Equal school choice petition

Situation

At present, any Hertfordshire-based child applying for a secondary school place can only have three school choices. If based in Buckinghamshire or Hillingdon (i.e. out-of-county), a child can have up to five or six school choices. Therefore, a Hillingdon or Buckinghamshire-based, out-of-county child has twice as much choice as that afforded to a child in Hertfordshire.

Initially, this may not seem a problem until we recognise that by giving our child/ren a chance to apply to the local selective schools [e.g. Rickmansworth School, St. Joan of Arc School, and St. Clement Danes School, (Harefield Academy is out-of county)], we quickly run out of space on the form to make good choices. And, if we do not select as one of our three choices one of the Hertfordshire community schools as a back-up and our child/ren fails to gain a place at one of the selective schools, they are put onto a waiting list to be allocated a school that they have not ranked.

In the meantime, their out-of-county peers who have stated a Hertfordshire community school as one of their five or six choices are given priority over the Hertfordshire child that did not; they are allocated a place in the Hertfordshire community school they chose and are given priority for this place over the Hertfordshire child put onto the waiting list!

Aim

We are seeking to petition the Hertfordshire County Council to change this inequality. This can be done simply by offering Hertfordshire children as many choices as their out-of-county peers. Hertfordshire County Council are currently inviting you to let them know what you think of their suggestions for how children will be able to apply to secondary schools in September 2010. We encourage as many parents as possible to reply to Hertfordshire County Council to pressure them to act responsibly and with common sense to change the number of schools that your child can select on their application form.

You can read the consultation document that Herts CC has issued by clicking here.

YOUR action

Thus, we would appreciate as many of you as possible using the attached “Consultation reply template” attached in the ‘Useful files to download’ section of this website to send unchanged or use as a template for your own letter to inform Herts CC that our children should be given the same opportunity as their out-of-county peers in neighbouring Local Education Authorities. Where to send the letter is included in the letter template itself. Your reply must be with Herts CC by 26 February 2010.

If you want any further information about the WD3 Secondary School Action Group, please contact us at wd3school@yahoo.co.uk having looked at the rest of this website first if you can.