Hi this is Mr fest post on netmums but I've been lurking for a while through the forums. I need advise about my Ds's school and moving up to secondary. Now before I safari me just say that we are a catholic family and we want our kids to go to catholic school. I realise that there have been some debates lately about the admissions criteria and that some of you don't think that it's fair to be baisis towards certain children and I totally understand that but bare with me whilst I explain.
I have three children. Ds is 11 (year 6) Dd is 10 (year 5) and my youngest Dd is 3 going on 4. Years ago when it came to applying for our eldest to go to school we chose our local catholic primary as first choice, but as it was heavily subscribed he didn't get a place, neither did Dd a year later so they both started at the local community school with a plan to move them if a place came up at the catholic primary.
As it turned out no places became available for my Ds but a place became available two years ago for my Dd who was at the time half way through year 3. After much consideration and talking with dd we decided to take the place at the Catholic school and she has flourished. Ds did not want to move if there were a place available anyway as he only had years 5 and 6 to complete and he wanted to stay with his friends, which was understandable.
If I'm not being clear I apologise, but basically if you didn't go to a Catholic primary school you stood little chance of getting into the secondary school. We had/have our heart set on this school but it was no surprise to learn that our Ds this year did not get a place, simply because he didn't go to a Catholic primary, so he's now due to start at a non faith school close to home, which he's happy about.
So anyway we've endured two years of shuttling back and forth to two primary schools but have been happy with this as we knew that our Dd would be at the top of the criteria list along with her friends so you can imagine my shock when she came out of school on Monday with a letter telling us parents that from September of this year the feeder secondary school that we hoped Dd would go to is changing it's criteria significantly, and a wave of anxiety came over me.
Basically this was the top four criteria (which is as far as the governors can admit to as its oversubscribed every year)
1). Looked after children/statements
2). Baptised Catholic children who live within one of the parishes named above AND who have received their primary education at a Catholic school.
3). Baptised Catholic children who will have a brother or sister at the the school at the time of admission
4). Baptised Catholic children from other parishes who have received their primary education at a Catholic school.
The criteria from September is this
1). Looked after children/statements
2). Baptised Catholic children who have a brother or sister at the school at the likely time of admission.
3). Baptised Catholic children who live within the parishes (there are 7 local parishes)
4). All other baptised Catholic children.
Now as you can see the school are still prioritising baptised Catholic children but my daughter has now gone from being in the highest category after looked after/statemened children to being in the second category. Now this in itself wouldn't bother me as its just simply switching the categories round and she would still stand a good chance of getting into the school but it's the fact that they've now took away the stipulation of Catholic primary school.
You see, with the schools old criteria the category my Dd was in stipulated that you had to have gone to Catholic primary school which was fine as she now goes to the feeder primary so it meant that she would only be "up against" three other feeder Catholic schools to secure her palace and for years and years the secondary school have accepted all children from these primary schools who wanted a place and even had palaces left over for children from Catholic schools in other parishes and for some who weren't baptised at all, so you can see how I felt confident that my dd would get a place.
But is that they've changed the criteria she now has siblings above her and will now potentially have parents applying for their children who are baptised but go to non faith primaries, and it gets down to that then I don't think she will stand a chance of getting in as we live 1.9 miles away so hardly a stones throw. I know I'm rambling and there definitely more pressing issues in the world but I feel really worried and kind of gutted that this has happened. We moved our daughter firstly because we wanted her to get the Catholic education that she was denied in the first place when applying for reception and secondly so that she could get the best education possible and this secondary school was it! I just don't know what if anything I can do? I'd feel awful if she was refused a place at the high school and after making all new friends didn't have the opportunity to move up with them all. Plus my youngest dd is about to move to the feeder primary school this Septemebr and the hope was that he too would go on to the secondary, plus like I said, both of these schools are 2 miles from our home so I've already made the commitment to driving them there and back every day for the next 7 years or so and feel a bit sick at the thought that it was all for nothing. Please somebody tell me I'm worrying over nothing:)