What would you do to get your child into a good school?

[bossykate]

guardian article

nothing we don't already know of course, but still interesting i thought, especially given schools are clamping down on dishonest parents.

[purpleturtle]

Surely just putting my dd into any school will make it a better place.
We've just gone for the catchment school, which is a short walk across the park

[Mud]

gone for our catchment school and doing our very best to improve its facilities and teaching by getting involved

constantly surprised at how many of the chattering classes do just that without doing anything to change the status quo

Since first child started at what was a school on the edge it has improved vastly and is now quoted on estate agent particulars

[popmum]

We 'could' go to church for 2 years to get our child into school (the best nearby), but I simply can't do it. I can't pretend that I want to go to church and look the headteacher in the eye.
We will just have to take our chances but I suspect we won't get in. This will be a shame because I would then have to drive, instead of walk, my child to school.

[foxinsocks]

what a great article, thanks for posting it! We used to live round the corner from Sacred Heart. What I find a bit annoying is that the PM could get his kids into any school he wanted (his girl went to Sacred Heart and his boys to the Oratory). I know that he is the PM and all that, but the rest of us have to deal with this catchment lottery lark so I personally don't see why they got preferential treatment.

We knew several people who short term rented around John Betts (the primary school in Hammersmith) to get their kids in. I wouldn't do anything like that (we don't have the money anyway) but when we moved house, we did look at the schools and the area we chose was influenced largely by the schools we thought we had a realistic chance of getting into.

[WideWebWitch]

I know someone who abseiled down a gorge to raise money for the local church AND went to church regularly for THREE years, despite not believing in god, to get her child into a decent state school. She has another child so has to keep going for at least another 4 years to get that one in too. It's a lot of Sundays for a non believer! Me, I'm going to pay, principles abandoned in the face of shite schools.

[bossykate]

www, going to pay? really?

[frogs]

www wasn't it you who got a bit sniffy when I confessed on a thread ages ago to my complete lack of principles wrt paying for my kids' education?! If it was, welcome to the principle-free club.

Actually I don't in fact pay as the school is not quite that bad, but have no doubt that I would if it were necessary. So no moral high ground for me, then. We do go to Church, but that's not just for the school.

[puddle]

I'm lucky - we live five minutes from a great primary.

I know someone who bought a house in a different town to get her son into the school of choice - they kept their family home too. They had planned to rent the new one out but then the council's ed dpts started making enquires and they actually had to move in for a bit. They had council people in cars outside their house at 6.00 am.

I felt very sorry for their ds who started his secondary school having to lie about where he lived to his new friends. And what an example to set your child.

[Marina]

Now or later www? I know the secondary scene locally to you is notoriously bad (friend in Clifton also going independent). Hope all is well with ds...

[noddyholder]

we moved to get in the catchment tbh as we could have got a much bigger house out of this area but decided to buy here and live in diy hell for a while I know several parents who rent flats in order to access the same school

[tortoiseshell]

I don't know what we will do if ds doesn't get into church secondary school - there are NO decent state schools at all. OF course there is the new one they're going to build - which we miss on by 2 streets! Www - we got a letter saying 'but don't worry, Monks Park will definitely have a place for your son!' - hmm, wonder why!!! Not over my dead body is a phrase that springs to mind.

Oh well, long way off! Wouldn't lie to get him into a school.

[tortoiseshell]

Marina - if they're in Clifton, they might get into Cotham Grammar, which is ok.

[RTMTMML]

I agree that there is nothing new in the article, but I did like the point about the parents who hadn't cheated being enraged. My DDs are at a local CofE school with a brilliant reputation. A friend, who as a practising Christian, had been at the church for a couple of years having moved into the area. She didn't get a place for her daughter but another woman who played the system got the place. What made me really angry though was when the woman who got the place proceeded to complain almost daily that the school was "too religious". So the very thing that made the school the one that she wanted proved to be annoying to her. She doesn't complain to me anymore as I told her that she shouldn't have deprived someone else's child of a place in the school who wanted it precisely because it was a CofE school. btw my friend's daughter got a place when a space came up 2 years later.

[Marina]

You as well torty. I am astonished at the situation in your city WRT state secondary education, considering it is a location with plenty of cultural/educational centres of excellence. Surely this must be unique in the UK...

[tortoiseshell]

I do really strongly think that people have to pay for decent state schools anyway, in the house prices. The local primary to us came top in the national league tables, and within a month the house prices in the immediate vicinity had shot up by 20-30k.

[tortoiseshell]

Marina - we're either bottom or second to bottom in the country as an area!!!

[Marina]

They're iffy about Cotham, only because they are so convinced their ds won't get a place because of demand. Trying not to get their hopes up I guess.

[tortoiseshell]

They might be surprised - the catchment area is surprisingly big. Know what you mean about not getting hopes up though. One good thing about here is that there are a few 'lower price' private schools.

[Marina]

Our borough in London was also near bottom for state secondary education
Tigermoth has the figures but something over half of all borough parents get their kids out of borough at 11 +. It's a serious issue locally. Even one of the "best" comps was in Special Measures three years ago.

[tortoiseshell]

The primary that ds will probably go to feeds 22 secondary schools, and I'm sure 21 of them are private, the 1 state being the church school that we hope ds will go to! I didn't even know there were 22 schools!

[Marina]

Sorry bk, hijacked. But it's areas like ours where shenanigans to get your child well-suited seem to happen a lot. for the families that they feel compelled to resort to living a lie. We couldn't do it as it happens, I would feel too guilty, but I can see how the situation arises.

[jamiesam]

Thanks for the link.

What would I do? Fret for the next year (we apply in Jan and will hear in the April), wish we could afford to move to catchment area of decent school, apply for religious schools and schools we're out of catchment area of, with fingers crossed.... and take it really personally if ds only gets into our catchment area school. Which is so good and popular that we don't actually have to apply to get a place in!!!

[skeptic]

We got the checkbook out.

[katzguk]

we spent an extra 10K on a house in a good catchment area.

[Marina]

We moved from a smart area with a cutthroat primary school situation, to a less smart area with a choice of good state and modestly-priced independent primaries. We needed a place at the state primary that offered after-school club, and didn't get one...so went independent. Ds' class has three children in from the smart area who now face quite a long car trip morning and evening so I think we made the right decision...and the school is lovely.