Lucy cuddled up with her brother.
Not so long ago I posted about how we’d been pleasantly surprised when Oliver got into his first choice school despite being out of catchment. It is slightly closer than our catchment school, which was important to us because Hayley suffers with her knee after a car crash several years ago and which has subsequently required 3 operations. We were slightly nervous about this change from what we had expected, but within hours our worries were put into perspective when Lucy had to be rushed to hospital in the middle of the night.
But this week schools have been at the forefront of our minds again. It turns out that the Local Education Authority are changing the rules on school admissions. Until now, all siblings got priority over children in the catchment area when deciding who gets a place. That is about to be modified such that it is only true for siblings living in catchment, which will mean that Lucy will now almost certainly not get a place at Oliver’s school and will have to go to a different school to her brother. Worse still, because they have introduced this change after all places have been allocated for this year, we can’t even get Oliver back into his catchment school so that they’ll end up together, as there are no places left.
I can’t tell you how much this situation has upset me. We would never have risked our kids ending up in different schools like this if we’d had any idea that such a change could have been possible. It’s not like our catchment school is bad, in fact it impressed us the most of all local schools on our visit.
The goalposts have been moved mid-game. I am shocked that a rule change with such unfair collateral damage to innocent 4 year olds could be introduced. The reason for it seems to be that some people were moving into catchment to get their oldest child into a school then moving out again, knowing younger siblings would still get in. We, in contrast, made an honest application from out of catchment for health reasons. How ironic then that Hayley should now be facing having to walk to two schools instead of one.
I feel bad for Lucy who will be only just have turned 4 when she goes to school. Knowing her brother is around always gives her huge confidence. It makes no sense for her to get a different education to her brother, just because of an aribtrary, unannounced rule change.
As with last month’s school concerns, I’ve had medical concerns to distract me. I underwent a minor procedure this week to remove a mole. Fingers crossed it’s nothing nasty. I shouldn’t take it for granted but to be honest I’ve been much more worried about the schools, which hopefully isn’t as daft as it sounds given the optimistic words of the dermatoligist.
Perhaps it’s the unfairness of this school thing that has upset me the most. Or maybe the thought of my kids separated. Whatever it is, I haven’t been this stressed in ages and I intend to sort it out, one way or the other, as soon as possible. I certainly don’t want yours truly keeling over prematurely. That wouldn’t exactly help would it!
That really sucks. the whole catchment thing is horrific. I can imagine how stressful it is. What's the plan?
I'm shocked and really sad for you all. I understand the stress level, even though I'll confess, I don't understand the situation at all. Can Oliver not change schools? We have "districts" instead of catchments, which I am assuming is about the same (thanks to Wikipedia), and we are open enrolling Brynna out of our district. If she gets in, which we won't know until late July, then Maren will get priority after in-district kids, but before out of district kids with no older siblings in that school. If Brynna gets in and Maren doesn't though, we are always and forever guaranteed spots in our own district. It sounds like that isn't the case for you all, though. I do hope everything works out for you. Keep us posted
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Thanks both for your sympathies. We are not certain what to do yet. We are faced with 2 options. We wait to see whether Lucy gets into Oliver’s school next year and then if necessary appeal if she doesn’t. If we fail we would have to consider whether to request a transfer for Oliver to Lucy’s school. Alternatively we could request a transfer for him now before he has started school. The important thing to note here is that there’s no guarantee he’ll get transferred quickly or even at all. There’s already a waiting list for his catchment school. The same would be true if Lucy doesn’t get into his school, he would have to wait for a place at hers.
We spoke to the authorities today who are polite but basically offer no hope and somewhat blame the new rules on guidance from national government. We are very much on the fence and will consider it over the weekend. I may also seek some insight, if not support, from our local councillor. It’s an upsetting experience and could make life very difficult for us. Right now I’m trying to keep some perspective and remember my kids are healthy and loved.
Schools admissions – a quick update // Jul 30, 2010 at 9:25 pm
[...] public audience, but this is just a quick update on the issue of having our children very probably end up going to different schools thanks to the proposed new schools admissions policy in our [...]