Showing posts with label reception. Show all posts
Showing posts with label reception. Show all posts

Wednesday 14 March 2018

Figures reveal decline in demand for Reception school places in Brent

An FoI request regarding school rolls in Brent following the January 'in Year' census has revealed a considerable number of unfilled Reception class places in the borough as well as unfilled places scattered across the primary school years.  Some of the vacancies are at schools that were expanded as a result of the high primary demand of recent years. Demographic factors such as EU citizens going home post-Brexit and families being housed outside of London as a result of the Benefit Cap may have affected the numbers.

In the late 70s primary schools suffered from what was called 'falling rolls' as the population of children reduced.  This resulted in the closure of some schools and amalgamation of others. In what was then the Inner London Education Authority teachers were compulsorily redeployed to schools needing teachers.

We are not at that point yet but some schools might eventually reduce their forms of entry - the number of classes they take in at Reception and then in each year group throughout the school. Each form of entry is 30 pupils, so when interpreting the figures for the number of vacancies in each school the number of forms of entry needs to be taken into account. 10 vacancies in a five form entry school is much less serious that 10 vacancies in a one form entry school.

School funding is for the most part based on the number of pupils, so schools suffering from a large number of vacancies will incur a financial loss. Budgeting becomes more difficult when the reduction in numbers is less than a whole class, so the school cannot reduce the number of teachers but has less money to spend on them and teaching assistants.  I understand that some schools which have expanded may have negotiated a 'cushion; with the local authority so they are funded for a full teacher's salary even if the class has vacancies. Unfilled vacancies reduce the number of pupil in each class in a cohort so there is some educational advantage but at a time of education cuts these are undermined by the financial impact.

The core funding per primary pupil (before sums for deprivation, EAL and other factors are added) is about £3,400.

In the table below, based on the FoI response LINK,  I have included vacancies throughout the school as well as Reception vacancies. I have listed only those schools with significant vacancies. St Mary's RC Primary at only 2 forms of entry is the one with one of the highest percentage vacancies.

Kilburn Grange Free School is not funded by the local authority but instead directly funded by the DfE. As a new school it only has children in Reception, Year 1 and Year 2. It has only filled the equivalent of 4 out of 6 classes.

The figures do raise the issue of whether the planned Ark Primary free school on the carpark of York House in Wembley is needed at its planned 3 forms of entry (90 children a year) when the recently expanded Elsley Primary School (it doubled in size) has 48 vacancies, although it will be argued the places are needed for the new Quintain developments.


School Name Forms of entry Vacancies (unfilled places Reception) Waiting List Total vacancies whole school
Brentfield 3 20 0 44
Bryon Court 5 44 0 69
Carlton Vale Infants 2 22 0 66
Christchurch CofE 1 8 0 21
East Lane Primary 3 0 0 156
Elsley Primary School 4 48 0 71
Harlesden Primary School 3 38 0 112
Kilburn Grange Free School 2 13 0 62
Lyon Park Primary 4 8 2 20
Newfield Primary 2 17 1 48
Preston Park Primary 3 12 1 45
Roe Green Strathcona School 1 23 1 75
St Andrew & St Francis CofE 2 9 0 18
St Mary's CofE Primary 2 7 1 48
St Mary's RC Primary School 2 25 0 150
The Stonebridge Primary 3 57 0 85
Uxendon Primary School 3 16 2 53
Total vacancies
367
1143

Friday 23 February 2018

Brent's child obesity crisis worsens - nearly 1 in 3 obese on leaving primary school

A report to the Brent Community Wellbeing Scrutiny Committee lays out the stark facts. Graphs show the annual trend since 2013 (click on images to enlarge):




The most significant trend is the proportion of Year 6 children who are obese as they make the transition to secondary school. The figures are well above the London and England averages and the latest figure at 28.6% compares with 24.63% in 2013.

4 and 5 year olds in Reception classes have a lower level of overweight and obese children but there the proportion of overweight children has peaked at 14.8% (13.06% in 2013) and the proportion of obese children is almost back to 2013 levels at 13.8% (13.97%) despite a dip in the interim.

The report looks at the relationship between deprivation and obesity and found only a weak link in ward data:

Analysis by ethnic group shows the highest overweight and obese group is the Black group but the Asian increase in obesity rates from Reception to Year 6 is also worth noting.

The report LINK lists initiatives already underway to tackle the problem including promotion of breast feeding, adoption of Maternity Early Childhood Sustained Home Visiting model, the Healthy Early Years Award introduced in 2012, Health Schools London award, Action on Sugar (includes sugar free Tuesdays), Allotment and Food growing Strategy, promotion of physical activity and action on takeaways near schools.

All this hasn't reduced child obesity although there is a slight reduction for 2016-17 in Year 6 overweight children. Clearly more needs to be done to tackle what is an urgent public health issue.

The report outlines what is proposed by the Brent Clinical Commissioning Group:

-->
The proposed Service Delivery Improvement Plan would be:

1)  Review food provided by the Trust in line with guidance on reducing obesity and health weight by end of Quarter 1 (30 Jun 2018);

2)  Develop a local action plan to promote healthier options by end of Quarter 2 (30 Sep’18), and monitor in Quarter 3 (Oct-Dec 2018) and Quarter 4 (Jan-Mar 2019);

3)  Develop a plan for front-line staff to have ‘Make Every Contact Count’ training about reducing childhood obesity and local weight management services by end of Quarter 2 (30 Sep 2018), and monitor in Q4 (Jan-Mar 2019);

         4) Identify conditions where obesity is a risk factor (e.g.CHD, dementia,  diabetes), ensure family members are aware of ways to reduce their risks by being healthy weight, and ensure the family knows how to access weight management support, in Q3 (1 Oct 2018) onwards.

The treatment of childhood obesity

 The new 0-19 children’s public health service includes tier 1 and 2 weight management service. This is a preventive universal service with additional lifestyle weight management services for those children, and their families, who are overweight or obese. This is a new service within health visiting and school nursing and mobilisation has been delayed by difficulties recruiting to the new team. However, the full establishment has now been appointed.

The CCG commissions tier 3 services for those children who require specialist paediatrician or dietician clinical assessment and advice. A very small number of children will require drug treatment or surgery.

 The CCG and public heath secured funding from Health Education England which was used to provide tier 1 weight management training to front line staff working with children in Brent. 173 people have attended this training which should ensure a consistent high quality offer across the Borough.

Monday 18 November 2013

Give Brent Council the power and finance to build new schools for those without a school place

The Kilburn Times LINK this weekend headlined the news that more than 600 Brent primary school children are without a school place. I recently obtained figures from Brent Council under a Freedom of Information request that sheds a little more light on the situation.

There are in fact vacancies in some Brent primary schools but these may not be geographically convenient for parents of children out of school, especially when they involve children in a family attending several different primary schools.


This is the snapshot of  vacancies and children out of school on November 8th. Brent Managed and School Managed refers to the administration of admission applications. You can see that there is a slight surplus of school places in Years 3, 5 and 6.

The schools with several Reception vacancies at the time of the snapshot were Ark Franklin Primary Academy (the academy converted former Kensal Rise Primary), Brentfield Primary, Fryent Primary (recently expanded) and St Mary's RC Primary. The position changes rapidly so it is likely that these places will have been filled by now.

The fact that many children attend schools which are not their first choice or the most convenient means that many are on waiting lists for one or more other schools. With the current movement of families due to benefit reforms this produces 'churn' - high mobility as children change schools.

Despite a common National Curriculum across local authority schools this still produces disruption for children as they get used to a new school,  new teacher and new classmates, and is disruption for teachers as they cater for an ever changing class population.

Research indicates that such mobility has an initial impact on standards of achievement of the children who change schools.

The exceptional nature of the place shortage in Reception means that in total there are almost 2,500 on waiting lists in Brent. On the day of the snapshot five schools had more than 100 on the Reception waiting list: Anson 118, Ark 264, Islamia 104, Malorees Infants 102 and Wembley Primary 100.

I have asked for further information on how many of these are pupils on several waiting lists.

Things become much more settled at Year 1 with Barham the longest waiting list at 30, with a more equal distribution across schools, totalling 546. By Year 6 the total is 360.

The schools

I requested figures on the number of children out of school by planning area in order to get a picture of the geographical distribution. Brent Council said these figures were not available and instead provided distribution maps which are not exact. The blue figures on the map below indicate groups of children needing a Reception school place.


The demand for Reception places reinforces the need for planned construction of new primary schools by local councils rather than reliance on the vagaries of free school providers popping up in areas of need. The Council presently has a statutory duty to provide education for these children without having the powers to do so apart from expanding schools which are already often on crowded sites.

The Government needs to give local authorities back the power to plan and build new schools as well as the finance to do so. Instead they are wasting money of unwanted free school vanity projects.

Full documentation on my Freedom of Information Request can be found HERE


















































































Monday 23 February 2009

ARK GETTING DESPERATE?

"Cor! You must be really desperate!" I couldn't help exclaiming when I saw the shivering figure armed with glossy brochures in the entrance hall of Wembley ASDA today. She was vainly attempting to get busy shoppers to apply for a place at the Wembley ARK Academy - just down the road from the store.

This year the Academy failed to fill all its Reception places and there were vacancies in other local schools. Applications for admission in September 2009 close on Friday. Perhaps ARK is failing to persuade parents to send their children to a school which consists of temporary huts in the middle of a building site. It would be fun if all the infant and primary schools in Brent set up a stall in ASDA - there would be no room for shoppers!

The brochure states that ARK will launch the admissions process in September for the first secondary cohort due to start in September 2010 'if planning permission is granted'. This is an important caveat as Brent Council is still waiting for revised documents that it commissioned following the GLA's rejection of the Stage 1 Planning Application for the permanent academy. The revised traffic report will be crucial and the council will be re-opening consultation only when all the documentation is complete. This adds up to a significant delay for a process that was supposed to be completed earlier this year. The earliest possible date for the application to go to committee now looks like March 24th but it it more likely to be April.

Meanwhile shoppers at ASDA should be wary of adding a pig in a poke to their shopping trolley.