Hi everyone, I'm trying to sort things out in my head so feeling all stressed and been asking a few people on here via DM, which is probably not the way forward. So decided just to put it out here for people to comment on. It might be outing but I don't really care as I'm at the end of my tether with all this...
So here's what happened:
- We got our 4th choice school. Good school but huge and new
- Its 35 minutes bus ride and 10 minutes walk away from us - over 3km away
- All DS's friends ended up in 2 schools which were 1st and 2nd on our list – no idea how, some live further away than us. We are within 1km of both schools.
- DS was sure he will get into our preferred school, or at least the other two so now is massively depressed and upset, as you might imagine. None of his friends are going to the school we got. We used to live close to the no.1 choice school until 2 years ago, he grew up next to it and was always convinced that's where he is going.
- DS is quite immature and can’t travel by himself on a bus, we are working on it but at the moment he cant do it. He is quite terrified of the prospect - I know it will be ok eventually but I wont be able to help him even for a few months while he is getting used to it, as I work all day. I was hoping he will be ok with it by now but he is still fearful and I don't want to push him too hard.
- I’m a single parent, work full time, get back home at 7:30 and rely heavily on my Childminder. She will look after him after school and check he does homework but he will have to travel by himself to hers, on a different bus/ different route, also about 30-40 minutes.
I will, of course, accept the school we got, will try to make DM to feel good about it and accepts the fact he might have to go there; will work on the travelling issue and will make sure we are on the lists for all the three top preferred schools. However, going to the first preferred school would make both our lives so much easier...So I was advised to try an appeal too. But I'm not sure if I have any grounds for it... so this is what I have so far:
- I know this school take on kids during the year. They usually end up with a lot of kids leaving/ joining in the first year - as many as 10
- Our preferred school is not a big school, great academically and has a right balance of discipline and fun, which I think would benefit my kid immensely. It also have a great policy re homework, where they do it at school rather than home (not a club but compulsory). This would be ideal for him.
- Its 15 minutes walk from us and 10 minutes walk from the Childminder’s house, which would mean he could be much more independent straight away. Its not the same as taking the bus and crossing several busy roads.
- It will have all his friends in there, al the people he grew up with and this school takes kids from his primary school regularly. He already has friends there from years above him
With all that I understand my case is very slim, but do you think I should try appeal anyway? Like I said, I will call the LED and the school to make sure I’m on the waiting list etc. Is there anything else I could do?