Urgent Help - Year 9 school places for six children required asap

Your opinion was... that other posters were ridiculous to give useful views, support and information to the OP.

It doesn't seem a very life-enhancing way to use a forum, IMO, but you do you.

I'll really will leave it there this time; got some paint to watch as it dries.

As it is a discussion forum, am I not allowed to give my opinion? Hmm.

Do you go onto every post on the primary and secondary education board and point out that information about schools is publicly available, so why are people asking questions?

What about when people are asking for recipe suggestions or where to buy a nice party dress or a good moisturiser, do you jump on and tell them they are ridiculous, they could find it out themselves?

If so, you have rather missed the point of a discussion forum. Perhaps you should Google the definition?

All of which the parents should have access to themselves? From OPs post it reads like all they did was contact the LA then give up. Ridiculous.

What do they expect a bunch of randomers on MN to do beyond what they can do themselves?

Well, @PuddlesPityParty a few “randomers on MN” have provided thoughts on various schools in the area, from
personal experience and local knowledge. And one provided a very helpful list of schools and PAN etc.

And others have provided sympathy and support, by parents, for parents - you know? The actual point of the site?

You, on the other hand…

Well, I will leave it there - I have no wish to play pigeon chess today.

I am sorry you have been flamed, OP. Most Mumsnetters are not able to distinguish between making sacrifices to enable your child to enjoy a good standard of education or buying privilege. On the one hand we have your friends scrimping and saving, on the other, for example, Lord Alli buying clothes, glasses and nice stuff for our esteemed PM and his cabinets of little piggies.

Hope you've got some useful advice for your friend. pls update us when the boys have their school places. I'm sure it will all work out!

I took the question to mean that she thought local mumsnetters might have inside knowledge about whether local schools have places available.

Most of the replies are irrelevant to that question.

It's weird. I would expect this type of response in AIBU but not in Secondary Education.

completely agree.

I'm no advocate of private schools but this poster was just asking for help and only mentioned it because she was asked... and it only turned into a debate because people were berating her for her friend's choices.

Utterly bizarre!

Lots of good advice here though in amongst the aggressive replies though.

I’m not having a VAT fight 🤷‍♀️ you’re the one whose quoted me twice, if anyones looking for a fight out of the two of us it sure ain’t me. It is unusual to know the ins and outs of others finances. Like I say, sparky’s usually make a fair bit so only factoring one persons income in a two person income household is a bit disingenuous. I also think coming on here and posting about 6 kids that aren’t your own is too. As has been explained, they have places until the end of Xmas so it’s not an urgent placement so there’s no urgency for the LA and posters have rightly pointed out the parents should be phoning / contacting the local schools themselves. What do they expect a bunch of randomers on MN to do beyond what they can do themselves?

I think if the OP hadn't mentioned 6 children, it would have stayed as a helpful thread. Thats not her fault though, it was a truthful statement.

Anyway, OP didn’t come on listing salaries, a poster suggested a (high) number and OP’s reply was that it was less than half that. Then you got rudely up in here face accusing her of being over invested in people’s lives - when she answered a question - and then doubled down by speculating about her husband’s wages, which she hadn’t mentioned at all.

If you want a VAT fight, there are a bunch of threads explicitly about that. If you think the OP isn’t genuine, report it and go about your day.

She asked about school places in a particular location for children moving schools. Plenty of people do that. It is not in the least divisive.

You, and others, have jumped on this as if she posted “VAT on school fees, what bollocks, eh?”

A general question and observation isn’t being judgemental. You are being very OTT about being judged and “trolls”. You surely knew it would be a divisive topic and as such must be prepared to hear a variety of opinions.

Family is different to a woman you know through your child’s school or just a friend. Does she know what husband is on too? Electricians can earn quite a bit.

NHS pay scales are public, no? So if said friend said “yay, I just got a promotion to grade orange 1” last year, OP could Google her salary range.

Or… some friends and family share stuff. I know DBro’s salary, for example.

You’ve never encountered “asking for a friend” before..?

Why do you know so much about your friends finances? Strange thread and you’re over invested in other peoples lives.

If the boy is unsettled (which is not surprising really) then the parents need to explain that the reason they can't give an answer right now is that they, and the council do not know which schools will have vacancies in January yet. Places will become available for all sorts of reasons, like people moving away, or chosing a different school.

I am more than aware that not many nurses in a hospital will earn £80k! just that some (yes v few) will. It's like saying "he's a teacher" to show someone's salary- would range from new teacher on £27k or so to head of a big London secondary on six figures. That's all I meant.

I'm a little skeptical about this post as me and DP have very similar jobs to the parents and so I am amazed they could afford the fees in the first place...
They amount to the average NHS nurses take home pay prior to any VAT increases. We couldn't live off one wage if the other was taken up by school fees.

If this is genuine certainly don't rely on the LEA legally having to find them a place. Parents will have to ring around schools within a fair distance, get on all the waiting lists, keep calling and take what they can. There will be places, they may just not like them. I work with a lot of children who are out of school (always been in state education, haven't done anything wrong) and LEA's simply don't care about them so they aren't going to jump to meet the needs of children who've never been in the system if they don't have a place available.

Apologies if this has already been answered, and also it’s a very slight derailment, but I’ve only skim read the rest of the comments.

Is it set in stone now/gone through parliament and came out the other side with a big tick that there will be tax on school fees?

I did some Googling to try and figure this out but everything just point to “potentially introducing” or “proposed to be introduced” I’ve not seen anything that says it’s definitely happening (although clearly is is, I think just expected it to be more of a bigger announcement or to be able to read a news article about it going through).