To be so angry with DS's school right now ?

[TheLaundryLady]

Having a crappy week (see thread about friend letting me down) and it just keeps getting worse

DS's school are planning a residential trip to Shropshire next October for his year group.
DS very excited about trip so we complete the paperwork and pay the deposit as requested by the deadline. Paperwork went back about 2 weeks before deadline but due to a glitch with schools parent pay system we didn't pay deposit until the last day of the deadline.

Fast forward to today after being told that he was on the trip I receive a phone call from school telling me that they had messed up and had got the boy/girl ratio wrong and had one boy too many on the trip. Therefore DS will now be unable to go.

I was told that if he was a girl he could still have gone but they chose him not to go because We were last to pay.

Now they have known how many girls and boys are in that year group since reception.

If this was purely first come first serve I would understand but this clearly seems to be about his gender - he can't go because he's a boy.

Head teacher has basically said tough and DS is gutted

Well done OP, glad your DS gets to go!

Laundry, I doubt that they were trying very hard to sort it out either because if they had put any thought into it at all then they would have approached the problem differently.

What they did yesterday was both totally unprofessional and hurtful to your DS. Common sense should have told them that.

It leaves a bad taste in the mouth and shows the school in a very poor light.

I speak as someone from a teaching family and who is nearly always supportive of schools. Not in this case though. You cannot excuse a total balls up.

They seem to have sorted this out with one phone call. That makes me furious that they didn't just do that yesterday, they hadn't tried at all. That's disgraceful. So glad it's sorted though

Fantastic news for you DS!! :)

You must feel so relieved! It's just interesting after you going Into school this morning and asking for copies of their policy they've got back to you.

But anyway, it's brilliant news to here your boy will be going on the trip with his friends and I bet he can't wait! Made up for you

I'd keep an eye though, because it shouldn't have take something so much as you asking for school policy records etc for you to receive that phone call

Just curious, will you be dropping the matter? Although great news your son will be accompanying his peers on the trip, I'd hate to think another child will face this in the future.

I'm most likely going over the top , but if you never said anything, would they have phoned you to say he could join them? IYSWIM?

Made up for your boy though

Our primary used to do "first to get the form in first served" which used to piss off the "power mums" with nannies doing pick up or who only chose the school because of the breakfast and after school clubs.........

Jeez that's some horrible gloating right there. I'll be using a childminder or an afterschool club when DD goes to school next year. Not because I'm a power mum, what ever the fuck that is, but because I have to work to pay the mortgage and feed my child. Glad to know people would be happy to see my DC disadvantaged because of it.

OP I'm really glad all is sorted for your DS. This whole thing seemed ridiculously unfair and I can't understand what the school were thinking! Well done for sorting it.

"Glad to know people would be happy to see my DC disadvantaged because of it. hmm"

At a school with nearly 50% of the kids on FSM I doubt if it would be your DC being disadvantaged. And many schools make sure that yours would be advantaged because of being able to pay deposits immediately. This one didn't. Just leveling the playing field a tad.

It's not levelling the playing field at all. It's putting one group of children above another. A lottery system makes it fair for everyone, that would be levelling the playing field.

I wish I could afford to stay at home with my DC. I can't, so I go to work and miss out on a million things I would rather be there for. School pick up being one of them. And yes, being less likely to get a place on a school trip because your parents work is being put at a disadvantage.

Glad it's sorted Laundry :)

I agree, Cheby, it came across as very gloaty from Bertrand.

They seem to have sorted this out with one phone call. That makes me furious that they didn't just do that yesterday, they hadn't tried at all. That's disgraceful. So glad it's sorted though

Indeed. It was all so unneccessary. I don't know it what universe the school thought it ok to leave out one child in the way they went about it.

Why would I gloat? My children are among the absurdly privileged who generally get more than their fair share of the good stuff....

Bertrand I've seen your posts for a long time and Ik ow that you are a well educated, decent person

But this last post from you puts you in a bad light, something you didn't intend to do, so please be careful with how you phrase things on here. I think you're unintentionally stealth boasting. Sorry.

I thought it sounded a bit snooty towards those dreadful women who use after school clubs. Not gloating but a bit harsh to people like me who are just trying to get childcare sorted so we can get to work. If making use of after school and breakfast clubs makes me a "Power Mum" then yes I am one. It doesn't sound like it's meant as a compliment.

I doubt Bertrand meant it to come across that way though.

It doesn't sound like it's meant as a compliment.

It might not sound like it's meant to be one, but I took it as one

I quite like the idea of the "unintentional stealth boast". I wonder if I've done it before. How would I know?

What's wrong with choosing a school because it has breakfast and after-school clubs?. And why would you be pleased that a child going to breakfast/after-school club doesn't get to go on school trips? That's not levelling the playing field, that's just ensuring that some kids never get to go on school trips! At least with a lottery it's fair.

God forbid any woman have a high-powered job, eh...the bitches, how dare they.