Langdon Hills will miss out.
Another group that will be disadvantaged are people who move to the area with children already of primary school age. They will find it even more difficult to get into the schools as capacity is reduced and the number of houses rises. The only way to solve the problem in the long term is to permanently increase the number of school places, not reduce them.
The councillors say they aim to improve parental choice for schools but at the same time they reduce it. I think we all know that this plan will go through no matter what people say during the so called consultation.