So – interesting. Just listening to one of the new reports saying that due to people taking their kids out of private school, secondary schools are experiencing an influx.
Only last Friday I asked our senior education officer at Haringey what preparations they were making in case this happened. He said that there was some capacity – and that the new school being built in Haringey Heartlands would also come on stream in due course. But there is a birthrate increase of great proportion coming along too – so although the first pressures from that will be on primary schools which have been expanding capacity like billy-o here – the extra capacity at secondary will also in due course be taken up to a great extent.
Anyway – he didn’t seem to think that this would be a problem as the last thing that people do in a recession if they can possibly avoid it is take their children out of their education at private school. But the report on the TV news said different – which is why I raised it as an issue.
So I hope Haringey LEA (local education authority) will keep a close watch on this – as many children in Haringey are sent to private schools – and extra pressures on school places end up impacting everyone, private or not.
I did ask what figures Haringey had for children who live in Haringey but who do not go to state school here. Apparently Haringey have no figures available on this! Last time I got any sort of figure was years ago – and it was that 40% go out of borough or to private schools.
So – don’t know if the figure is still in that league – but imagine the pressures if a large proportion of those wanted or needed to go to our schools. Boy scouts motto – be prepared! Or at least find out the figures and keep a close watch!
Lynne Featherstone 
Haringey have failed to address this issue for years. My son is due to start Primary in 2010 and using their stats, I have mapped placements and found that nobody from my part of Muswell Hill has managed to get into the nearest 4 schools in the last 2 years.This is an old, old issue here but no planning has taken place to increase capacity.I’m sure Haringey would like us to bolster some of their less popular schools both myself and wife both work, so travelling a distance to school is not an option.As a result I am being forced to consider private education – this would be fine if we weren’t paying two loads of tax to fund state education then being constructively denied access.