To be cross that new family in village have got their children into our full school on appeal and have bumped up class size to 31.

[31inclass]

The family have moved almost opposite the school and hence became first on the waiting list. The school is extremely popular, and is always full with a waiting list in Reception year. The school turned them down initially but they have got two children in on appeal, one in Reception and one in Year 2.

It is a CofE aided school with strict admission criteria including attendance at our local church for at least two years, one parent has to be confirmed etc. I've heard through the grapevine that the family don't meet any of the criteria, but have got in simply because the LEA have said that it is cheaper for them to send them to this school than fund the cost of taxis to the next nearest school.

My children are also in both these classes, which now have 31 children although the LEA has paid for an extra teacher so it is now a ratio of 31 children to 2 teachers. This applies until another child leaves and then the class goes back to 1 teacher.

Some parents are ok with what has happened because of the extra teacher. Some are quite upset and angry because they know other parents on the waiting list and they feel the parents have worked the system. They also feel that as the school building and grounds are small that the school should be allowed to stick to 30 per class.

I don't want to ostracize the parents or children but I must admit that I do feel a bit cross myself, having made a lot of effort to meet the criteria when I applied. AIBU?

thereby duchesse offends all residents of Kent, Sussex and Hants

I'd imagine living across the road is part of the criteria, and LEA's are supposed to accomodate people who are new to the area.
It's pretty impossible to have been at the church for two years, but that isn;t to say they can't meet every other part of the criteria and more.

The OP admitted that she was being unreasonable about 40,000 posts ago.

Maybe the child has a SEN statement and the school is suitable for his/her needs, that would be one of the criteria.

I would be delighted with a ratio of 31:2 and would shake the parent who went to appeal by the hand! You should be using your energies lobbying the LEA for an extra class to accommodate the extra teacher and all the children who didn't get into the school.

Message withdrawn

Oh thats terrible how dare they do the best for their children!

A new family moves into your village, with 2 young children and you and your mummy mates choose to make their life uncomfortable by discussing how terrible their actions are as they have disrupted your life, well seems to me you are the one doing the disrupting. Hope you are all proud of yourselves, I would be extremley proud of treating another in such away, not very neighbourly, but hey ho, carry on seems you have nothing else to bitch about.

Just think, this family could now rent this house out to prospective parents and live in another one to allow more parents access to the school.

Who said that? .

YABU

So the class has gone from 1 teacher with 30 pupils, to 1 teacher for 15 and the other for 16. So class size has halved. So what's the problem? Unless it's the fact that they are 'incomers'. Is it one of those villages where everyone knows and/or is related to everyone and people who dare to move into the village are shunned for 50 years? You only belong there if you've been there for 20 generations and you're married to your cousin? reminds me of an old lady I was talking to once. She'd lived in the village of Bakewell for 30odd years, but was still considered a newcomer. She was rather fed up of it. She told me of a woman who was looking down her nose at her and said "Of course, I'm Bakewell." (translation - better than you and belong.) and this lady replied, "Oh. Pudding or tart?" I laughed my arse off.

My parents have a holiday home in a small-ish seaside village and one old man at the church there boasted his family had lived in the village for 400 years and all married people from the village as well. Judging by the look of him, he was probably one of the original inhabitants . The village school there is shut btw....

I wouldn't worry. Our reception class is full and has a waiting list and since September, 3 children have left for various reasons and been replaced by others on the waiting list. It's probably only a temporary situation.

I don't understand what's wrong with having an extra teacher though.

Tbh I can't see the problem but I can see where the OP is coming from iyswim. It's good to see LEAs bending the rules slightly rather than splitting up siblings. My local borough has been in the news two or three times recently for offering twins places at two different schools, miles apart .

I am sure your playground Mafia will mete out suitable punishment to the offending parents if they are all as uptight as you.

I think this is a troll.

Oops - note to myself to read ALL posts before knee jerk comment. Sorry OP.

I thought the OP was talking about our family for a minute! but ours in not a C of E school.
We moved to a village a year ago and ds was refused a place at the catchment area school (offered a taxi to the next nearest school but it wasn't suitable for him (he was hearing impaired and the offered school is open plan, 90 children in each area) so we ended up putting him into a private school for a year.
Dd then got a place at the local school for reception 2008, and subsequently the school offered ds a place in year 3 from sept 08. This is fab for us as we cannot really afford to have them both in private school and didn't want them in different schools and Most Importantly, we wanted our children to go to school with the other children in the village - to be part of our community.
We have had a couple of negative comments from other village parent though One was happy chatting to me about the school until I mentioned ds was going to start as well as dd - then she said 'Not in my son's year I hope!'

YABU wholly unreasonable, many class sizes exceed 31.

"child goes to local school"
hold the front page

Is this a 'get orf moi laand' thread. It makes me glad I live in a city.

You sound like a miserable cliquey bunch of little bitches - am very glad I don't live in your village!
Oh yes YABVVU

YABU, and like someone else said, if this family had moved there a bit sooner then someone else would not be at the school who is there now, and your mates on the waiting list who are pissed off that someone got ahead of them would all be one place further down than they are.

The only way you could stop someone doing this is to arrange somehow for no one in the village to sell their houses to parents of young children - maybe instead of blaming this family who have only done what you'd have done in their place, you could blame the villager who betrayed your mates by selling a house opposite a school to parents of young children (imagine that! a family wanting a house near a school! how underhand!).

YABU
But this is a joke, right?

is this a cliquey lets bully the new family vibe.would you have minded if they were not new?

a miserable cliquey bunch of little Christian bitches

ye that just about covers it