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Lewisham primary schools short of 543 reception level places

6.16 As of the end of January 2010 cut-off date, 3699 First Preference applications had been received on time for the 3156 Reception places available.

It’s impossible to exaggerate the impact of the numbers revealed in the Mayor and Cabinet papers of 24th February (link to document) and that the South London Press reports about today.
The sobering news is that next year Lewisham will be short of 543 reception level primary school places.

If we weren’t so close to an election the Mayor would have to be forced out of his seat for his inability to face up to the most basic needs of the community he is supposed to look after.

This report to the Mayor is full of explanations about why we are where we are, but on the side of the administration there are no excuses, the fact is that they saw it coming, and didn’t rise to the challenge.

Over 500 children and families will suffer greatly. A whole generation of Lewisham’s children will receive a reduced service, overcrowded classes, not enough teacher’s attention, insufficient play area. All of this at that most crucial stage of their education. As I said, the consequences are immense.

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This entry was posted on March 26, 2010 at 2:32 pm and is filed under Local politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

2 Responses to “Lewisham primary schools short of 543 reception level places”

  1. Clare Griffiths Says:
    March 26, 2010 at 9:59 pm

    This really has me panicking. We’re due to apply this year coming up for entry in September 2011 and it can only be worse! The birth rate has soared and people aren’t moving away at anything like the rates they were pre-school-entry as they can’t get the prices they would have liked for their houses! We were never planning to move away but are now facing the real possibility of not having a primary school place. 😦

  2. Max Says:
    March 26, 2010 at 10:44 pm

    I’m incredibly worried too, my daughter is supposed to start in September 2010. We’ll see in a few weeks time what’s the outcome of the application we made.
    And, even assuming she gets a place, shall we subject her to what the Council promises to deliver in terms of overcrowding and reduced attention from teachers?

    The gap is so huge, and it was flagged up, but it doesn’t look like anything decisive was attempted to remedy at all, like starting to plan for extra new schools.
    They’re only starting now!

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