Romesh Ranganathan - School Places & Entitlement

Neither was his.

Presumably your child wasn’t revising for his exams in the early days of you being prime minister?

Only if they haven’t moved meantime.

It's perfectly acceptable to request that a child attends the same school as their siblings, being famous doesn't change that desire. I though most schools prioritised siblings unless it is a selective school.

Although it is catchment that allows rich parents to choose a school by house price and it is bussing as I think Brighton did at one point of poor children into rich for schooling that perhaps achieves a purer fairness.

As it should be.

Otherwise it's just another way the well off game the system at the expense of local families and communities where their own children are pushed out of their local schools.

Similar here. I’m in a small city with several outlying villages, and we have catchment areas (as in a defined area on a map) for each school. I assume it’s based on population density as the village schools have large catchment areas covering the village and surrounding rural areas, while the inner city and suburban schools have smaller catchment areas, presumably covering the same number of houses/ estimated population. Seems a logical way to do it.

Priority for admission is usually looked after children/ children in catchment with siblings at the school/ children in catchment/ children out of catchment with siblings at the school/ children out of catchment. Church schools have extra requirements like proof of church attendance.

The council states that over 95% of parents get their first choice primary school, but if you look at the published data (I got a bit obsessed when applying for primary school and really looked into it 🙈), most people applied to their catchment school and got a place there. Would be interesting to know how many people got their first choice if they applied out of catchment, for example.

Yes he’s ridiculous.

Most schools changed sibling priority rules for very good reasons- parents get one child in, then move a good distance away. Siblings 2,3,4 etc get into the school
under sibling priory wherever they live and child on the doorstep doesn’t. That’s not fair either. Plus it’s not great for the area to have loads of kids being driven in while local kids are driven out.

Most have maintained sibling priority rules but just within a certain distance (I think it was about 1k) anyway, so I guessing he moved a decent distance from the school. Plus surely if he’d been taking a basic interest in the school he’d have known
anyway…

Not everyone does though people often assume this but many actually don’t do that..just saying

Ha talking sh*t there. You are making numerous assumptions. Some people don’t have loads of cash but bought their properties years and years ago… no nerve hit at all just pointing out your faulty logic and assumptions

Quite. Blair - oratory etc. There are more examples but people can see for themselves online if interested further. It’s a tired discussion now.

The mistake people make is describing schools as state or private. Where both types of schools vary so widely (especially ‘state’ schools), the descriptions are often meaningless.

With his wife. I am sure children were on the agenda. We bought our house pre-children too, but certainly considered school catchment when buying as we hoped that was something that would happen within this house. Though my children didn’t get the benefit of a multimillionaire’s property to stay in whilst revising.

😂 no. It’s a I have no idea why your imagination takes such leaps, but can only think you’re judging others by your own actions.. hey ho! 😂

My understanding is that Starmer moved into his current house 20 years ago before he was a politician or had children. It’s an area where many professional people live. And the school his children go to is the catchment school.

That isn’t what PP said. Rather that if you buy your way into a high performing state school then you have no moral basis to condemn those who buy private education. You are both paying for better schools.

By living in a posh area, you're spending big bucks on your housing to buy your kid a place at a top performing state school.

It's the exact same mindset and expense as someone paying fees. Sorry if I hit a nerve

This doesn’t make sense… sounds like utter rubbish. Living in a “posh” doesn’t necessarily mean you have enough to money to go private…and having money doesn’t mean you should have to go private…

He has a choice - publically uphold the state system and accept whatever allocation he has been given. Or do the best by his children be it private or trying to get into the best state school he can. The problem is when, like many politicians with their children in the highest performing state schools, he tries to do both.

I'll take that as a yes 😜

I think he’s a bit damned if he does, damned if he doesn’t here re state school over private school!

😂 What?

I don't think its commendable to use the state schools when you live in a posh area.
It's just buying your kids education in a different way

I had 2 drop offs to do before driving to the other side of the city to get to work.

I wonder what the impact would be on carbon emissions if they reintroduced catchments and required every child to go to their catchment school?

The anger shouldn't be at getting a school you don't want.. . It should be that there are schools that are failing children.

My children went to different schools that were miles from where we lived. I had 2 drop offs to do before driving to the other side of the city to get to work. I managed it. I’m sure Romesh and his wife will too.