Letter from Bushey Hall School

WP · Post by WP » Fri Mar 06, 2009 5:30 pm

greenteadrinker wrote:I wonder if anything can be done to promote the number of places in schools to Hertfordshire children first.

If the newspaper article is correct in saying that 220 children from outside Hertfordshire got places and 241 children got Bushey Hall, then surely someone somewhere should be looking at these figures and saying "Hang on for a minute".

What about other community schools with children that dont want the places? Why should parents who live in Hertfordshire and pay their taxes to HCC be reduced to relying on the Independent Schools or schools outside of Hertfordshire to give them the choices that they need and should have.

As tense pointed out, the Greenwich Judgement forbids discriminating against applicants simply because of the authority they live in. Catchments are allowed (Rotherham Judgement), but only if they don't infringe the Greenwich Judgement. You can draw a catchment to exclude children outside the county, but only if you also exclude Herts children living the same distance away (e.g. Kings Langley for WGGS). DAO used to have separate catchments for Herts and equally distant parts of North London, with different rules, until they had their arrangements checked over by an adjudicator last year. Now they have a combined catchment that spans the county boundary. Parmiters made a small change to their catchment at the same time, replacing "the area of HA6 within Hertfordshire" with just "HA6".

The nub of the issue is that partially selective schools have large catchments.

As for why should we pay, well they pay too. The schools are funded from national taxation, even though it passes through the county.

greenteadrinker wrote:Why is it that if you live ouside Hertfordshire you can, in some instances, get up to 7 choices and apply for Hertfordshire schools and in Hertfordshire only 3?

This doesnt seem very fair to the Hertfordshire children.

No it isn't, but this is something that HCC has inflicted on us.

watdaddy · Post by **watdaddy** » Fri Mar 06, 2009 5:36 pm

Yes that sounds right.
If you recall the watford grammar adjudication in the autumn on 2008 there were two complaints; one was cross-sibling rule which was upheld and the other was to remove applications from the outer area catchment area which was not upheld.

watfordmum66 · Post by **watfordmum66** » Tue Mar 10, 2009 8:16 pm

greenteadrinker.

Did you go to the meeting ?

Wondering what was said ?

greenteadrinker · Post by **greenteadrinker** » Tue Mar 10, 2009 9:16 pm

Yes I was there.

Had a slideshow presentation and a talk (carefully worded IMHO) and tour of the school. The sheer emptiness of the school struck me and although the tour was supposedly random, i couldnt help bu feel that some of the classrooms had been very carefully chosen.

The building is due to be torn down in three years time!

watfordmum66 · Post by **watfordmum66** » Tue Mar 10, 2009 9:24 pm

Are they saying it will be rebuilt ?

winnie · Post by **winnie** » Tue Mar 10, 2009 9:45 pm

Hi, I am new to this forum. I went to the meeting at bushey hall this morning. There were very few students in the school, and I agree that the whole thing was staged. The sixth former who showed us round had a timetable and crib sheet. Needless to say I asked lots of awkward questions, poor kid. There were notices all over the place encouraging attendance, and plenty of references to bullying. I saw a girls toilet with a huge padlock on it. (Rumour being that they get smashed up if left unlocked). During the head's uninspiring speech he talked about bushey hall urban myths. It sounded like they were all true - including the one about having a dedicated police presence. All in all very desperate.

VAUOAK · Post by **VAUOAK** » Tue Mar 10, 2009 10:31 pm

Went to the meeting at BH with an open mind!

Wanted to come home with something positive and feel better but didn't.

watfordmum66 · Post by **watfordmum66** » Tue Mar 10, 2009 11:23 pm

Hi Winnie and vauoak

I was thinking of people attending today and so hoped that parents would feel more positive.

I wish you all the best in the future

AlisonR · Post by **AlisonR** » Tue Mar 10, 2009 11:25 pm

watfordmum66 wrote:Are they saying it will be rebuilt ?

(I know it's a horrible situation many people find themselves in at the moment, but this made me smile).

greenteadrinker · Post by **greenteadrinker** » Wed Mar 11, 2009 12:35 am

It is due to be rebuilt but the HT is rather uninspriring and cant see him taking the school forward and developing an academy. He is just not dynamic enough