Help! Just been offered a place at primary school but..

[bluebear]

ds starts at another school tomorrow. We only bought the uniform on Monday.

Our local school is over-subscribed so we applied for 2 other not so local schools.

He was given a place at the 'least popular' which is OK but needs rebuilding. From half term ds's classroom is going to be knocked down and he will be moved to a pre-fab for at least 2 years, with all the children sharing a much reduced playground whilst the new school is built. We like the headmaster but I don't like the general area around the school (have to go down an alley to get to the entrance, past pot-smoking teenagers).

School 2 has just rung and offered us a place - we haven't even looked at this one but it has a very good reputation and is the same distance away as the first school...and no building work disruption.

Ds does not cope well with changes, we have spent weeks building him up with details about his school and what to expect. He is only just 4 and still has 40min screaming tantrums (lying on floor type) when he gets disturbed by something.

My gut feeling is to turn down the place and let him settle where he expects to go....but on the other hand, it is supposed to be a 'better' school and the disruption of the building work may counteract the disruption of moving him now.

Someone guide me please!

You must be so relieved !

bluebear, I had some sort of memory that you are from Ealing? I used to teach there so was going to ask if I knew any of the schools. But you seem very happy with your choice!

Hi Jane - he was going to G (south ealing) and is now going to F (Northfields) -but we live in LE catchment.. I'm sure you can work it out from that
(Do you think we've done the right thing?)

I've never taught at G and have heard that some people aren't so keen. But some friends children go there and like it. I tend to ignore a lot of parental gossip (the parents whose children don't actually go there) about schools though because some of it is so silly and ill-founded and sometimes pretty offensive too. I particularly remember a mother of 6 month year old baby who told me they were very worried cos they heard that one school was full of bullies and another was very pushy. Such ridiculous generalisations. I have been at both the other schools (I used to supply teach) and they are both very nice. I read about LE being so oversubscribed this year. We are moving within the area soon and hopefully won't end up in that catchment area as its seems a bit of a nightmare.

LE is only a nightmare this year because they had a 3 form entry 2 years ago (normally 2 forms) so this year there were 37 sibs within catchment, leaving very little space for non-sib catchment children..we are only a few roads away and are 18th on the waiting list - didn't think the school was that fab, but it is local and wanted ds's future friends to be local if poss.
G seemed to have a great ethos and we really liked the head...felt that it gets a bad press from the snob factor..but were worried about the effect of the building work over the next 2 years ( especially since it's the KS1 children that lose their playground and classrooms).
F seems really friendly and child orientated and is actually the nearest school to our house (so friends should be local). Didn't get to meet the head but the teachers seemed nice and resources seemed fine.
That was our take anyway

are thats interesting about the siblings. I always liked F because of having some green open space too. I have signed up my son to 4 primarys nursery classes as we don't know where we will be next year and you apply to the school directly and you can apply to as many as you want. But I really like the 2 with green fields. I had nice memories of my childhood summers on fields. (In reality it was probably only a couple of non-rainy days!)

Argh - just dropped him off for his first session...we had done role play according to the booklet they gave me which said that 'at 12.55 a bell will be rung and the children will line up outside their classrooms, then they will walk in with the teacher'...spent ages prepping ds......then they didn't ring a blooming bell, or line up..just wandered in when the teacher opened the door...cue absolute meltdown from ds. He had to be peeled off me screaming and I walked away listening to his screams.

I am a bit p*ed off with them - why put it in the reception booklet if they aren't going to do it?

Counting down the minutes til I go to get him now.

how was he bluebear?

Kind of subdued and shell shocked when I picked him up - also had 6 smiley stickers on his shirt (way more than any other child I saw) - he said they were for 'being brave'.
They had been doing some writing so he was bearing a piece of paper which he had written his name and 'mummy' on countless times...bless (only 2 words he writes yet)
Teacher said he had been great though

Bluebear I would stongly recomend getting a diagnosis if you are at all concerned. SS is educationally above average and diagnosed as high functioning (this means that he can cope pretty well in everyday situations) but having the diagnosis will enable the school to obtain any additional resources they need to help him. SS has someone to come into class and take him out calm him down when he has a meltdown. This ensures minimal disruption to rest of the class as well as meaning he doesn't have his meltdown publicly so to speak. It sounds to me as though your DS will need some additional support from your description.

Hope all is well and best wishes

Thanks Passionflower..I seem to remember that part of the diagnosis is that he has to behave this way in more than one environment..so I will be interested on how he behaves at school, but it is def. something I will keep a close eye on.
It may just be my bad parenting, honest!

May not be AS but I'm sure it's not bad parenting

I'm glad it went ok. Its annoying that you had been preparing him for a different set of entry procedures. Its probably something someone gave to the parents and forgot to give to the teachers!