Page 7 | I’m absolutely devastated about our school placement

Itsallaboutme2021 · 2025-04-16T19:57:55+00:00

Is anyone else devastated about their school placement today? I can’t stop crying and don’t want to tell anyone, I’m not excited and this is my only child. I feel robbed of this experience. I’m gutted. We got our 3rd choice, ( it was mainly my husband choice) the school is soulless. Here are my list of pros and cons. Cons- no green area on site ( they use a local public park) It’s religious…. I’m not. The library was pitch black when we visited and looks like it hadn’t been used in months. The classrooms looked messy and chaotic. I didn’t pay much attention to anything else as I knew it was not the school I wanted for our child. Pros- It does some nice charity work. It’s above the national average for maths, English & writing. Its probably the only multicultural school in the area. It’s walking distance. I could really do with some positive comments please. My husband is desperately looking at ways to help me see this isn’t such a bad school.

Tattletail · 17/04/2025 16:47

@Itsallaboutme2021 just saw your comment on my old post.

I just wanted to say I understand the disappointment you are feeling. It took me days to calm down and I did then start to feel a lot better about the situation.

We took our chance with waiting lists and was offered a spot at our first preference.

Good luck with whatever you choose to do.

vickylou78 · 17/04/2025 17:26

Itsallaboutme2021 · 17/04/2025 16:10

No, the one near us has a very bad reputation. ( I’ve heard the kids swearing and all sorts to parents on the school run)

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Oh dear! Well that's a silver lining that you didn't get allocated that one!

Good luck with it Op. I think you'll come round to the idea of the one you've been allocated and you may find being close by is a real bonus compared to the other schools that were further away as can walk to school etc.

Tulippilut · 17/04/2025 17:53

Itsallaboutme2021 · 16/04/2025 22:08

This is reassuring to know, funny the school we wanted has just had outstanding, it’s a village location school. This post has really helped me see past my initial panic. I know it’s not about me, but I wanted to feel excited for our DC and feel a bit flat, but I’ll take everything on what most people have said xx

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I always say , with outstanding schools they are desperate to maintain that status . I’m sure not all schools are the same , but in my experience it’s not at the benefit of the child - think crackdown on attendance , lots of homework , keeping children in certain brackets - that could actually get higher with support but they would rather keep them lower ( say , expected or working towards ) so if they don’t make a higher bracket it isn’t seen as a fail on the school . Those who are rated ‘good’ are happy with that , and keep at that nice level.

Even the worst schools have teachers that care . They have standards they have to maintain .

Again - another school I loved working at , that had happy pupils and such a lovely feeling there - was rated as “ satisfactory” .

My own child’s school was a lovely little village school , such a happy place , it was rated inadequate and put into special measures so forced to become an academy. Now its outstanding - but , sadly it’s not the same.

Cakeandusername · 17/04/2025 17:59

Your pros sound good keep focusing on that. Ask to visit again.
Lots of schools have events in summer term maybe see if you can see dates of sports day or fayre on website or sm and go and see.

IbizaToTheNorfolkBroads · 17/04/2025 19:01

Walking distance is a huge pro - especially at 8.30 am!

My DC's primary school didn't have school library as such, but they had shelves of age and curriculum appropriate books in each class room with free choice to hottie them. They also went on occasional trips to the public library.

Green space is great, but it's too wet, muddy or frozen to play out in half the time.

Multicultural is fantastic. It's so valuable to kids perception of the world, of what is normal. I miss it - I went to 2 massive schools in central London with many, many, nations represented. My dc went to a very white country village primary school in Yorkshire, and it's much harder worker normalising other cultures.

The classrooms looked messy - great!! People are expressing themselves!

I'm an atheist and I love that my kids went to a CoE school. I can't hide religion from them, they need to know that it exists, but if they can do that at school, that's brilliant. We can compartmentalise it there in a "our family is not religious. We don't do religion at home" way. Even if it wasn't a faith school, I think you'd be surprised how much Christianity is on rte national curriculum anyway, as well as faith based assemblies. DS had a short phase of trying to be a good Christian when he was 7 or 8, but quickly realised that this is just basically being a nice person. DD poo pooed the whole idea, and only ever entered the school Easter colouring competition to win chocolate. At 13 and 16 I can assure you that they are as atheist as me.

Cheer up! It's a good school! It gets great results! Your child's education is also not only about school. You can still take him out, show him what's important to you, sit and read with him, play with him.... it's all fine.

Original poster

Itsallaboutme2021 · 17/04/2025 23:21

IbizaToTheNorfolkBroads · 17/04/2025 19:01

Walking distance is a huge pro - especially at 8.30 am!

My DC's primary school didn't have school library as such, but they had shelves of age and curriculum appropriate books in each class room with free choice to hottie them. They also went on occasional trips to the public library.

Green space is great, but it's too wet, muddy or frozen to play out in half the time.

Multicultural is fantastic. It's so valuable to kids perception of the world, of what is normal. I miss it - I went to 2 massive schools in central London with many, many, nations represented. My dc went to a very white country village primary school in Yorkshire, and it's much harder worker normalising other cultures.

The classrooms looked messy - great!! People are expressing themselves!

I'm an atheist and I love that my kids went to a CoE school. I can't hide religion from them, they need to know that it exists, but if they can do that at school, that's brilliant. We can compartmentalise it there in a "our family is not religious. We don't do religion at home" way. Even if it wasn't a faith school, I think you'd be surprised how much Christianity is on rte national curriculum anyway, as well as faith based assemblies. DS had a short phase of trying to be a good Christian when he was 7 or 8, but quickly realised that this is just basically being a nice person. DD poo pooed the whole idea, and only ever entered the school Easter colouring competition to win chocolate. At 13 and 16 I can assure you that they are as atheist as me.

Cheer up! It's a good school! It gets great results! Your child's education is also not only about school. You can still take him out, show him what's important to you, sit and read with him, play with him.... it's all fine.

Great post thank you x

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