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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To be really upset by this letter from dd's primary school and be considering making a complaint?

30 replies

Spero · 20/06/2009 16:39

I don't want to get on my high horse and act like a twat but I got this letter this morning and it has upset me on so many levels.

It was dated June 16th and post marked June 18th. I received it this morning - June 20th.
It tells me to fill in slip and respond by June 19th or my dd won't have a place at the school.

It then tells me I can attend on 'Wednsday' 24th June at 3.15pm (later on in the letter it says 'Wendseday 29th June') to organise uniforms and visit class rooms etc.

I'm a single parent and work full time - unless it is an emergency I can't get the afternoon off on two days notice. As I live in Brixton and this is not 1952 I doubt I am the only parent in this position so why on earth do the school think this is acceptable?

Also reception is spelled as 'Recpeion'.

I just get the feeling that who ever wrote that letter didn't give a shit - about spell checking, about checking dates, about thinking whether it made any sense at all to send a letter on the 18th of June requiring a response by the next day!

Is this kind of thing normal? Am I over reacting? Or do you think I should make my vies known to the school?

OP posts:
CarGirl · 20/06/2009 16:42

I would ring first thing Monday morning and explain that on Saturday you received the letter and you would like to accept the place.

Once she has a confirmed place then I'd but politely in writing that you didn't think x y z was a very good first impression of the school!

itwasntme · 20/06/2009 16:43

That's really sloppy.

Call school first thing on Monday and explain, but I would try to be nice about it.

3littlefrogs · 20/06/2009 16:44

Could you reply, enclosing a photocopy of the letter and the envelope, explaining that it arrived today? You could send a copy of all to the LEA.

It doesn't give a good impression of the school at all IMO.

5Foot5 · 20/06/2009 16:46

Do you really want your DD to go to this school? Frankly I think such slip-shod, thoughtless, badly written communication would put me right off sending my child there providing I had an alternative lined up.

Original poster
Spero · 20/06/2009 16:47

Thank you, that is good advice, I will write in sorrow more than anger... but I'm really worried about my dd going to this school now, it has all the usual glowing Ofsted reports but the letter has completely depressed me...

OP posts:
Original poster
Spero · 20/06/2009 16:48

Sadly there is no alternative unless I go private. There are two very good primaries in the area but their intake is small and she didn't get in.

OP posts:
CarGirl · 20/06/2009 16:49

it could just be an incommpetent administrator doesn't mean that the teaching staff aren't any good!

lockets · 20/06/2009 16:50

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Original poster
Spero · 20/06/2009 16:52

It's Lambeth - the website looks very slick and the Ofsted report is good but I think things like this are very telling about how the school operates as a whole - if you don't give a damn about how you present yourself to the outside world, or don't care enough to make sure the staff take care, what kind of message are you passing on to the children?

All my middle class friends are going private, getting tutors etc. I thought they were mad but I am starting to fear they are right...

OP posts:
LovelyTinOfSpam · 20/06/2009 16:52

Agree that the letter is dreadful and ridiculous.

However the person typing the letters isn't doing the teaching etc so maybe try and look at it that way?

Can you put her down for waiting list on one of the other 2? (That's a random suggestion which may be rubbish - my DD is only 2 but our neighbours did that and seem very happy).

lockets · 20/06/2009 16:55

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Original poster
Spero · 20/06/2009 16:55

A friend of hers at nursery lives on the same road as one of the excellent primaries - and is 10th on the waiting list. I did think about it, but I don't want her to start somewhere, make friends etc and then have to move.

I was comfortable with her being in an 'ok' school, but I thought ok would mean being taught how to read and write and have some common sense - who ever wrote this letter has none of those qualities. I appreciate this is an admin not teaching matter but I still think it says something about the whole ethos of the school and not really caring.

OP posts:
hercules1 · 20/06/2009 16:56

I really wouldnt judge a whole school on this one letter written by someone who will have the bare minimum contact with your child.

lockets · 20/06/2009 16:57

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lockets · 20/06/2009 16:58

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charitygirl · 20/06/2009 16:59

Aargh - I live in Brixton. Is this what I have to come?

YANBU - that would really make me dread interactions with the school.

Original poster
Spero · 20/06/2009 16:59

But Hercules, everything about this letter is wrong. And it is being sent out to every parent. No one apparently checked it, or they did and they didn't care.

OP posts:
Original poster
Spero · 20/06/2009 17:00

To my shame, I didn't visit the school, just looked at the website etc. I was really hoping she'd get into one of the other two which I visited and liked. I think I have been far too blase and now I'm scared my daughter will suffer.

OP posts:
Heated · 20/06/2009 17:01

Imagine the school will be getting lots of phone calls come Monday morning! Obviously an admin cock-up for which somebody should be getting hauled over the coals.

Original poster
Spero · 20/06/2009 17:01

To really put the icing on the cake of my crap day, I now have to go and clean under the sofas apparently.

But thank you for all your comments. I think the consensus is that I should politely let the school know that this makes a poor first impression.

OP posts:
RustyBear · 20/06/2009 17:02

Did the letter actually come from the school? I work in a junior school & do relief in the office & there's no way any of us who work in the office would allow a letter like that to go out - but in our borough admissions are handled by the LA and they have in the past sent out letters with the school's name on, which parents think are from the school and they are not always accurate- in one case they had the name of the head who left 18 months ago.

If they did come from the school, then the head needs to look at retraining the admin staff, but it doesn't necessarily mean the teaching is bad.

LovelyTinOfSpam · 20/06/2009 17:02

It could be a temp in the office or anything.

And if all the letters went out like that you won't be the only one responding late.

Call them monday and see if you can get a feel for what went on...

lockets · 20/06/2009 17:02

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lockets · 20/06/2009 17:04

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cazzybabs · 20/06/2009 17:07

IT IS SLOPPY, but i can see how it might happen...

head has had a car accident and is off, deputy in charge and finding everything needs doing yesterday plus she has a tricky child protection case ti deal with, school secretary's daughter is off ill so she is at home looking after her when they think bugger we never sent out that letter....
r
as someone who frequently makes typing errors I can sympathize with however write that letter ...

judge it on its teaching not its letters

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