‘My children are exceptional and they deserve to go to an exceptional school’

Yep, I said that.  To the headmaster of said exceptional school I was desperate to get my children into.

To be fair, he was blown away.  He said that he wished all parents were as invested in their children’s education as I was.

But alas, we lived outside of the catchment area and the decision wasn’t his at the end of the day.

It was an upsetting process.  I had checked out the catchment school:

  • Looked around, no problems there.
  • Spoke to other parents.
    • Developed concerns about parents stealing coats from hooks and PE clothes
    • Developed concerns about bad language and violence from parents when collecting children
  • Spoke to the deputy head.
    • Developed concerns about violence between children when she warned my child might be attacked due to her affectionate nature [!!]

No Way, Hosea!

I can’t express how much I really didn’t want my children going to this school.  Other than fist fights between parents (one of which resulted in a riot van being called to control the situation), the children’s language and knife crime (yes, I said knife crime, and yes, this is a primary school), Ofsted rated it Good.

I didn’t put it down on the application.  It wasn’t a choice as far as I was concerned, and I tried for county schools and a city school instead. 

Call me a snob, I don’t care.  I knew that school would chew up and spit out my eldest child, and I didn’t want to put her through that. 

Results

Needless to say I didn’t get any of the schools I wanted. The council’s response was a slip of paper with the catchment school on it. 

I expected that, but it didn’t stop me from balling, and wailing that I’d rather home school my children that send them to ‘that place’. Honestly, I was such a drama queen.

In the end I contacted the two councils (county and city) and asked for a list of schools where they had places left. There were three:

  • One was out of the question immediately because it was too far to travel.
  • One was in the county.
  • One was in the city.

The city meant travelling in rush hour traffic every morning and every afternoon.  It was rated Outstanding, but was actually further away than the county school.

The county school was in measures (needs improvement).  So I read the report and paid a visit. 

Finally

It was really lovely. They had received funding to help them correct a lot of the issues in the report.  It was small with lots of woodland around the area.  Foundation and year one had been commended on their performance.

So I figured the school had a couple of years to turn it around.  When they sent us an offer of a place, I was so relieved I cried.

[NB: you may notice a pattern forming here.  When good things happen, I cry, when bad things happen, I cry.  Sorry, not sorry].

In the end, both of my children have attended this school, and although there have been some ups and downs, they have done really well there.

Trying to battle the council over schools was really like David vs Goliath. But they’re doing their best to get every child a school place, and if I wanted something different, it really was up to me to find it.

It was a good call in the end and I’ve never regretted it, even when I have to travel to take my children to parties and play-dates. I’ll always be thankful that I found a place for them in the end.

Do you have any nightmare school stories? Share them in the comments.