How to get your child into first choice school (From The Wiltshire Gazette and Herald)

How to get your child into first choice school

A NUMBER of Chippenham children, who lost appeals to get into the town's secondary schools, are having to start the new term out of town.

Even pupils with brothers and sisters at Hardenhuish, Sheldon and Abbeyfields were not guaranteed places following a change in admissions policy.

Now Wiltshire Council is urging parents to apply for places for next September's intake by next month.

The deadline for applications to secondary schools is noon on October 21, 2005 and for primary schools it is noon on November 18 2005.

And parents who leave it too late will find their child does not have a place at a school of their choice.

Gerard MacMahon, headteacher of popular Sheldon School in Chippenham, said: "It's vital. If parents do not get their forms in they will be placed at the back of the queue. For a popular and oversubscribed school like Sheldon it is absolutely vital to get the application in on time."

The school, which enjoyed record GCSE results this year, has a new year 7 already bulging at the seams with 289 pupils instead of the expected 280. It also has four children on its waiting list who have older siblings at the school and still failed to get a place because their applications were sent in late, for various reasons.

Although these children have joined other schools, Mr MacMahon said they would have to wait for places to become available before they could join Sheldon.

It was the first time a new application procedure was used, with applications going to Wiltshire County Council, the local education authority, rather than directly to the schools.

But the changeover did cause problems for a number of Chippenham families including the Browns of Hungerdown lane.

Craig, 11, a pupil at St Peter's School, handed mistakenly handed his application in to his school rather than posting it to the LEA and when he was told to take it home again to be posted, he stuffed it into his locker and his parents were none the wiser until the deadline date had passed.

Despite the fact he had two older siblings at Sheldon, the youngster was left without a place and his parents had to take the case to an admissions appeal at the school.

Fortunately he was successful and began his new school life last week but mum Deborah said: "It was a big relief for both of us. Craig was stressing about not having a place.

"But I would say to parents, make sure you send in the form yourselves. Make sure you read the information and send it in on time and to the right place. I would not want anybody to have to go through what we had to go through."

Wayne Howells, assistant headteacher at Hardenhuish School in Chippenham reiterated the warning: "We are very conscious of the trauma that can result when families miss out on the key dates in the application process. Our big chance of advertising the deadline date is at our open evening on October 6 when we make a point of reinforcing the LEA's literature," he said.

"We have already arranged for LEA officers to attend our open evening. Parents need to recognise that the cycle of open evenings at the various secondary schools is their signal to make their decision and to communicate it to the LEA."

Hardenhuish School has increased the number of tutor groups in year 7 by one, to nine, in order to accommodate the demand.

Abbeyfield School headteacher Trish Shubrook said the new year 7 was full to capacity at 180 but everyone who wanted a place at the school managed to get one. Abbeyfield does not operate a waiting list.

This year once again all school applications are being handled directly by Wiltshire County Council.

Parents applying for secondary places should fill in a form naming three preferences, either in or out of the county, and return the form to the county council.

Parents applying for primary places in Wiltshire should fill in a form also naming three preferences and return it to the county council. If they are applying for a place at an out-of-county primary school, they should contact the local education authority for that area directly.

The county council will be sending out forms to primary schools for all year six children at the beginning of this term for application to secondary schools for 2006-2007.

It will also be sending forms to infants' schools for all children transferring to junior school in September 2006.

A spokesman for the LEA said everyone who had applied for a place in year 7 at secondary school had got a place.