Haseltine Primary School........

[poppy]

I moved here four years ago and definately seem to see a lot more people pushing buggies around than I used to, so I think it might even get worse. Have no figures or proper evidence though!

If you scroll down the East Dulwich/Peckham Facebook Page you can see that their, MP Tessa Jowell, had managed to get an extra £12million just for extra East Dulwich primary school places! Now that's when it helps to have such a high-ranking MP! I wonder if Jim Dowd or his replacement would ever be able to arrange something similar for Sydenham,if a strong case can be proven?

[charlieandpip]

Don't lose hope as there is always a chance of getting another school before end of term (I know of someone this happened to last year).

Also if you want to help make schools in the area better get involved and become a governor. A friend of mine is already one at this school and I know last year they were looking for me people to get involved.

[LaHibernis]

So Lewisham now has 543 x 4 year olds without a Reception place in September/January, according to the South London Press.

But is it a case for an increase in the birth rate? I can't find any evidence...

What if more Lewisham parents are choosing to apply for Lewisham places and not Southwark or Bromley schools? A change in previous years, due to the rise in standards of schools in Sydenham?

Maybe more Lewisham parents are considering State schools rather than Independent schools due to the recession? We can't measure this.

This whole question of evidence is fascinating. Looking at the birth stats, there was an increase in live births in Lewisham between 2004/5 and 2005/6 (as there was across the whole of London), but only by about 260 babies (according to official birth stats from the Office for National Statistics), so doesn't account for the increase of 543 that mummycat quotes. I wouldn't expect the figures to tally exactly, but that is a siginifcant difference.

Which started me thinking... surely Lewisham must have known that they would need more reception places by looking at the number of 4 year olds taking up free early education places in Lewisham. But when I checked, the published figures were actually very similar in January 2009 to the figure in January 2008. This may be because nurseries/pre-schools only have a fixed number of spaces available, so cannot take extra children, even though more may be asking for places. It may be that those who live around the edges of the borough, such as ourselves, are sending their children to nurseries just outside Lewisham boundaries, or simply that they haven't taken the number of children at private nurseries into account - I know quite a few people who have chosen to send their children to a private nursery before enrolling at a local school.

One thing is certain though, Lewisham should really look at how they make estimates of the number of places that are required for the following year, so that they needn't have this terrific scramble of trying to errect temporary classrooms at any school where they can squeeze them in..

[Dalila]

The fact that a school is in the bottom50% does not necessarily mean that it is actually a bad school, it depends largely on the year cohort. Lewisham is quickly becoming known for treating its teachers badly.I found out yesterday that OFSTED inspectors have been ordered to fail schools in the bottom 50% to comply with the government plan to force them to become academies. Why? because then they will not be bearing the financial brunt...LMany people do not know that...so as a teacher if you are told that you are inadequate it is quite devastating...Some now are now contemplating suicide in a certain school in the Hither Green Area...It used to be a lovely school, working with the community...yes it had its problems but were the results bad enough for the school to be taken over by one of the Lewisham blue eyed girls who already is executive head of two schools? I am not sure...Was the school really a failing school or did Lewisham Education want it to be for their own agenda? Lewisham education seems also to have their "blue eyes boys and girls" Some schools have been given a 1 by OFSTED in all aspects of the inspection, that to me seems very suspicious and unrealistic. And what about the concept of executive heads heads...The head of Lewisham education has been here for donkeys years I don't feel that she has achieved much in those years and she made sure her friends are well in place...How I would enjoy for the tabloids to find out what is going on there? But nobody knows or care...what is happening to education in London?