I probably am, feeling very cross

[EastwickWitch]

DS applied to be on the 6th form committee. His old head of year suggested he apply. The ones who wanted to apply were told to write a letter given the reasons why they would be good. DS took a long time writing his letter.
He went to the meeting today, the teacher in charge saw all 22 applicants at once. He said that he discarded the letters because some students had given their reasons as 'looks good on CV', so he picked those he know would be good. Fair enough, but of the 5 boys chosen one was his son & the others were his sons' mates.
DS & I know there's nothing we can do, but the nepotism makes me very cross.

yanbu, could you complain about the nepotism?

zaty, but won't it look like sour grapes?

Is this a private school or just a local sixth form?

If it's the latter then without a doubt complain, this kind of thing does look good on a cv so why should his son and mates get the prestige.

I think if 22 applied and only a small select group who are friends with his son got it then you have reasonable grounds.

Just complain...being accused of sour grapes is nothing when faced with blatant nepotism!

It might not change anything for your son (you could suggest making a termly change to be fair to the boys overlooked by this neopotiosm?) but it's worth a shot.

I would firstly complain that they were asked to write the letter only to be discarded.
I would ask why he didn't just discard those letters who said it would look good on the CV if that was not what he was looking for.
Then I would ask how he reached his conclusion of the 5.

It may look like sour grapes, but you are justified in asking the above and he will have to answer them.

You could ask for what reason DS was not selected in order that he can have constructive criticism for future applcations

And NO you are not BU.

No, it's just the local State Comp.
I did suggest that DS ask the teacher to review his letter and ask for feedback.
This teacher is head of year now & I'm nervous about causing problems for later on.
Thanks for the feedback, I thought I might just be feeling touchy.

YANBU , this sucks . . Go complain, its really not fair . Case of not what you know but whom you know.

It seems totally wrong to me that the person making the decision was the father of one of the pupils. Surely someone with no particular connection to any of the children should have been the judge?

I agree. The school isn't sending a good message is it?
DS has already said that there's no point applying to be Head Boy next year.

DH says it's tough, that's how life works

It is very bad form for the school to have a father overseeing his own son's education in any way.

BIL has bent over backwards to avoid teaching dtds at secondary so far - and that's only an uncle/niece relationship!

How utterly crap. Unfair on everyone. I feel sorry for the son as (according to all the children of teachers I know who went to school where their parent taught, esp at secondary) it sucks to have your dad as a teacher. But he should definitely be ineligible for this position if the selection committee consists of only one person and that person is his dad! Is there some kind of 6th form magazine or democracy wall where your son could mount a nepotism expose?

If your son feels strongly about this, he should complain, perhaps along with some of the other unsuccessful students.

I really dislike it when schools say "to get this post you need to XYZ" and then ignore it.

Seems to be popular now to make the children do a poster/a speech/something else to be on school council or something. Not terribly keen on school council myself, but I see that point.
But frequently I hear children saying "but A didn't do it, then got elected"

Now I don't mind if they admit it's a popularity contest and don't have anything they have to do. I don't mind them choosing to make it "educational" by asking them to do something.
What I think is very unfair is to tell them they have to do something, have children do it, then let others do it anyway.
And no, this isn't just that it then lets the shy quiet ones that being on this sort of thing would be fantastic for-they're not the ones that do this. It's the confident pushy ones who don't need it.

I'd speak to the old head of year or the head of the school