elective c sections to get your kids a school place!

[albertson]

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

Greensleeves - mine are 18 months apart and in consecutive academic years. Helping with the same lot of homework 12 months later can be a bit mind numbing at times! But at least I won't have one doing GCSEs at the same time the other is taking A levels!

It's not just encouraging premature birth, it's the mindset that would have people worrying about such things before their child is even born. Don't people ever relax in this city?

I bet some of you took folic acid and lay off the cigarettes in pregnancy. Isn't that the same - care of a child before birth?

No one would jeopardise a child's life like this. And I am very against women having C sections unless it's really necessary and I know the risks of prematurity. I only got to have my twins at 40 weeks because I opted out of the NHS for the birth - the NHS gets them out early.

So were you joking when you said 'Is if different from moving to be near a better state school?'
I never know whether to take you literally because you never put a

But there's looking out for a child's health and choosing to have a c-section on a certain date - as you yourself said - because a school has social cache. Don;t you think it's a bit different?

I think this article is silly. Does anyone really move a section date be 3 or 4 weeks. I am all for a womans right to choose a section for any reason. But even I would draw a line at the sensibility of anything before 38 weeks (unless of course there is a medical complication like pre-eclamsia). I can see wanting it a few days or even a week early. But certainly not at 35, 36, 37 weeks. Do people really do this?

Umm I don't think they are advocating having the csection a month earlier!

"I tell them if you have an option, don?t choose the 31st, have it on the 1st and call on the 2nd"

What they mean is don't ahve on 31st March, have on 1st April

Either way it is laughable and moronic

I am delighted that dd was born 4 Sept not in August on her due date, it means she gets to be a little girl for longer!

I can honestly say that on the day following my c section I would not have been ready to phone a school up to register my baby to start 5 years later! I was more concerned about being able to stand up long enough to get to the shower and how long it would be before they'd allow my a cup of tea.

If the school is that concerned, why not only allow registrations for a place on one set day - the 1st September 3 years prior to starting, etc. Or to put down the place for unborn children like you have to with some nurseries.

How do these people know this particular school is right for their child at 1 day old??

Sorry but this is nothing to do with wanting a good school for their child and only to do with snobbery

I have no problems with them moving it to a day or two so from 1st back to 31st to get the place at school just like some people move it around so the father can be at the birth but only within a matter of a few days.

I don't think choosing a school because the other children have nice accents and are well behaved is any worse than choosing one because children from the council estate don';t go there because you've moved yourself to leafy Kent away from 95% bangladeshis in the local Bethnal Green school.

Personally I prefer academic schools and could just about tolerate the accents my children developed at places like Habs because the academic standard of the school was more important to me than that they go to some plaec in the country, board and all the other girls are as thick as a plank but speak well. But I wouldn't say my academic snobbery is any better or worse than social snobbery or the snobbery of some of the left who'll send a child to the worst school there is on leftist principle.

Have you ever met someone who has sent a child to the worst possible school on leftist principle? I haven't.
I know people with a lot of money who have defied their socialist principles by sending a child to a private school even though they don't believe in it, but not the other way around.

A few. It was a 1960s trend I think. People who went themselves to good schools and then sent children to not such good comps in London. I expect they weren't the worst comprehensives. I think Paul McC's daughter wasn't that happy with the state school he send his first 3 children to on principle. In London I doubt anyone would go out of their way to support the worst secondaries although I did read about a vicar who moved in to minster on a sink estate and made sure his daughter went to the local pretty dreadful school.

I know someone. my sister. Her daughter is very smart. and I mean very. She took a test in Chicago and she was told she got top marks and could go to any school she chose. My sister chose a very mediocre one because she felt is was socially more appropriate. My mother was horrified.

They have no money. This is not a private school. It is like the equivolent of grammar school selection for primary in Chicago.

"The problem is we could fill our places six times over and, at two to three days old, a child can be too old to get a place,? she said".

and

One woman who refused to leave the building until her child was given a place had to be removed by the police.

I am so glad that I am not a rich, paranoid and deluded sociopath!
......

Just a poor one!

PPH, my dcousin got her ds into that school, and then not unreasonably asked for another tour rather nearer the time of school entry. They were so rude and snotty to her that she decided she'd decline the guaranteed offer of a place in favour of another school that wasn't quite so up itself.

Apparently she could feel the frosty disbelief down the phone line when she called up to tell them thanks, but no thanks. She has had no cause to regret her decision.

aah...CD, gotcha re the date of CS only being a few days leeway!! anyhoo..still think it is absolutely insane to schedule the birth around the school intake...

glad i live in a nice little town with lots of good state schools !

As Frog's cousin found out - you might not want that school in 5 years' time. Or your financial circumstances might change, or you move out of London, or the celebs of the day take their kids elsewhere or a million other reasons.

do they give tours when the women are expecting?

You probably need the ultrasound scan proof that you're expecting a boy so they know not to waste their time.

#and why do you have to wait until he is born? Is it to make sure he/she is reasonable healthy?

You can't register a foetus

(Yet)

CAMy - you can for nurseries. I found out when looking for a nursery for DS who was already 8 months old by then.

Oh yes of course you can reserve a place, can't you. I think its different for schools though, think you have to provide a d/o/b

Next time I might call while shagging and register my potential foetus