Thursday 14 April 2016

Pupil vacancies and waiting lists in Brent schools

A snap-shot of Brent schools rolls taken on March 29th shows that on that date there were no primary school pupils without school places. Waiting lists consisted of children who were attending one school but wanted to tranfer to another. This is often because parents want siblings together at the same school and put names down for when a vacancy arises.  Children may be on the waiting lists of several schools.

Primary schools that have recently expanded tend to have some unfilled places. Harlesden Primary School had 25 vacancies in Reception, Uxendon Manor 21 and Strathcona-Roe Green 11.

The longest waiting lists for Reception spaces (children are already attending other schools as stated above) were: Wembley Primary 36, St Josephs RC Infants 25, Park Lane 25, Barham 23, Ark Academy and Islamia 21 and Chalkhill 20.

The closure of the private Gower House school on Blackbird Hill, Kingsbury, at the end of the Summer Term LINK will see 137 primary pupils looking for a school plcae  although they may transfer to other private schools.

The controversial proposed expansion of Byron Court from the current 3 classes of 30 to 5 classes of 30 seems unsupported by the relatively low waiting list of 9 children for a reception place.

The figures reveal that Crest Academy has 189 of 330 places unfilled in Year 7.  Crest is in the same area where Gladstone Free School wants to set up. Ark Elvin had 71of 240 places unfilled in Year 7  and Newman College 47 of 150 Year 7 places unfilled. In total there were 322 vacancies in Year 7. 195 in Year 8, 160 in Year 9, 113 in Year 10 and 81 in Year 11.

Ark Elvin figures may be out of date because the school (along with several others - see notes on spreadsheet below) does not take part in Brent Council's co-ordination of 'In Year' admissions.

Brent Council is expecting increased demand for secondary places as the increased primary roll moves on to secondary school and there are plans for a new secondary free school in Brent North. From these figures this might detrimentally impact on Ark Elvin.

Click right corner to see full table


6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Let's not suggest the proposed free school near Gladstone Park shouldn't open because The Crest is only part full. The latter is failing. No parent who exercises any choice or has any ambition for their child should consider it.

Anonymous said...

I'd argue that any parent who exercises any choice or has any ambition would not choose Gladstone Free School. Have a read around the, Gladstone is run by and for the dodgy couple running the gig, the accounts for the private educational consultancy they run have made big profits each year since Gladstone was approved in 2014. It's nothing short of a scam, taking EFA money every year and educating no one.

Anonymous said...

So much for Cheryl Andani stating at the Planning meeting that there is a massive need for Primary school places in Brent and that is why Byron Court Primary School needs to expand. Someone is clearly ignoring data or manipulating figures to get Planning passed.

Alison Hopkins said...

Well said, 13:17. How in the name of all that is decent they can have been taking cash for over four years does my head in.

And Crest is actually a decent school in many ways.

Philip Bromberg said...

The good news is that there now seems no reason why we should not resume a full library service in the Preston Library building (currently shared with Wembley High), as promised by Labour at the last election.
Philip Bromberg, Chair, Preston Community Library

Martin Francis said...

Edited comment: The Sudbury Court Residents Association has stated from the outset that the demand for Primary places has been grossly overstated. The responsible Brent officer has been pushing her false claims, influencing the Cabinet in the early stages of the Byron Court expansion plans,and has continued to do so at every stage. Even as late as March she presented her false figures to the Planning Committee, still insisting that her projections indicated a shortfall in available Primary places. This is her "specialist subject"...