'Croydon schools lottery may deny our daughter learning support', say Kenley parents
CROYDON Council's schools admissions policy was this week branded a "lottery" by a family whose daughter needs special support.
The Ashton family, from Kenley, are among a quarter of families across the borough whose first choice of primary school has been refused by the authority.
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Stephanie and Joe Ashton from Kenley are outraged their three-year-old Molly has been rejected her first place school despite her needing supported learning
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Stephanie and Joe Ashton are outraged their three-year-old Molly has been rejected her first place school despite her needing supported learning
But for their three-year-old daughter Molly the stakes on securing a first-choice school are much higher than for some other families.
Molly, who lives with mother Stephanie and father Joe in Godstone Road, needs special support with her speech and at present receives two sessions of therapy a week at Roke Nursery.
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But 22-year-old Stephanie and Joe now fear for the worst after Molly was refused a place at Roke Primary [which follows on from the nursery] after being given their fifth choice – Kenley Primary School – which does not employ a specialist therapist like Roke.
Stephanie said: "The reason we wanted her to go to Roke is that she would get that extra support and we are worried she will fall behind if she doesn't go there and continue to get the support she is getting now."
The family say that their nextdoor neighbour, Lisa Reid, getting a place for her son at Roke in September last year has added insult to injury.
Kenley Primary School is also a mile's distance further from the family home than Roke.
The Ashtons are not alone. For this September, 25 per cent of families in Croydon did not get their first choice of primary school – the fifth-worst percentage of all 33 London boroughs.
Croydon also ranks below the London-wide average for the percentage of families who get their first-choice secondary school.
In September, 63 per cent of children will start at their first choice – the eleventh-worst London-wide.
Stephanie, who also has a six-month-old baby with Joe, said no option was provided on the council form to list Molly as a child who requires speech therapy.
She added: "There is an option if your child receives therapy outside school, but if they receive it in school there is no option to list that.
There should be because we are talking about children's futures."
At present parents are required to list six schools in order of preference.
Neighbour Lisa, whose five-year-old son started at Roke in September, said: "It just shows how ridiculous it is. Going by how the crow flies their house is actually closer."
A council spokesman said: "We have an absolute duty to provide sufficient places for our growing school population, and the council is having to find substantial sums of money from local taxpayers' funds to meet the projected increasing demand.
"In the five years to 2015 our various school expansion projects are costing some £217 million, although it seems clear that not all of this is going to be covered by central government grants."
Comments
by NHSExec
Wednesday, June 27 2012, 5:02PM
“Too many bad schools, due to too many bad pupils, due to too many bad parents, due to too many bad schools, due to..... ad infinitum.
Hence those half decent schools get over subscribed.
I'm afraid you have to face the fact that society is part made up of a large underclass who have little more intelligence than my pet cats and are far less sociable. Who in their right mind wouldn't want to avoid them and keep their children away from their dysfunctional offspring as well?”
by The3rd
Wednesday, June 27 2012, 2:20PM
“The disabled child should get her first choice. She is special needs so she should be able to "queue jump" so to speak.
I think a lot of the problems are caused by parents not wanting to send their children to bad schools, and who can blame them.”
by PeterNT
Wednesday, June 27 2012, 10:14AM
“Can't have everything our own way all the time people come on.
Kenley Primary is a very good school and Molly will do well there. Good luck to her!
Also, speech therapy is available outside school, free of charge I believe.”
by Jessofcroy
Wednesday, June 27 2012, 9:54AM
“Just because the school doesn't have that facility now, doesn't mean that they won't have it in the future, especially as they now have a child with a need.”
by swsquires1
Wednesday, June 27 2012, 8:45AM
“I would be interested to know if the problem is not enough school places (I am assuming everyone gets one, so not the case) or huge disparity in quality and facilities between schools.
From a quick scan on the web, it appears that 5% of kids enter school with speech related issues, approx 1 per class I guess. For me personally I see speech and communication as one of the key things for young children so it has to be sorted. I cannot think of anything that would dent a young child's confidence more than having problems communicating (i.e. they will struggle to fit and other kids could tease).
Obviously we have to be careful as half the population seem to have a special need but when parents are seeking the best for their child (and not using it to get extra benefits and cash) everything has to be done to support them.
I sincerely hope that Croydon council are able to do something to help this young family. My best wishes are with them.”