This summer has seen problems with Primary school places in London as a whole and the Dulwich area. It’s believed that changes in London’s demographics, combined with the impact of the recession, have led to an extraordinary rise in demand for new reception places, leaving many schools with little or no capacity to take on new pupils.

Southwark purchases school population predictions, as do 25/33 London Boroughs, from the Greater London Authority and have done for a number of years. The models used appear suddenly wrong. The figures were revised by the GLA on 7 April, then 18 May and then 17 June. Each time upwards. This is unheard of.

But how has this impacted on how things have gone overall as only unhappy families contact local councillors. This was the first year East Dulwich families had reported problems.

For the Dulwich area and Southwark overall 304 and 2,370 applications respectively from Southwark residents on time with further 45 and 556 late applications. For the Dulwich area and Southwark 90% had schools offered and accepted within 1mile of home for on time applications. For late applications the percentages fell to 80%.

Of those who didn’t get a school within 1mile of home many were from choice – attending religious schools or the same school as siblings.

This appears a success but I dont’ yet know how many families had their first or second choice.  Once we have that information we’ll have a clearer idea how successful things have been overall.

BUT to make this happen in the Dulwich area an emergency extra class has been created at Goodrich. HUGE THANKS to Goodwich School.

Lots of efforts behind the scenes to work out is this a blip? how long if a blip? how to prepare for next year? how long would a new school take to build? is it necessary? where would you build one if necessary? government rules would probably result in a religious school and would an Islamic, CoE or Catholic school solve any problem? These questions if acted upon in series would normally take 7 years before a new school opens due to government rules and procedures.

What do you think has caused this blip and is it long lasting?

What do you think would solve the problem?