How is it possible for WBC to send out little Gumbo's confirmation of school place letter yesterday from Newbury to a Newbury address first class and for it not to arrive the next day. How is it also possible my neighbours have their letters?

Also, when calling WBC why can they not divulge the school my child has been allocated to today but can do if I call tomorrow if the letter has still not arrived?

Mrs Gumbo is not a happy bunny.

I'm pressuming little Gumbo is waiting for a primary school allocation as secondary school places were sent out last Monday, & I know of several people who were faced with a similar dilema last week. I don't understand why WB can't divulge by email or phone when they've already divulged by letter? The information is either in the public domain or it's not, surely?
Good luck to you, anyway, I hope you get the place you want

I got my letter today........it wasn't good news! Home ed it is then!

A slight tangent on the question , but it's one of those crazy situations were the mail goes from Newbury to Swindon and then back again ( what carbon footprint ?).
I guess yours has decided , with a little human help , to take the scenic route .

I can sort of understand the post not turning up (although why it has to go on such a detour when it really only need to travel a few hundred metres is a bit baffling) but I can't understand why the people who are answering the phones at WBC have been instructed not to divulge the information they obviously have clearly in front of them!

It is because you cannot positively identify yourself to them over the phone.
It kinda makes sense to protect your interests.

So how can they do that tomorrow over the phone if the letter still has not arrived? they took my name, my daughters name, my daughters dob and my post code today.............what other security checks do they require? and if my daughters new school details fell in to the hands of some sinister organisation what could they actually do with that information?

Yes, I do see your point.

Whilst I wouldn't presume to advise anyone (education delivery is a very personal choice & I respect that), please remember your right of appeal. If you want a school place, it's definitely worth appealing the decision, you have nothing to lose & everything to gain. Good luck, hope it works out for you.

Oh I am putting in an appeal! I was applying for a place at St Johns for my youngest as my eldest is at St Nics. They offered me somewhere else even though I explained that I can't be in 2 places at once. My only options are home ed for the youngest or trying to get through town in Newbury traffic to get between 2 schools. There are no schools in Newbury that I can put both of them together.

Bring back catchments. Save on traffic as well.

But what do you do if your catchment school is failing, on special measures and over half the children are behind the rest of the country on maths and English?

If one cared about this, the chances are that one wouldn't be living in this sort of catchment anyway. Notwithstanding that going to a school that isn't on special measures and aren't behind the rest of the country, doesn't guarantee one a good education either.

I quite agree regarding the good education. My parents were quite dismayed when the fee paying school I attended got beaten by the local comprehensive in GCSE results. Even paying for schooling doesn't guarantee the best education.
We were in the catchment for St Johns when my eldest daughter started there. We then inherited my husbands family home which happened to be in the catchment for another school. Now the council declare that my youngest cannot follow her sister and the only available space is at the failing school just down the road. So I could end up with 2 kids at 2 schools at different ends of the town. And I can't put the elder one in the failing school too as they aren't taking any more admissions into her age group.

Please don't take my posts as a criticism of you, it's only that I am sceptical of this notion of choice. For me, all schools should by law, be at a minimum acceptable standard, but I don't trust the way they measure performance in any case.

I agree on this too. They should really start looking hard at why some schools have over 50 people on their waiting lists and others have empty seats.

Surely it's in you children's interests that the council doesn't give out information about them to anyone who already knows their name and their birthday?

These are standard security questions and if they wanted to ask more e.g. what we put as our 1st, 2nd and 3rd choices I would have been happy to inform them. Although as I said previously what use would knowing what school my daughter is attending be of any interest or use to anybody? and your point Mr WBC has not answered why they can tell us this info tomorrow over the phone and not today.

Quick update. Letter did not arrive again today, however, Mrs Gumbo phoned council and they told her the details. Only security questions asked were daughters d.o.b and address, both of which I gave yesterday!!!!! really they are muppets down there.

My advice would be to appeal and then hang on if you can. Your child doesn't have to be in school til the term after they are 5. In my experience, most people drop off the waiting list by the start of September, as they want their child in school somewhere. If you are patient and pick your moment, you could be lucky. However, you need to remember that St Nic's won't be your catchment either and attendance at St John's doesn't guarantee a place at St Nic's, so this whole thing may be repeated in 3 years' time. Good luck!

Sound advice indeed.
I can see this from many points; My son started at our catchment school, but I moved him out of cathment at the end of year 2. I had many, personal reasons for this, the main one being that for him, in my opinion, his first school was not able to meet his needs. It's a great school in many ways, & the school he moved to is not without issues, but for him, at the time, it was the right choice. I was very sad, not least because it meant he couldn't walk to school with friends, that I'd moved house so that he could be in catchment 4 years previously, that I too think the best mix is gained when children go to school in catchment etc etc, BUT at the time, I decided that the pros outweighed the cons.
I feel sorry for parents faced with these problems, I've been there & will probably go there again at secondary school placement time. That's why my motto remains; Make your decision based solely on what's best for your child, having contemplated all the options yourself & don't give up.
The 'stay in catchment area' is now invalid; an outstanding/good/satisfactory/poor rating has evolved, choices have been given & we cannot go back, whatever we might like to do.

Thank you all for your advice. I feel bad as I have kind of hijacked the OP's thread. Sorry! It would appear that I am not alone. The news page says that only 48% of people got their first choice school this time.

I have been on the phone all morning and have come to my decision, based solely on what I feel to be best for both of my children.

My eldest is happy and settled in her school and as I couldn't get both of them in the same school anyway, it would be pointless to move her so she stays where she is.

My youngest is in pre school and after talking to council funding people, they have agreed to continue funding her place there until July 2011, by which time she will be 5 years and 4 months.

In the meantime, I will appeal the decision with the school and if this doesn't work I will remain on waiting list. Should I still not have a place for her at school by July 2011, I will home ed her until she does get a place at either St Johns or St Nics at a later date.


The whole problem hinges on the fact that I can't be in 2 places at once, and wonder why schools don't stagger their start and end times a bit to allow more flexibility. This would also help with congestion as it would spread the traffic load out over a longer period of time. I also can't believe that there are no schools inNewbury that could fit both of them in, although I have been informed that Compton and Inkpen could possibly take both of them. But this would not be a good move for the older one and would involve a nightmare on public transport when I don't have the car. (I spoke to both schools and neither could provide transport as they only do so for kids in their catchment that have to travel a distance)

I do wish that government and others would stop banging on about choices of schools - there is no such thing and never has been.

All that is available is a preference, which has an entirely different meaning.

The major issue for the LA is not a lack of primary places (in fact, there is a surplus across W Berks), but that they cannot be magically moved around between schools. If you then add in the law limiting KS1 class size to 30, then you will realise that adding an extra child to the intake would take the class to 31, which requires another teacher and classroom; meanwhile, the taxpayer is paying for empty places elsewhere.

Schools are basically funded on pupil numbers - each child is worth about £2,500 pa in the school's budget. Teachers cost about £50K including on-costs. Classrooms cost considerably more and take time to build.

Better to engage with your school as allocated and improve it for all its pupils.

As someone who went through this a couple of years ago I wouln't hold out any hope of the appeal process getting you a result. If they have allocated the places at the chosen school in the order of merit that they publish on the application they have played by the rules and the appeal has no grounds.
Have you looked into 'breakfast clubs' at the school you have been given? Some of these open from 8am, but obvioulsy you do have to pay.
As posted before, waiting lists would seem to be the best bet and keep fingers crossed once the term starts.
I believe the problem has been caused by publishing the league tables and sat results myself...........

True, but in the over-subscription criteria for St Nic's, priority is given to pupils currently attending St John's over catchment area pupils (not currently attending St John's).

The only applicants prioritised over current St John's pupils are Children in Care.

Still a relief to get the letter confirming a place, though.