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werra
Forum Admin
27 Posts |
 Posted - 02/18/2009 : 14:44:06
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Parents with children in school years 4 & 5 may be interested to learn that there is a consultation exercise in progress re proposed changes to Blenheim High Schools' Admission policy.
The essence of the OLD policy is places being allocated in the following priority order.
1. Looked after children
2. Siblings of children already in attendance
3. Children with Medical / Social / Educational need
4. 20% of remaining places to children from Court ward
5. remainder of places to be shared between 12 Epsom & Ewell wards and Worcester Park
The new proposed policy allocated places in the following priority order:
1. Looked after children
2. Siblings of children already in attendance
3. Children with Medical / Social / Educational need
4. 15% of remaining places to children of Court ward AND 15% to children from West Ewell.
5. The remainder of places then shared between 11 Epsom & Ewell wards and Worcester Park.
This is good news for Parents in West Ewell who will see the chances of their children getting into, what they consider to be the local secondary school, increase markedly.
However WERRA is at a loss as to why Out Of Borough children receive any priority over Borough children, and why Ruxley ward children remain completely excluded from accessing secondary education at Blenheim High School.
Anyone wishing to express an opinion on this proposed change needs to do so by writing to the
Chair of Governors
Blenheim High School
Longmead Road
Epsom
Surrey
KT19 9BH
Letters need to be received by 1st March 2009.
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werra
Forum Admin
27 Posts |
Posted - 03/10/2009 : 13:38:24
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The following update comes from WERRA Chair, Helen Worwood:-
I was very encouraged to hear from residents re the consultation exercise about changing the admissions policy to Blenheim high school.
The calls I received very clearly fell into two types.
* Residents in West Ewell are delighted at the improved chance their children will have of attending Blenheim and strongly support the proposal
* Residents from Ruxley who are annoyed that an opportunity to include them in the admissions policy of Blenheim has been missed.
We walk a tightrope in representing both viewpoints and would like to reassure all residents that we will continue to seek to influence both the Governors of Blenheim High School and Surrey County Council who oversee admissions to review the admissions policy of Blenheim to the benefit of all children in Epsom.
The letter below, sent to Governors, has been acknowledged & I will continue to keep you posted regarding any further developments.
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West Ewell & Ruxley Residents Association
Founded 1956
President: Alderman R.S. Gee O.B.E
Chair: Mrs H Worwood
Secretary: Mrs G Smitheram
37 Heatherside Road
West Ewell
Epsom
Surrey
KT19 9QS
26th February 2009
Clerk to the Governors
Blenheim High School
Longmead Road
Epsom
Surrey
KT19 9BH
Re: Blenheim High school Admissions policy 2010
Dear Sir / Madam,
I am writing to inform you of the comments of West Ewell and Ruxley ward parents expressed to me as chair of the West Ewell and Ruxley Residents Association, in regard to the proposed changes to Admission policy for Blenheim High School for 2010.
Parents in West Ewell ward, without exception, have welcomed the proposed change and whole heartedly approve of the increased opportunity it will give for children from the West Ewell area to gain admission to Blenheim High School.
Parents from Ruxley ward are sadly still disadvantaged by the new proposal and require that the admissions policy be further amended in order to give them equality with other parents in the Borough of Epsom & Ewell.
There are a number of reasons why Ruxley ward now needs to be included in the Admissions policy for Blenheim School.
1. Equality of opportunity for all Epsom families.
Ruxley ward is the only ward in the borough of Epsom & Ewell to be excluded in the Admissions Policy of Blenheim high school. Local parents are aware that the School Admissions Code states that parents can expect “ a system where all parents feel they have the same opportunities to apply for schools they want for their child”. In order to have real choice of more than one secondary school Ruxley needs to be included as one of the Epsom Borough wards that take a share of places at Blenheim School. Any other policy does not achieve “same opportunity”.
2. Expanding population.
As well as giving preference to all Epsom wards other than Ruxley the policy favours an out of borough area, putting local children at further disadvantage. Children from any part of Epsom & Ewell should no longer be disadvantaged in their choice of secondary education by a policy that gives preference to children from any out of borough area.
Epsom is a rapidly developing borough. It is already widely known that 400+ homes are committed to being built in the “hospital cluster” development lands and the admissions policies of local schools need to be changed to take account of these changing demographics. Local children must be given priority to attend local schools. Blenheim can no longer accept out of borough children when children in new developments such as Clarendon Park and the soon to be completed St Ebbas and West park sites can not be accommodated in their local secondary school.
3. Public transport.
The school Admissions code also states “it is good practice to give priority to children who could reach one school (but not others) by public transport”. Children from the older parts of Ruxley ward are able to utilise the 418, 467 and E5 bus routes to access Longmead road from Ruxley. Whilst the Clarendon Park development within Ruxley has the E9 bus route which also allows access to Blenheim High school. There are, therefore good enough public transport links to allow children to use buses to access Blenheim high school. This is something to be encouraged as a contributor to reducing local congestion.
4. Social development of Children.
Children’s social and emotional development during early school years is an important factor in their experience of the education system. Currently many children from West Ewell and Ruxley wards enjoy good junior years education at Danetree Junior School, Southfield Park, and Stamford Green. All of which enjoy strong links with Blenheim using their sports or science facilities to supplement their own. It therefore seems a natural progression to many children that they will move onto Blenheim when it is their turn to “go to big school”. It is undoubtedly a blow to some of them to discover that they will not be joining their classmates at the big school they anticipated, simply because they live in the “wrong” electoral ward.
Conclusion & Proposal
In summary I would like to support the proposal for the changed admissions criteria for Blenheim High school for 2010 admissions.
However, I would also like to propose that the Governing body work with Surrey County Council to examine further ways to evolve the policy to allow for a greater number of local children to attend the school, specifically to evolve the admissions policy to include children from Ruxley ward.
I believe phasing out the policy of awarding places to out of borough children can accommodate this change. If, for the next few years’, places are only awarded to siblings of out of borough children already at the school, rather than new out of borough children, then more places can be released for Epsom borough children. This would enable families with more than one child to avoid the situation of having to get siblings to different schools, whilst increasing “same opportunity” secondary school choice to all Epsom area residents.
I would welcome an opportunity to discuss this proposal with you further.
Yours faithfully,
Helen Worwood
Chair, West Ewell & Ruxley Residents Association.
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Secondary school admissions changes
