.............CH 4...........ADMISSION IMPOSSIBLE..................9.00......................

[RTKangaMummy]

Channel 4 Wednesdays 23 and 30 August at 9pm

Each year in September many parents embark on a hugely stressful journey to get their kids into the school of their choice. Around half a million primary leavers need to be allocated a secondary school place and all over the country there is a battle being fought for spots at the most oversubscribed schools. Admission Impossible follows the stories of six families from across the country as they navigate their way through the admissions system, striving to secure the perfect place for their child.

In Surrey determined businessman Mr Shah is rigorously preparing his son Mehdin for a series of grammar and private school examinations. With private tutoring and parental expectation, the pressure is on Mehdin to score highly in the exams for the top six schools in the area. In Bradford, Helen Troman and Hannah Weston are competing against hundreds of other children for a place at highly regarded city academy Dixons. Meanwhile Eileen Stockley, a single mum from Norfolk, is desperately trying to move her gifted son Alex from his state primary to a private prep school, but with a very low income her chances are slim.

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I think jostling for primary places is definitely a London/SE thing.

We are in a small city and we live in a very middle class area so of course the local school is lovely and pupils very polite, gets good SATs etc. Also new head is FAB. But DD is about to go into yr 1 with 56 pupils in her year out of a possible intake of 80. Of the three years in school (it's an infant school) only one is full. So go figure.

All the other primaries anywhere near are similarly full of smart nice white mc children. Maybe we are spoiled for choice!

Didn't watch this show tonight but just wanted to make another quick point about secondaries if I may: DH and I both went to selective grammar schools several miles from where we lived. All our pals were 15 miles away. This is not something I want to inflict on my children. I would love for them to stroll home from the comp round the corner here and srop in on a pal as they go. I was never able to do that.

Can someone answer me a question please ??

Do you have to live in the area of a Grammar school or can anyone from any area apply and sit the test ?

Right I am off to bed.

See you in the morning.

Love MN, DH and I watched this and he had, had an early start so needed early bed, but he said go on MN they are bound to be rucking over this.

Sometimes I love it when he is right.

Yeah, clary, I'm the same. Kids'll walk to the local school, their friends'll live round about, they'll go out in the evening and walk to friends' houses, go to local discos, we'll be part of the area we live in.

But I grew up in various small towns (dh in the one small town) and that's how it was for us so we expect the same thing. This frantic school search is alien to me. So I thought it was more of a city issue.

I think anyone can apply to sit the 11+. However, when allocating places the schools will have their own criteria, the main one of which (from looking at the admissions booklet from the county council) is location. They will offer places to those children living closest first and then, if there are any other places, to those further away. So, if you don't live within a reasonable striking distance of the school, even if you pass the 11+, you may not be offered a place.

The thing I don't understand, and feel free to shoot me down on this, is why would you make your child sit an entrance exam for a school that you had no way of paying the fees for? Basically you are pinning all your (and their) hopes on a bursary which probably will still make it unaffordable. Here in Southampton we have a very successful private school, and when dd was in yr 6 so many kids sat the exam with no real hope of their parents being able to afford the full fees and bursaries are so few and far between. A lot of them got offered places, but had to turn them down, and the parents then brag "oh DD/DS was offered a place at ---- but we went for the local comp"! We are lucky, however that the girls school is quite good for the academically able girls, as fee paying would just never be an option for us.

after this programme dh and i sat and did some research into our local secondary schools.our catchment area school-which we knew wasn't good-came 17th out of 17 local schools in the league tables.grim.
our local independent grammar came top and the fees are more than 7,000 a year.we have two children who would be there at the same time.
we have no hope of paying that.

looks like we are going to have to move.......

Unfortunately that is the only way to circumvent the system. it would appear.

i did feel sorry for alex's mum but she had no hope and i would be very surprised if someone did offer to pay the fees. the whole programme is so depressing, money will buy your children a better future, but it seems so wrong to be pressurising these children at such a young age.

the school where rugby was the main sport is a prime example of how unfair the british schooling system really is.

southeastastra

the school where rugby was the main sport is a prime example of how unfair the british schooling system really is.

What in the world is wrong with Rugby being the main sport ??

nothing wrong with rugby! the school just stuck me as the 'old boy network' type of school. but then i think all schools should be equal and all children should get the same equal chance in life. i know i obviously live in cloud cuckoo land

It struck me as strange that Alex's mum didn't think anything of asking other people to fund her son's school's fees but didn't even seem to consider getting a job that might pay more than the bar work she was doing!

As has been mentioned before, it might not be possible for her to get another job which would pay enough to enable her to come off tax credits. Anything extra she could earn whilst on tax credits would just see her tax credits reduced so that there would be no tangible benefit to earning more.

I did think she was deluding herself that she could raise the additional funds, bearing in mind that this would be for potentially another 5-6 years.

i think she would have better off talking to the school her ds was at and getting him put on the g&t register and helping them find ways they could keep him challenged.

It also astounds me that anyone on here could believe that, just because someone finds they need an extra £5-5K per annum, they can just go and find a better job! If it were that easy, we'd all be doing it. I'm not saying she was right in expecting someone else to cough up, but really, be practical.

I found this programme very depressing actually. Ds1 is going into yr5 so decisions are looming for us. What I hate most is the idea of involving him in some uncertainty and stress.

Freckle, I am being practical you don't put your children through the private system unless you can fund it yourself (or have the funds available to you) - not to expect to fund it by "begging".

To be fair, I understood that she works full time already. So another job probably wouldn't be practical with two kids. Lives in Norfolk which isn't exactly the capital of industry, so might not be able to find another job. I think that the phoning of loan sharks & selling the car may have been a cynical ploy for the cameras though.

Above all that, at least she is trying to get her son a better education & working instead of sitting on her behind claiming benefits like so many do. I bet she doesn't earn much more on benefits & a barmaids wages as she would if she didn't work.

I don't blame the woman really. It's a dog eat dog world out there and if her begging pays off, then good for her. Better than that one who said why should my son have to go to blah blah school school when he is bright but could obviously afford to send her son to somewhere private.

Seen this?