Primary School Allocations

So the primary allocations have been made and you will either be feeling relieved and elated or disappointed this morning.  Statistics from Herts Admissions state that 86% of children have been allocated one of their preferred schools and, out of 457 applications 343 have been placed in their 1st choice school. 

If you are not happy with the school that your child has been allocated, there are procedures to help you gain the place which you want for your child.

Key Dates

If you are happy with the offer which has been made you need to accept it by April 26th so that available places can be re allocated.  If you want to make an appeal you have until 4pm on May 13th (remember that the appeal process for Reception places has a low success rate due to Government legislation which restricts the number of children in KS1 classes.)

The week of the 9th May is the first run of continuing interest- if you are successful you have until the week of the 16th May to accept any offer made to you.  The second continuing interest allocation run is the week of 6th June and again you have 1 week to accept any offers.  If you haven’t been allocated a place in your preferred school by the 13th of June the process changes and there will be no more continuing interest runs- places will be filled as they become available.

Harpenden has lots of really good schools, but 2011 is a year of high admissions; online data shows that many schools had more applications than last year (Manland had an additional 53 and the Lea an extra 65).   Extra classes have been put on in some schools- but this has not helped many Harpenden parents.  Lots of families who live in the area to the North of the High Street (especially in the poets area) have not been allocated any of their three preferred schools.  One local mum has told me that she and 5 of her friends have all been allocated the Lea even though it is not their closest school and was not one of their choices.  Another mum raised the question as to why some of the oversubscribed schools in the area haven’t laid created extra classes- schools like Roundwood (who had 231 applications for 24 places) and Woodend (who had 180 applications for 60 places) have lots of space, surely they could accommodate an extra class in their grounds.

What do you think about the school situation in Harpenden?