Wilsons becoming co educational in 2015?

Eleven Plus (11+) in Surrey (Sutton, Kingston and Wandsworth)

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kk dad
Posts: 41
Joined: Fri Oct 10, 2008 11:26 am

Wilsons becoming co educational in 2015?

Post by kk dad »

Came across this article in the local paper.

http://www.suttonguardian.co.uk/news/10 ... irst_time/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Interesting development.
agathachristie
Posts: 225
Joined: Fri Sep 30, 2011 1:46 pm

Re: Wilsons becoming co educational in 2015?

Post by agathachristie »

Interesting read KK, however, wondering what the actual motive of Wilson's is considering that they are a super selective and no provisions are made for local children. Not until provisions are made for local children (Nonsuch and wallington) as is currently the case in the girls schools how will increasing the intake at Wilson's help the local community.
tiffinboys
Posts: 8022
Joined: Fri Nov 11, 2011 11:00 pm
Location: Surrey

Re: Wilsons becoming co educational in 2015?

Post by tiffinboys »

Interesting development. How about considering a satellite school offering co-educational places? This will cater to demands for single sex as well as co-educational places.
onlythebrave
Posts: 20
Joined: Fri Dec 28, 2012 10:38 pm

Re: Wilsons becoming co educational in 2015?

Post by onlythebrave »

I suppose it will address the lack of co-educational schools within Sutton, something that would attract parents with mixed siblings, but it will be interesting to see if there will also be a change to the admission criteria of the school.

Quite how this will help with the admission of Sutton residents is yet to be seen, as agathachrisite has pointed out there is no catchment area for Wilsons and any catchment put in place would benefit local residents but not necessarily Sutton residents due to the position of the school in the Sutton borough, so close to the Croydon boundary.
London_Mum
Posts: 269
Joined: Wed Jan 25, 2012 11:44 am

Re: Wilsons becoming co educational in 2015?

Post by London_Mum »

The plan is more places will be created taking Wilsons from a 5 form entry to a 6 form entry school. As to whether those extra 30 places will go locally though, I agree this doesn't necessarily follow.

All Sutton schools have been asked to expand in order to meet the shortfall between primary numbers coming through and Year 7 places currently available. There is an increasing gap between the number of Sutton places available in Year 7 and demand for those places from children in their last years at primary school. From 2014-15 the problem is expected to become quite noticeable and get increasingly worse.

Wilsons has also suffered a recent cut to funding - reportedly losing £1,431 per sixth form student. Increasing pupil numbers is therefore of the utmost importance in making up the financial losses they have faced.
panicattack
Posts: 162
Joined: Sun Jun 24, 2012 7:28 pm

Re: Wilsons becoming co educational in 2015?

Post by panicattack »

This is probably the biggest news to hit the forum for a while (and I hope it doesn't descend into another catchment area discussion!). There would be 30 more grammar school places available. Boys and girls taught together from year 7 for the first time in a SW London grammar school. The suggestion that other schools (with maybe less space than Wilson's) may have to expand in Sutton. What do people think? A good or bad thing in general, and for Wilson's?
zeinab
Posts: 353
Joined: Sun Jul 25, 2010 11:25 pm

Re: Wilsons becoming co educational in 2015?

Post by zeinab »

The Head emailed all parents asking for feedback on this. Personally I would prefer the school to stay as an all boys school but with my 4th & last being a DD (her 3 older brothers are at same gs), I will have to agree to the expansion as she'll be sitting the 11+ in 3 yrs time. The more gs places the better.

Desperate times calls for desperate measures & this is one of them.
tiffinboys
Posts: 8022
Joined: Fri Nov 11, 2011 11:00 pm
Location: Surrey

Re: Wilsons becoming co educational in 2015?

Post by tiffinboys »

panicattack wrote:and I hope it doesn't descend into another catchment area discussion!
and who is giving clue for this line of discussion? :lol: :lol:
London_Mum
Posts: 269
Joined: Wed Jan 25, 2012 11:44 am

Re: Wilsons becoming co educational in 2015?

Post by London_Mum »

Desperate times calls for desperate measures & this is one of them
I probably agree with this sentiment - expansion of schools in Sutton is now necessary. Unlike primary schools, there is no option to add last minute bulge classes or implement short term measures to pick up the slack. Every year there are a few children who get no local place offered at all but from 2014 onwards, there will be a genuine shortfall in the number of places available unless something is done now. I understand parents with children already at secondary school (grammar or otherwise) don’t always welcome expansion plans in general but the predicted shortfall in places for anyone with younger children is very worrying. In fact the worry is even greater for parents with an older child at grammar school since they have no safety net of a guaranteed sibling place.

For those with younger children the worry is that the overall shortfall means their child gets no grammar school place and perhaps no decent school place offered at all. Increased numbers fuel competition for grammar school places so a higher birth rate from 2014 onwards means more children applying to each good school which in turn means 'the catchments' for the good comprehensives shrink and suddenly grammar schools become the only hope for many people who have lost access to any decent, local school.

The decreased funding per head for those already at the school also means that Wilsons (and others) must consider enrolling enough pupils to be viable. There cannot be the situation, as described on another thread referring to TGS, where schools reduce the number of 6th form science lessons to save money or seek other solutions such as limiting the range of subjects offered.
tiffinboys
Posts: 8022
Joined: Fri Nov 11, 2011 11:00 pm
Location: Surrey

Re: Wilsons becoming co educational in 2015?

Post by tiffinboys »

While I did not wish to enter any debate about catchment/distance policies (and cause panic), but could not resist. Simply expanding without any sensible catchment policies will not help alleviate shortage of places in local areas, be it Sutton or Kingston or any where else.
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