choice of teacher and friends in prepschool reception

[manychoices]

Have name-changed here
This is long but trying to cover background.

Im sending my child to prep-school in September (we have dire state schools locally) the problem is the parents of our current nursery who will also be sending the kids to the school have started to get very involved from now. It is very cliquey which i am not.

The school has now put us in a predicament, they have opened a second class they usually have one form entry. I am happy with this because there will be more kids to socialise with, however they did sell us the school on this great reception teacher who is great we have seen her in action twice and she has been with them for years.

The second class will be headed up by their teaching assistant who they have trained etc. This is a slight concern but again I decided to not get involved in the decision of the school.
They put the option at the end of the letter to specify if we wanted to choose any particular friends.
I don?t want to necessarily choose the two children that are in current nursery as they are not particularly close and I don?t really need to choose my DDs friends from this age, she?s confident enough and new start is fine.

Problems is others have started to write to school requesting friends (same nursery children) to stay together (I find that strange) and also requesting original teacher which I think would annoy the school. I realise I am now surrounded by pushy parents demanding their moneys worth and maybe the school is losing control here by giving options.

Deep down I would like the original teacher as I based my decision on her and have offended others by saying please don?t request my child to be with yours as ?I don?t care? and then may be pushed into other class because im not sticking with them and their demands.

But my passiveness and laid back approach means I may be short changed ? what to do with regards to teacher situation?

Haha I bet you've all got some stories! My experience is still limited but I was

your op said local state schools were dire but surely there must be other good preps for you to choose from?

seems a bit extreme and immature, sorry, to say all the other 29 parents are making 'a song and dance' about having one particular teacher. you cant possibly know all the parents of this reception year intake

if its a good school, as you say, let them make the decision which class your dc goes into.

fwiw my ds went to a very good prep school and they could pick and choose their staff so didnt take NQTs as a cheap option but because they were good. one of his best teachers was a NQT. she wouldnt have been employed if she wasnt. so hopefully this applies to your NQT especially as school have prior knowledge or her working practises

so true everlong

Yes of course
Chick - this is all quite a shock to me parents wise. I trust them yes and know their other very well experienced teachers are not cheap. They boast about this. Just thought as I'm hearing parents are writing in requesting etc I may miss opportunity by not having that sort of parenting culture. If you see what I mean.
And also I'm not stating facts saying "other 29" just chatting I can tell u I'm not the one being extreme and immature here

if you trust the school why are you so bothered by what other parents are doing? genuine question

im bothered they want to put my childs name on their emails
im bothered that as i said deep down if i could choose i would go for the first teacher and they seem to be making that clear to school but i didnt because the option wasnt given on the letter

pros and cons weighed up it was the best school for us its not even that near but its a nice school and am only mentioning that i like it as others were saying previously that theyd not choose the school based on this letter which came pretty late in the day.

so im not bothered on the whole but feel its a little unfair.

this is nearest prep by the way just under 5miles further than that and i would be bringing myself a whole new problem and its unfair to the child but this is not the issue of the day. just found the letter and parents response all very bizarre!

thanks everyone for advice though on the whole it seems to appear pretty normal to voice opinions to school.

The head should know that these other parents are not speaking for you and your child though, she'll want & expect to hear from you regarding your child.

the parents are worried about their kids being in new environment and so it comforts the parents i think to know their kids are with kids they know, this is not something i want to get involved in. after 5 mins in a small school the kids will all know each other!
so our names will be mentioned the head may pressume we consented
i will have to give them a ring not something i normally would do but feel backed into a corner and theres obviously a lot of action from other parents already so youre right ill have to express my opinion

Erm.... are you sure it's because the parents don't want to mix with new parents?

I'd make another appointment to go in and have a chat with the head.

yes and theres that, i want to mix with new parents or rather my child mixes with new kids and start fresh its always healthy. i think they may be closed so i'll try again to make appoint. thanks Belle

It's half term

i know clever of them to post on fri - avoid hassle! email inbox will be full!

Yup, that's why it's best to call and speak to her face to face.

thanks belle i will do