Oversubscribed primary to consult on proposed changes to admissions arrangements

Our Lady of Victories, a very popular and heavily oversubscribed Roman Catholic primary school in Putney is to consult parents in the area and other interested parties over proposed changes to its admission arrangements for the 2016/7 academic year.

The governing body at Our Lady of Victories primary school have been considering how to make the school’s admissions criteria fairer, and in particular to achieve the fairest way to allocate places when the number of applicants exceeds the number of available places.

The aim is to ensure that places at the school are able to be offered to children in practising Catholic families wherever they live within the parish of Our Lady of Pity and St Simon Stock.

Due to the use of distance between the school and the child’s home to determine who is offered a place, in recent years it has become increasingly difficult to offer places to practising Catholics families living further than, on average, 600m from the school.

After much thought, research and discussion, including taking advice from the Diocese, the governing body proposes to adopt a different method of determining how places should be offered, if there are more applicants than places available. The proposed significant change to address this is to introduce a method of random allocation or ballot within each category.

The ballot would operate according to strict guidelines ensuring total independence from the school or anyone connected with it. The governing body feels that this is the only way to give every family in the parish an equal chance when applying for a place at the school.

It should be noted that the proposed admissions criteria remained centred on Catholicity – it is only how to manage oversubscription that would change.

This consultation is for the attention of:

• Parents of children between the ages of two and eleven years old
• Other persons in the area who have an interest in the proposed arrangements
• All other admissions authorities within the local area
• The local authority
• The adjoining local authorities of Richmond, Merton, Lambeth and Hammersmith & Fulham
• The RC Diocese of Southwark

A copy of the proposed admissions criteria for 2016/17 is available on the school’s website at
www.ourladyofvictories.wandsworth.sch.uk

The consultation period is open for ten weeks between November 1, 2014 and January 10, 2015. Comments should be submitted in writing to Mrs Sue Lorenzo, Clerk to the Governors, Our Lady of Victories RC Primary School, 1 Clarendon Drive London SW15 1AW. Alternatively comments can be emailed to clerk@ourladyofvictories.wandsworth.sch.uk

The governors are also holding an open meeting at the school on Thursday, November 6 at 6.30pm to discuss the proposed changes to the oversubscription criteria, as part of the statutory consultation process.

Following the consultation period all submitted comments will be considered at a governors’ meeting and the final arrangements will be published on the school website’s after April 15 next year.

October 23, 2014