If anyone is still 'sitting' on a senior school place for Sept....

[Whippet]

....please don't .

I know someone locally whose daughter is in a private prep currently, and is 99.9% likely to continue on into the senior school (and has been offered a place)

HOWEVER

her parents applied to the (very good) local state school 'just in case' and were offered a place which they duly accepted.

They are apparently intending to 'keep it' until summer just in case one of their jobs is suddenly at risk (there's no known threat of this at the moment), or in case they 'decide to change their mind' .

Tossers. I can't believe they are being so selfish, when there are people considering moving/ remortgaging/ and generally going through heartache because they haven't got local school places...

However it does highlight why it's worth hanging on in there on waiting lists etc - I bet they are not the only people doing this .

I think it's fair enough. Though I'm in exactly the same position - DD is going into the secondary part of her independent girls' school and I released the state school place (to a good school - she got in legitimately on a music place) the day after I received it. Didn't want to hog it when someone else would be desperate for it. Hopefully nothing will change in our circumstances and I won't regret this! Don't really blame them for holding onto it for a while longer as a safety net. After all we all pay the same taxes!!!

She is playing the system. If you disapprove, it's the system you should direct your anger at.

The thing I think is even more annoying is parents putting their DC in for the 11+ when they have no intention of sending their DC to the grammar school concerned.In our area the highest scoring 28% of the in-catchment cohort are deemd to have passed and this sets the 'pass mark' for out-of-catchment children.
So when in-catchment children who have passed decide not apply for a grammar school place, they have in effect permanantly denied another in-catchment child.

An extreme example of the topic I realise, but I witnessed a good friend pull-off an incredible stunt to get her child into a local nursery school even?! She lied about having en-listed her child much earlier, blaming staff for losing her details and so jumped to the top of the waiting list above me and other friends' children. We were all aghast and this was someone we all liked.

When it comes to THEIR children, some people will stop at nothing to get what they want - I think it's a primevel instinct that affects their moral compass or something. Our local authority recently discovered a family had put a garage address down as their main home to get their child into a good local secondary school and got caught - how embarrassing is that!

I can't believe people really do this If they have already decided and accepted a place then it seems rather selfish to then accept another place. I actually think this is worse than people lieing to get places they don't live in the catchment of. I don't think lieing is ok, but that is done out of desperation not greed.

In the current climate nobody knows if their job is secure it seems entirely sensible if you have no financial savings or security to hold onto the school place - they are doing best for their child. However, anybody looking into going private should have quite a lot of back up funds as you don't know what will happen - fee increases, job loss, illness etc... If you can only scrape into paying the school fees it is quite a precarious position to be in.

Don't think admissions people can get on their high horse about this when lots of people, including everybody living on my road got NONE of their 3 school choices again this year.

Dear Cranbury

I think it is wrong provided they know they can afford it and intend to send to private. I'm one of the 'lots' of people, we made 4 choices and didn't get any!! This also happened for my first child but I got him into my first choice on appeal. My second child got our third of 4 choice but my daughter has got none.

She is the only one in the school not to have got into a school of her choice - the others either got into local grammer schools or just lived that little nearer and so were within catchment areas for at least one of the schools they wanted .

We have been to see the school she has been 'allocated' and it is difficult to get to and is a specialist school for all the subject she hates!!

I am just hoping that some of those private school places are accepted and she can move up the waiting lists soon....

I despair when I hear people are unhappy and they got at least one of their choices , we would have been happy with any of our four choices

I think this is real problem. The people who are saying it isn't aren't thinking about it from the children's point of view. It's one thing telling your child they've got the choice of 2 places they like and waiting to decide which one they'll take. Slightly less fun for a child to be told they've got a place at a school they don't want, but just wait right to the very last minute to see if someone gives it up a place. Horrible for the children involved!

It would be much fairer all round if the LEAs were in liaison with the independent sector - so the LEA knew if someone had a private AND a state place. They should then be given a sensible deadline to keep or let go of the state place. Fair's fair!

I completely disagree with the op - although in an ideal world this wouldn't go on. It's not the individuals who are at fault, it's the system as it has developed in this country with regards to school places. Having being shat on by the system (ds offered none of 3 "choices") I now wish I had pretended to be religous / rented nearer the school etc. Where has the moral highground got my dc? Private school miles away from local friends who are at the school up the road from us. When it comes to junior / secondary and school for siblings I will be doing exactly this - sitting on as many places and options for them as I can possibly get until I make the best decsion for them - you'd be stupid not to where we live.

Having had no options at one point I would never put all my eggs in one basket again when it is only my dc that will suffer for my principles. It's a horrible, harsh system but having been on the waiting lists to no avail and hardly ever seeing my kids due to working ft for the real possibility of having to pay for their education, it's a lottery and you have to play it as best as you can. No one knows what will happen so in their position I would keep the place until the beginning of the summer (not right up to September though)

fabhead, well said.

We made the choice at the start that we would pay rather than get religion, move or lie. (At the time the Local Authority was threatening to close our local primary and merge it with the third worst performing primary in the country. They were only prepared to consult with existing parents - whose opposition they discounted - and tenants associations on local estates who appeared to have an average age of 70.)

As a result we got a certain amount of flack from people who felt they were sticking to principles. However I think I can safely say that 10 years later there is no moral high ground at all, and I would struggle to think of anyone who has not moved their child to a better performing primary with the hope of improving their chances of secondary, rented a flat in an out of borough catchment, taken God seriously even to the extent of switching from CofE to Catholic, tutored their kids until VR/non VR comes out of their ears, or used grannies address.

The real slog of working full time to pay fees seems honest and straight-forward in comparison. At least the kids can move through their education smoothly and without worry. Hopefully the benefits of seeing parents work hard outweighs the fact that they have spent the Easter holidays being shoved on one trip, course or camp after another and that their mum is often tired, stressed and grumpy.

You don't have to look far to see politicians who have made sure their kids are in high performing state schools, often passing failing ones on the way.

People will look after their own. It is not right, but the losers, as fabhead suggests, may be those kids whose parents don't do the same.