Before we had children we planned everything carefully, build up our careers, get where we wanted to be, move house to an area with good schools and amenities etc. In 2007 we achieved most of these and moved into a newly built house in a nice area near an outstanding school. Shortly after moving in I found out I was pregnant. We thought we had been very clever.
Roll on three years. We applied for a place at the nursery of said "outstanding" school. Now no longer outstanding but we liked it and it was really close by. We assumed all would be well but were pretty shocked to receive a letter saying they did not have room for our son! They had changed their admissions criteria without informing us and it was no longer on a first come first served basis, it was now down to siblings and distance from school. We live 337 metres from the school, apparently this is not near enough. The rage I felt was difficult to describe, I wrote to everyone, the local councillor, my MP, the school, the local authority (I take no pleasure in telling you that the school secretary refused to deal with me anymore!) and had a heart to heart with the head teacher, nothing worked. At the last minute I managed to get my son in at another school which is a drive away, still it was better than nothing.
Then the stress began of applying for a Reception place. There are 8 more places in the Reception class of the desired school than in the Nursery so that gave me hope. I have also been a bit of a Mummy detective. Every time we go to the park and I see someone with a similar age child, I give them a grilling: "oh, your child is tall, how old are they......really.....have you thought about school places.....HOW CLOSE IS YOUR HOUSE?!" - I admit some people have been scared. I even rang the school and made them check how many people had turned down a place straight away because of private childcare arrangements, there were MORE than 8, the point is that these people will probably want a Reception place, damn it damn it.
Then my friend Emma gave me an idea; rather like a second world war General, she has started placing red and blue pins on a map of the local area on her kitchen walls. She makes a list of all those closer to the school than she is. Good idea.
Then I heard something that made me really scared, people are so desperate to get their child into this school that they are prepared to act fraudulently to get their child in! There was a case a few years ago where a mum claimed she had separated from dad so went to live with her parents near the school thus gaining a place. They were very clever about it and although the L.A *knew* it was fraudulent they couldn't prove it.
Thing is, what really makes one child more entitled than another to a place at the school of choice? Surely there is no fair system at all as someone is always going to miss out?
What really riles me about our situation is that there are children living further away from us who take priority over our son for a place as they live in what is called the *priority area*. These are the existing houses that were here before our estate was built. Now this, I get. These children would have to travel quite a bit further than us to get to the next nearest school. However, it doesn't all make sense as *some* of the houses on our estate by some bizarre mistake or something, are on the priority area map! In fact, the end of the priority area appears to be our garden wall. The family in the house behind us (which I calculated on google earth to be 350 metres from the school) got their child in for Nursery whereas we did not. RANT RANT RANT.
In a weeks time we will find out whether our son got a place at the desired school or not. Thousands of other parents are in the same boat as us where they are not able to choose which school their child attends, the situation is unsustainable. More school places need to become available in over subscribed areas so that children can walk to their nearest school and so children living on the same street are not farmed out far and wide. I can't tell you how much stress this has caused me and is still causing me every time I think about it. I will update you all next week!
Heather I feel your pain! Only 2 more days and then I find out if we have got my daughter into our chosen school.
ReplyDeleteThe system in the UK is ridiculous at the moment and I can't understand why they don't bring back catchment areas so when you brought a house you would know that you are guaranteed a place at X school. Surely the idea of a primary school is that it forms part of the local community, your child has friends a stonesthrow away and once they get to 9/10 they can walk to school to get a taste of independence. How can you do this if you don't get into your local school and instead go to a school on the other side of town? What happens on 'walk to school day' when your child can't walk because its a drive away? Even worse if you can't drive there is no help with transport provided by the LA so you could end up either spending most of your day walking back and forth or struggling on a bus with a 4 year old and possibly a toddler/baby. The government talk about everyone going 'green' and yet more and more parents are forced to drive to school because they didn't get into their local school -not very environmentally friendly!
Wednesday will be the culmination of 2 years of worry for me and I feel that I am in the hands of fate!! Good luck for next week Heather - Emma P xxx
I agree, especially about the green issue. It actually winds me up when I see cars parked near our desired school, either those parents are really lazy or they live further away from the school than us thus causing them to drive there! It's ridiculous, the whole system. Thanks for your comment Emma, I will be thinking about you tomorrow, fingers crossed.x
DeleteOh good luck. I haven't been through this yet but it does seem to me that the system is open to abuse. In the area of London I live in, I know of numerous people that own their own house, but are moving out of it into rented accomadation (on the doorstep of the school they want their child to go to) until the selection critera is complete and then moving back to their old house. There's something wrong when people can do that and get away with it.
ReplyDeleteI hope it all works out for you. x
Thanks Mummy Plum! I disagree with what those people do, but in a way they are being put in that position because of the stupid admissions system we have here. I know people that have rented houses as that is cheaper than paying for private schools, which would be the only alternative (in their eyes). Thing is, this may sound snobbish but I don't want my son going to school with Jaydens and Jordans, I want him to go to school with Williams and Harrys! Totally wrong, but I can't help it!
Deleteoh god I am dreading this stage got a while yet but urgh! I feel your stress! Fingers crossed for you xxx
ReplyDeleteThanks, I will let you all know what happens next week!
DeleteThe UK system sounds absolutely crazy every time I read about it - I knew about it when I moved to Ireland and put my kid's names down for every school locally almost at conception! And until now *coughs* I haven't had a problem, but that's another story. Best of of luck x
ReplyDeleteIs the system different in Ireland? That's another thing no-one told me, "put his name down". But actually, does it make a difference seeing as how it is all decided centrally anyway?
DeleteI wrote a similar post this time last year. We got our third choice, luckily my little boy is really happy at the school, but that doesn't stop me being annoyed everyday as I drive past my 'catchment' school.
ReplyDeleteThe system totally sucks!
Good luck though. xx
Third place?! Oh cry me a river, I hope this doesn't happen to us, I can't even remember what I put for third place! I know what you mean, every day I drive down the hill passing those who drive up the hill to the desired school. I inwardly curse each and every one of those cars!
DeleteThis really is a ridiculous situation to be in and I totally sympathise with you. I can imagine it is very stressful especially when parents are playing dirty tricks like that. That's pretty disgusting really isn't it, and needs to be stopped. I live very remotely and our schools are small village schools with 40 pupils. Quite a few have closed recently because they were down to 10 pupils in the whole school so that's understandable, but it's meant parent have had to fight for a place in a school they didn't want their child to go to in the first place and it's been very worrying. My daughter is autistic and attends a special needs school some 40 miles away, the nearest one! So she's doing approximately 80 mile round trip every day in a taxi. But we have no choice. I'm following your blog and have bookmarked it as I'm very interested to see what happens. Wishing you all the luck in the world that you are successful.
ReplyDeleteCJ x
Thank you, it is ridiculous and I often gaze at the house just behind us and wish we had bought that one when we had the chance, we didn't know about the priority area system then so assumed we would be ok. 80 miles round trip is a very long way and must be very hard, especially on slow country roads, I feel for you and her. It's bad enough for us doing a 10 min car journey. Fingers crossed we get in but I will be updating on here as soon as we know!
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