Maiden Erlegh Catchment

The 2012 admissions have been announced. The cut off for Maiden Erlegh is 0.944 miles within the designated area. See below for map. Note that the circle may be slightly off centre (not sure where on the school it should centred)

The Parents Campaign would like to thank you for your support over the past year. The outcome is not quite as we wished but is much better for Reading residents than the original WBC plan.

This site will no longer be maintained but there are plans for a more general campaign regarding education in East Reading

The situation regarding where the cut-off will for Maiden Erlegh spaces won’t become apparent until next year but our best estimate can be found below:

NOTE THIS IS AN ESTIMATE – PLEASE CONTACT WOKINGHAM COUNCIL FOR MORE DETAILS

This has been worked out using the fact that the new catchment is approximately 50% too big for the capacity of Maiden Erlegh – Postcodes have been used for ease of mapping but note that each house is calculated seperately by WBC

Our best estimate is that the cut-off will be somewhere in the orange zone but it may vary slightly into the red or green zones due to siblings from now excluded areas and Parental preference. As with all changes like this, it will take a few years for the situation to stabilise

A couple of people have queried how they can still be in the catchment for Maiden Erlegh but not have a realistic chance of getting a place at the school…

The WBC scheme had 3 major components:

1. A much expanded catchment area
2. A protected small inner circle with guaranteed places
3. A complex and unique (in the country!)  tie-break to give access to Lower Earley rather than Park Ward and areas closer to Bulmershe

The Schools Adjudicator rejected components 2) and 3), leaving a much expanded catchment area with a standard radial tie-break (i.e. those closest to the school get higher priority access)

So the catchment is now 50% bigger than it used to be – and is now much too large for the school’s capacity

Therefore some of the existing  parts (e.g. the Northern area of Park Ward and some of Lower Earley) will lose out to the newer parts of the catchment

With hindsight, it may have been a mistake to allow the expanded catchment area given that it was part of a more general scheme and the other components of the scheme have been rejected

The decision has been made by the YPLA and the Office of the Schools Adjudicator. Full wording of the decision can be found here: Full Schools Adjudicator Decision, and a summary can be found below:

• The inner 600m catchment was rejected (as arbitrary and unfair)
• The NANS tie-break was rejected (radial tie-break will be enforced)
• The expanded DA was accepted (bizarre as the school has no capacity for more students)

The full effect of this won’t become apparent until next year but our initial assessment indicates that:

• The fringes of Lower Earley will have mixed fortunes. Some areas currently in the DA will lose out, while other areas will gain
• Parts of Park Ward will retain their places at Maiden Erlegh but the Northern edges (possibly North of Crescent Road) will lose out
• The biggest winners will be the area between the Wokingham Road and Railway lines (South of the 3 Tuns). They look to secure almost certain places at Maiden Erlegh – slightly ironic as this area is closest to Bulmershe and has always been in the Bulmershe DA. Also ironic as WBC had sought to exclude this area from the Maiden Erlegh DA

An interesting question is where Lower Earley stands re. admissions to Holt, Embrook and Forest schools. Many parts of Lower Earley have been removed from these designated areas and are only in the Bulmershe DA.

If you would like to support these objections please email us at info@maidenerleghcatchment.co.uk with your name, postal address and email address

Please indicate if you would be happy to join all 3 of the below objections or if not, which ones you do agree with

We are about to submit our objections to the recent changes to the catchment and tie-break changes that Wokingham Council have recently introduced

Please note that to object you must be a parent living in the relevant area whose children have attained the age of two but are not above compulsory school age and who are or will be eligible to apply to be admitted to the Academy

We will be objecting on the following grounds:

1) Main Objection

The main thrust of this is how it affects Reading children. Some of these objections are not relevant to WBC residents (but some definitely are)  but there is nothing to stop Wokingham residents joining this objection

• Political influence of WBC councillors on the process
• Breaches of the School Admissions Code
• Discrimination against neighbouring borough
• Disparity in investment between the two schools
• Unfair tiebreakers/positive discrimination
• Discrimination both Social and Racially
• Disparity of the two areas
• Splitting the community
• Not a ‘Green’ plan

2) Complexity

This affects Wokingham and Reading residents

• Demand vs capacity (re the expanded DA)
• Ability for parents to understand the tie-break and be able to apply it
• Confusing link to Bulmershe
• Confusing 600m inner DA (note we are not disputing the fact that families within 600m should be allowed to attend Maiden Erlegh, we are disputing the added complexity and the choice of 600m as the radius of the protected circle)
• Sets a dangerous precedent

3) The Legalities of the Process Followed

This is a general point and is equally relevant to Reading and Woingham residents

• That Wokingham Borough Council were not legally entitled to change Maiden Erleghs admissions arrangments due to the pending Academy Status

If you don’t wish to join our group objection please follow the instruction in the Maiden Erlegh Appeal Guide. We’re not sure where this originated but it seems to have full instructions. Thanks to the author and we hope you don’t mind us including it here

Alternatively, simply send an email detailing your objection to academiesenquiries@ypla.gov.uk. Make sure you get a response to your email and that your objection has been logged

The Walk To Maiden Erlegh Campaign have been having an active discussion about the local elections on the 5th of May. Many Wokingham residents are less than pleased with their local councillors and are debating how to vote on the 5th.

For the Reading members of our campaign, it is less clear how voting in Reading can affect the Maiden Erlegh issue. We have never aligned to any particular party so prefer not to give any guidance on this matter

We found this quote from Rob Stanton in the local free paper ‘Get Reading’:

From tomorrow Maiden Erlegh will be an academy and academies can set their own admissions. We have no indication that they will do that and they would be crazy to do that after what we have just gone through.

Interesting viewpoint Mr Stanton. ‘Crazy to change back’ ?

Or are the blatant political factors that have driven through this change crazy ?

Or is it crazy that this ridiculous change means a house 601m away from the school would be in catchment one year and out of catchment the next ?

Or is it crazy to put Maiden Erlegh in a position where they will have to deal with (and pay for) any appeals that are raised (and we predict there will be many) ?

Or is it crazy for Maiden Erlegh to have to defend this admissions change, both to the Schools Adjudicator and at Judicial Review, when they had no part in its planning ?

Or is it crazy that a large part of the current catchment, that has contributed so much to the school is now excluded ?

Would it really be so crazy to change back ?

We don’t think so !

We are currently compiling information for an appeal re. the catchment changes to Maiden Erlegh. If you are interested in joining this process or have any information that might help please email us at info@maidenerleghcatchment.co.uk

Also, if you are affected by the changes to Holt/Embrook/Forest/St Crispins and would like to appeal we’d be very interested in hearing from you as well

We’ve had several emails asking if a particular house or street will be in the catchment for Maiden Erlegh after the change that Wokingham Council is making

In many cases it very hard to say but we tried to explain things on this page