secondary education - not privates school choices

[dementedma]

Ok, so where can I find threads about secondary education that isn't an angst ridden should ds/dd go to this private school or that private school?
Ds attends local state school. Does anyone else on MN do this or is it just me?

Oh I loved the 'best school in the world thread'. Maybe we should let the 8% stay? They really do need their own board though.

Wish you could bottle that sangfroid mother, we could carpet-bomb certain postcodes

Funny you should say that, was thinking of starting a business 'customising' arriviste looking family estates do shout if your interested. I even supply holey, labrador-infused blankets for the boot.

you're^ argh

I felt actual guilt about the lack of angst when DD1's application went in. Sending her to a nearby school with such a chance of getting in felt like the easy lazy option that was surely Wrong.

Their own board?! This will end badly. We will be accused of trying to create a two tier mumsnet system.

Good forbid. Whatever next? Two-tier education system?

My favourite threads are the ones where people want paid-for education but haven't got the money to pay for it and somehow don't understand that it's like paying for any sort of goods and services, as opposed to education wot is provided free for the good of all, innit.

Someone did suggest a private school board and the whole thing ended up in tears when the instigator of the thread went off the rails a bit. MN might be a bit sensitive (twitchy and hitting the gin) if that idea was floated again...

Hmmm, how long do you think we need to leave it chaz?

Mine all went to the local comp.

MN makes me feel like I did it wrong.

I think that 8% is an average at all ages across the country. Isn't the figure closer to 40% in Richmond for 11+?

Well, as about all but two of the posters on the thread (before it descended into chaos) were against the idea of separate boards based on how a school is funded, then I'd say that you need to give it a few years. But as it's a nigh on annual February tradition to have that thread, then I expect it'll pop up again in about 12 months.

I do, OP, but then of course you must bear in mind that
a) I bought a massive expensive house in a leafy catchment first which is exactly the same as going private.
b) I do not give a fuck about 'patchy' provision elsewhere, and am therefore - suprisingly - the biggest problem there is with state education
c) I have low expectations
d) dd1 gets beaten up in the refectory every day because she is clever and
e) dd2 beats other kids up in the refectory every day because they are clever
f) I'm plagued by a sense of my own inadequacy and that of my beige children in their crappy comp. This does confuse me, given (a), but there it is!

I'm waiting to see if my dd has got in at our local comp, there is a thread [[http://www.mumsnet.com/Talk/education/1980002-March-3-Sceondary-results-Waiting here] waiting for offers day.

Those who are spending their own money on education and those who are in areas/situations where finding a suitable school is tricky are most likely to be the ones posting. There are probably quite a few of us happy to use local schools with varying degrees and styles of 'filling in gaps' outside of school.

Awww Hun dyawannatalkaboudit ?

Or not filling in gaps, as the case may be.

What gaps?

Gaps in the gums, caused by chair throwing?

Well indeed, if the school suits your child exactly then there are no gaps, both my children have needed extra support with things that the school haven't been able to offer so maybe that's influenced my view.

My children don't even go to school. They go down t'pit.

Perhaps I should step in as Aga has not come back. Yes indeed you can put down six preferences for good comprehensives in the London suburbs and not get into any of them. And yes 40% go private in Richmond and other South West London suburbs. It's not just that 40% go private, Richmond has one of the highest proportions of state school pupils (that is those that get places in the primary schools in the first place) going private in the country, far ahead of the affluence of it's residents, that is because many find themselves scraping together the money (or moving) because they realise they are not going to get a state school place. The good schools will be oversubscribed 5 to 1 by parents putting them first preference, who would be only too happy, as I would have been, to send their children there. The catchments shrink ever smaller, house prices wiz up on the doorsteps of school and we nearly just had civil war between the parents who pushed for a new Catholic School to be established and the parents who just wanted a new inclusive school to meet the needs of the pupil bulge everyone can see coming through Primary Schools. But our Council Leader is friends with lots of VIP Catholic establishment so the existing school site went to the Catholic Church and parents had to put together their own Free School proposal for an inclusive school. That has yet to announce whether it has a site. Since there were more applications than places this application round even if that school opens it seems likely there will be parents without a school place. Even the schools the Council gave to a Swedish education provider to experiment with teaching methods (children sit in front of computers instead of having formal lessons, OFSTED haven't exactly fallen over themselves with enthusiasm and both schools "require improvement" ) are oversubscribed.

So those of you with an LA who actually does make sure it provides local school places perhaps turn down the cynicism a bit. These are lots of first time buyers struggling to make a decision about what is for them a substantial investment, not a lifestyle choice. If you want the full story it is here www.richmondinclusiveschools.org.uk/ ( website of the pressure group set up by dissatisfied parents) and here www.turinghouseschool.org.uk/ website of the parent led Free School and here www.strichardreynolds.org.uk/ website of the new Catholic School.

I wouldn't bother, it's all inverse snobbery in this thread.

And yes coming up for parents at the new Catholic School, "Bingo and Prosecco Night". No wonder the Head is touting around the local Catholic primary schools that the new school is a "private school without the fees"

Yes Aga but I always enjoy a chance to get that one off my chest and shame Lord True. We were wondering if we could use all the papers from the Judicial Reviews to hold back the floods

By law the LEA must find a place for every child in it's area. If people didn't buy out of the system en mass then all the schools would have the same potential to be good. If just 10% of those parents chose to send to a RI improvement school (or heck, lower) then the schools would improve. If you don't get the critical mass of average and better students in from average and better homes there is no hope. It's a situation that IMHO parents of the borough are not helping and by setting up a free school the problem is being exacerbated. The council were it appear out of order on the catholic school situation but the parents could do a lot more to help them sleeves if they were willing to look at what much of the rest of the country has to accept status-quo.