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Original poster

elective c sections to get your kids a school place!

69 replies

albertson · 19/02/2007 09:44

Look at this!

www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article1400683.ece

wtf!!
I know it's insane trying to get a prep school place in London but please! And that the headmistress actually admits she'd advise booking a c-section early in the month.
Oh. My.God

OP posts:
Booboobedoo · 19/02/2007 09:48

I just don't know what to say.

eleusis · 19/02/2007 09:52

This media hype at it's best (or should I say worst?). Like you are going to shift a section date by 3, 4 weeks just for school enttry. I can see pushing for a few days, but not a matter of weeks.

Although this reminds me of a conversation I recently had with a friend who is a primary school teacher and now pregnant with her third. The first one was an emergency section, and the second a VBAC.

Eleusis: So when are you due?
Friend: Sept. 02?
Eleusis: Oh goash. You just miss the school cut-oof. She he/she will be home for another year?
Friend: No. I'm asking for a section so it will be end of August.
Eleusis: Oh. So... that BVAC wasn't all it was cracked up to be?
Friend: NO!
Eleusis:

mm22bys · 19/02/2007 10:12

And look where it got Harry and William.....if that's as far as my sons got I'd be a bit peeved!

eleusis · 19/02/2007 10:16

Let's face it. Harry and William could go wheverer Charles and Di wanted, regardless of birthdays.

lulumama · 19/02/2007 10:20

sadly, i am not surprised

it has come to something when birth is scheduled to get the child into a school, 4 years down the line

foxinsocks · 19/02/2007 10:21

?The clued-in father leaves the labour ward as soon as the baby arrives and provides us with a filled-out registration form.?

if dh had done that, I think I'd have belted him around the ears with a kipper

these people must live on a different planet to the rest of us

lulumama · 19/02/2007 10:28

?I wouldn?t dream of advocating that a mother has a caesarean section, but if they know already that will happen, I advise them to book in early in the month, rather than later,? she said.

?I tell them if you have an option, don?t choose the 31st, have it on the 1st and call on the 2nd.? Parents are not allowed to book a place until the child is born.

yeeeeaaaaaaarrrrrrrrgggggggghhhhhhhhhhhhh

so, have your baby a month early , and increase the risk of baby having respiratory difficulties , and various other possible complications, to increase the risk of getting into a school

that type of thinking is so beyond my remit....

paulaplumpbottom · 19/02/2007 10:31

Good grief. What next.

PrincessPeaHead · 19/02/2007 10:35

Hahaha
I phoned one of those schools in the article when ds1 was born. He was 3 weeks old and I said "I'd like to put him down please". They said "no I'm sorry, it isn't possible to register him now. We only accept newborns". "He IS a newborn!" says I. "No he isn't, he is three weeks old. Goodbye" says the woman and puts the phone down on me!!!!!

I was SO outraged that she said my lovely little snuffly 3 weeker wasn't a newborn I can't tell you!

And that was 6.5 years ago

Judy1234 · 19/02/2007 10:38

But if the child is very clever it will pass exams for the schools you want at 7 and 11 anyway. It's the supposed social cache of some of these schools that the parents are after.

Obviously it's helpful that you know if you have a choice that having the C section on 31st not 1st means you get a place, though.

WideWebWitch · 19/02/2007 10:39

lol at 3 weeks old being Too Late for a place!

PrincessPeaHead · 19/02/2007 10:40

I don't think anyone ever accused wetherby boys of being very clever. and it is entry from 4. so I don't think your first sentence adds much really.

my criteria for applying was that it was within a couple of minutes walk from home, c'est tout

don't have any of this bollox in the country though, it is a peculiarly london thing.

CAMy · 19/02/2007 12:20

I simply can't imagine how pushy those parents are going to be if they're even arranging the birth of their baby in connection with school admissions criteria

Wrong, wrong, wrong.

NuttyMuffins · 19/02/2007 12:21

Bloody hell, the worlds gone mad.

OttergavebirthonValentines · 19/02/2007 12:23

can someone link please!

CristinaTheAstonishing · 19/02/2007 12:29

PrincessPeaHead - it says in the article that there are clueless first time parents who phone up when their baby is 6 months old asking for a place. Oh, how they laugh (the school, obviously).

I was between bemused and disgusted by the article. It's a world away from me and my concerns. Imagine being so insecure that you need to assert yourself through the school your baby might go to in the future.

Original poster
albertson · 19/02/2007 12:29

www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article1400683.ece

OP posts:
Judy1234 · 19/02/2007 13:11

But aren't we all as bad? Can anyone say there is nothing they do with their children because they think that is best for them? Is it any different? Is if different from moving to be near a better state school?

fortyplus · 19/02/2007 13:14

You really can't see a difference?

Monkeytrousers · 19/02/2007 13:17

But they'd be the youngest in the year. That's not a recipe for success.

My DS was born late September and I was really worried that he'd be going in this year but he isn't, therefore he'll be one of the oldest in the year rather than the youngest.

Monkeytrousers · 19/02/2007 13:18

link

jampot · 19/02/2007 13:24

my twin sister and I were born late at the end of August - imagine my parents sitting anxiously awaiting delivery of their precious package wondering whether we would get places at the school at the end of the road?

Dont know how they managed

jampot · 19/02/2007 13:24

but worse than that imagine having twins at home for an extra year if we were born a couple of days later

Greensleeves · 19/02/2007 13:28

lol monkeytrousers, I ve got boys 23 months apart in age - one born end of Sptember, one born mid-August, so they'll be one year apart at school! What a cock-up

lulumama · 19/02/2007 13:31

because a c.s at 36 weeks is different to one at 39 or 40 weeks, there is more chance of respiratory distress..and a full term pregnancy is 37 weeks, so encouraging premature birth, albeit by a week, to get into a school, and the possible health complications, and the risks to the mother of major abdominal surgery, is not to my mind, equatable to moving house to be nearer a good school

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