When I filled in the application form for primary schools, I was asked to write 1st and 2nd choices.
I live in a village, equidistant between 2 primary schools. However, I'm only in the catchment area of one and it turns out that where I live I am only in the catchment of that one school. Is that normal? They why bother to offer a choice?
Unfortunately it's not the one I really want, so I put it down as 2nd choice and the other as 1st choice which also happens to be VE CofE and very popular. Since we're out of catchment (by a few yards), they want my local vicar to tell them how often we go to church and for how long, which is impossible as he's never met us. What's wrong with us wanting DS to go there simply because we want him to have a good education? Is it acceptable that ds won't be considered because of it?
I visited 2nd choice school to see if I was just being too fussy and while it looked nice, the headmaster was soooooo rude and wet he completely put me off. I walked into his office and he ignored me, pretending to be sorting through papers. Then the 1st thing he did was tell me I was early to be visiting the school, they hold open days in the summer term (supposed to start in Sept!). He didn't offer ANY info about the school, I had to keep asking questions, he said Fridays were the busiest day for school meals because that's when they serve chips and when I left he handed me an A4 leaflet about the 'aims of the school', all managementese. He's only been there a year, so I can't rely on the Ofsted report from 3 years ago and I think if I think he's wet (and normally I'm sadly in awe of people in authority), what do the teachers think of him?
Can I complain to my local council about having no choice? Right now, I feel my choice is between 2nd choice and a fee-paying school where ds is in nursery, but which I can't afford.