The Disgrace of the School Place Battle
The vexed issue of school places is upon us , parents get more and more distraught every year and this year will be worse yet again as many will have to take jobs wherever they can get them with added financial problems. They don’t need the extra worry about how they will get their child in to a school. If schools are oversubscribed, the government should give councils the financial support to put on a second form entry. It’s time that Ed Balls and Jim Knight take a bit of the responsibility for all this trauma.
hey continually blame parents for creating the problem but what is so wrong about wanting a school in the right place? You can’t overestimate the stress parents go through waiting for a school place notice. We are not terrible people and can’t all afford to move house and most of us would not consider cheating. Nor do we want the Government to slip out of the issue again this year saying the problem is extra children coming in from the private sector.
We all know from bitter experience of previous years it is an increasing problem that is never addressed, easier to pass the blame to parents who dare to want a good school in the area they need it to be for work , for child care, or just to allow children to walk to school from home. And dare I say it for children to get a school place with their friends who they have developed a relationship with and for many a friendship that will last all their lives, come on Government this is 2009 .
The decision of Government to allow LEAs to use a Lottery System to decide school place is totally unacceptable it was only the 13th February Ed Balls agreed this and now he says it need reviewing, well all credit to him , however it is the entire school admissions system which needs reviewing and this review should include real parents who struggle with the present system.
(2 votes, average: 5.00 out of 5)
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I think lottery is a ludicrous idea but the idea of the Government suggesting there is currently parental choice is rather disingenuous. It is impossible for many popular schools to increase pupil numbers so what do we do? There has to be a method of selection so distance is probably the only logical one. I wish I had an answer, I might earn a lot of money!
I’ve just received the devastating news that my daughter has not received a place at either our first-choice school, which has excellent Ofsted reports and results (the one we’ve lived in the catchment area for for years, and which her primary feeds into) or her second choice. Instead, she’s being sent to a place 7 miles away (inner city driving, not country) which I’ve never heard of, and has just had a miserably poor Ofsted report. I’m furious, and will of course appeal. Couple of questions: If I wanted to retain the services of a lawyer for the appeal, could you recommend anyone (we live in Reading, but I could travel)? Is there anything else, save for appeal, that we could do? To be clear, she will NOT be attending this other school; if September rolls around and the mes hasn’t been sorted, she simply won’t go. I’ve worked in that type of school (one step away from Special Measures, basically), and sending her there would be, as far as I’m concerned, child abuse. Thanks in advance, Richard
We could draw a line round each school, call it ‘a catchment area’ Then all the children from that area go to that school. No-one else gets in – they all go to their own local school.
Then we could spend time and energy raising standards in all schools instead of spending energy scrapping over the ‘good’ schools’ few places.
The LEA could plan for the numbers it would have in each school instead of just setting a limit. If children moved into the area during the year, they would automatically go to that school.
We’d all be less stressed. Children would still get educated. Money would be saved because the admissions and appeals system could be scrapped. There would be less spent on travel and a lower carbon footprint.
Dear all,
I am a French PhD student and I am working on the British education system, and more specifically on the “marketisation” of the system.
I am very interested in your testimonies (especially Richard’s). You may know that the French system does not work like yours: school choice is not put forward as it is in England and children generally attend their local school (although things are beginning to change).
I’d be very grateful if some of you contacted me (pochatju@hotmail.fr) so that I could ask you a few questions. It would help me greatly in my PhD research.
Best regards.
Hi Richard,
We were contacted by the Today Programme today asking if ParentsOutloud had had any parents contact whose child had not received their place of choice. Looking to see if any of these parents would be willing to go onto the Today programme to discuss this. If yourself or any other parents reading this are interested please call Nina Manwaring from the Today Programme BBC Radio 4 on 0208 624 9644
Best Regards,
ParentsOutloud
We we’re lucky; our little girl starts school in September and we got our first choice school, which is no more than a cock’s stride away from our house.
The reason we chose it? Well not because it was the nearest but we felt it was the best choice of the three nearest to us.
This brings us to my next point; ‘Ofstead Report’ it got a mere ‘Satisfactory’ whilst it’s two neighbours both got ‘Good’. The nonsense here is that our preferred school got results in the eighties for English and Maths results and low nineties for Science. The other two got around the high fifities/low sixities for English and Maths, yet they both get a thumbs up from Ofstead.
I’m not involved in Education but I do work in the public sector and I get to witness on a daily basis skewed priorities, fiddled figures and bizzare concepts of ‘Success’ and ‘Excellence’ which most reasonable people would only recognise as mediorce at best (and that’s being generous!)
I’m not happy with the state education system; call me old fashioned but we want our little girl to experience discipline in the classroom
we expect the adults to be in charge at school, but it’s okay because apparently the ‘children’ have ‘agreed’ the discipline policy at the school (that’s nice!). Secondly we expect a primary school to concern itself with the 3 R’s an old chesnut I know but one that won’t go away!
Mix in a litte history, geography, and science and you have the perfect recipe for a good primary school.
No such luck however our daughter’s school (like all state schools) is concernd with healthy life styles (none of you’re business we’re her parents) eco issues (Political ideals for her to chose herself when she is off an age to do so) and other such nonsense.
To be honest we tried to send her to an Independent school but out of the three in our area two don’t have before and after school clubs, and the third which does (sod’s law) is rubbish!
So we’ve made the best of a bad job. Neither myself or Mrs Wanna Go are rich I work in an office and Mrs W-G is a nurse but we were prepared to skrimp and save to give our daughter a good start i.e. reinforcing the morals she gets at home and having her taught to read and write.
Still it’s okay her school boasts awards for being ‘Eco’ ‘Promoting Healthy Living’ and gives lessons in ‘Street Dance’ (no doubt in an attempt to embrace all things youthful and cutting edge).
Hopefully we’ll emigrate and find ourselves in a country with well policed streets, adult authority and a good education system.
Sorry for the ramble but nothing angers me more than the state interferring in my family’s life and playing politics with our daughters future!
I’ve said it many times on this lovely and helpful website (ParentsOutloud) – parents and educators need to contact their MPs and the DCSF and let them know how they feel – they are unable to represent you if you do not let them know what you want!
If each concerned member of the public did so, I feel we could force the government to listen and make change.
PLEASE take the few minutes necessary to do so.
http://www.writetothem.com/ – this web site will take your post code and provide you with your Councillors, Member of Parliament, and Members of the European Parliament contact details.
http://www.dcsf.gov.uk/ – you can contact the Department for Children, Schools and Families.
Wanna Go is wanting to opt out of the state system and talking about making the best of a bad job before he has had real experience of the school. My children between them have been to three state primary schools and there were happy places full of learning and a real mix of activities, including competitive sports and all those things I keep hearing in the media apparently don’t exist in our primary schools. We do have a good primary education system – no doubt it could be improved. But parents I know tend to be very satisified with their children’s primary schools. Secondaries are a bit more complicated! I heard your spokeswomen on You and Yours this morning and I agree with her – what parents want are good local schools, preferably small ones. Choice really is not the issue. Good luck to Parents Outloud for pushing this message in the media
Having listened to radio debates on this topic over the last couple of days, l think many commentators miss the point.
I am sure that l am not alone in thinking that Ofsted reports and league tables are okay in assessing the achievements of all pupils, but we are really only interested in our OWN kids. My concern is not whether my averagely academic performing child can be miraculously converted into a genius, but more that he won’t get bullied for coming from a “soft” working-class household and attending a school where most of the kids are out stealing cars at the weekend and both parents are at home all day. I just want my kids to go to school with children who are “like them”, and whose parents are “like us”.
I know in our area that the catchment boundaries have been changed to try to skew the social mix in the “rough” schools. All very well, but who would volunteer for their child to be involved in this social experiment? Unfortunately, unless we want to (or could!) move house, which impacts on all of our family rather than just the child going to high school, we have no choice. Oh, sorry, unless we can afford to go private, which seems to be the refuge of wealthy underachievers these days. Thanks, New Labour.
My eldest son is Autistic (6 yrs old)so we “chose” a school for him as he has a Statement of Special Educational Needs. When it came to his brother Daniel (4 yrs old) however, we lived just outside of “designated area” or “Catchment” so he was not offered a place. The school became rated as “Outstanding” by OFSTED after my eldest joined, meaning the area was flooded with houses for sale (increased price) and desperate parents. The Local Authority took no account on the effect this had on an already overburdened family. Moreover are planning to remove “Social and Medical Need” (Special Circumstances) from their Criteria in the current admissions consultation. The local authority doesn’t do a very good job of publicinsing their Pulbic Consultation with the people whom it concerns, and I am campaigning locally to improve awareness. I feel totally let down now that I have to return to driving my children to two separate primary schools and the stresses that this causes to our family life. We have moved into “catchment” and live 200m from the school!
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