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Secondary education

Connect with other parents whose children are starting secondary school on this forum.

Original poster

Hell hath no fury like a middle-class parent scorned

57 replies

UnquietDad · 02/06/2008 21:59

Some people walking around at DD/DS's school this week with faces like slapped arses. Didn't get their choice of secondary school and lost the appeal to boot. How disastrous is this, I wonder?

They're people who aren't in the catchment, and applied for a hugely popular school, so I'm tempted to say "what the hell did you expect?"

(Sorry, I'm aware I may be creating my own virtual Butterkist-Butterkist ra-ra-ra moment here.)

OP posts:
hana · 02/06/2008 22:01

so you can be smug because you did?

Original poster
UnquietDad · 02/06/2008 22:04

No, we're nowhere near secondary yet.

OP posts:
hana · 02/06/2008 22:06

I would say pretty disastrous, parental choice comes no where near close in terms of secondary selection now

Original poster
UnquietDad · 02/06/2008 22:06

But should it? I think it's an illusion anyway.

OP posts:
mrsruffallo · 02/06/2008 22:07

Ah, this links in to your 'entitled' theory, right?
I agree btw

Heated · 02/06/2008 22:08

Depends what the alternative is.

If it's bog-standard comp, then they ought to have more faith in their offspring's abilities & stop believing public school headteachers' scare-tactics to get more kids into private ed.

If it's where a stab vest is on the uniform list, then I too would share their concern.

Original poster
UnquietDad · 02/06/2008 22:09

mrsr, you have a good (and long) memory...

OP posts:
mrsruffallo · 02/06/2008 22:09
Wink
hana · 02/06/2008 22:09

do you mean that parents should have a choice? they are told they do have choices , but when it comes down to it, not much of a choice.

Original poster
UnquietDad · 02/06/2008 22:10

If people are going to have a choice, it should be more than the illusory one on offer now. But I'm not totally convinced about "choice" and never have been.

OP posts:
hana · 02/06/2008 22:11

I htink when my children are old enough for secondary schools I'm leaving the UK

Heated · 02/06/2008 22:30

Choice is a pathetic fallacy (apologies to Ruskin) because obviously not all pupils can't all go to the outstanding school. But if the league tables were abandoned and children had to attend their nearest school, there would still be inequality, just slightly redistributed. Unless we're talking massive educational restructuring...

Original poster
UnquietDad · 02/06/2008 22:55

No answer, really, is there?

OP posts:
wilbur · 02/06/2008 22:58

It is terrible really, the secondary thing. There are about a zillion primary schools in our borough and only about 9 secondaries. I know the secondaries are bigger, but still there are piles of kids with no local school at all, let alone a 2nd choice. What do they do with these kids? Do they recycle them? Where do they go, where, where?

Hallgerda · 03/06/2008 10:29

Ah, wilbur, there's a sort of sedate cyclone lifting them up and transporting them round a clockwise circle round London. So the ones from your borough (W, I presume) who can't find a local school end up as the "not local, definitely lowering the tone..." children on the Richmond secondary threads. And quite a few from my borough (L) end up in yours, likewise doubtless lowering the tone...

stuffitllama · 03/06/2008 10:31

gawd you shouldn't crow

nkf · 03/06/2008 10:36

They don't have a choice. Can't believe how many times I've said that. They have a preference.

nkf · 03/06/2008 10:37

And to be honest, I think we'd all do better if we dropped this "child didn't get in" and "we didn't get in" way of talking. It implies that there is some kind of deserving going on. The correct thing to say is "there wasn't a place." It's not some test of our chlid's unworthiness.

RosaLuxembourg · 03/06/2008 10:46

The whole 'choice' thing really bugs me. It is just a way of giving parents the illusion of having control over the process when in fact, REAL choice is impossible until all schools are good schools. If your so-called choice is between a good school or a crap school then that is no choice at all.
However DD1 and all her 63 schoolmates will be going to our local 'just about good enough' catchment school in September because we have NO choice.

EffiePerine · 03/06/2008 10:49

well, we'll be moving way before secondary because 300 children didn't get a place in any secondary school in my borough this year. Council's response? Looking into it...

Agree that choice purely illusory. I'd just like an automatic place at a local school which provided a safe if mediocre environment. Not much to ask, surely.

WendyWeber · 03/06/2008 10:53

I like Hallgerda's sedate cyclone image - a bit like the wind that blew the nannies away before Mary Poppins dropped in under her brolly

Has it always been like this in London or are there more children now?

seeker · 03/06/2008 10:53

It's funny that at no time has any official Government document talked about "parental choice" It has always -and I know, because I worked for the Department for Education in its many manifestation for years - been "parental preference". You can say where you would like your child to go, and if you meet the criteria and there is a place, you will get in. If not, not.

RosaLuxembourg · 03/06/2008 10:58

Is Wandsworth one of the boroughs some of you are talking about? We moved from there a few years ago. We used to live a stone's throw from Graveney school, so I always assumed she would go there, but I take it we could have been looking at bussing DD1 halfway across London. The bog standard comprehensive is now not looking too bad after all.

nkf · 03/06/2008 12:53

Good point Seeker. I guess people deluded themselves that because they wanted something it meant they had a choice about whether or not they would get it.

throckenholt · 03/06/2008 13:04

where I live there isn't really a choice - most rural areas are like that - the choice is the local school or personally transport you child miles in another direction.

I hope when mine get to that stage that the local school is ok - otherwise it will be time for difficult decisions on our part.