SECONDARY SCHOOL NOT COME THROUGH FOR YOUR CHILD?

This week I feel for families who have not got the desired secondary school place for their children – most will get their state school of choice. However a significant minority will not and it’s utterly devastating.

It’s even more devastating if you’ve been told there will be no issue and your child has seen siblings going to that school of choice – as with us.

In our case our girls are just two years apart in age and the school at that time had lost a lot of children due to the closure of a nearby RAF base. However you don’t even consider that might mean that a younger child will not get their place too…

Sometimes the decision not to accept that child is utterly bonkers. In our case our son was rejected from Royal Wootton Bassett Academy because his two sisters – both at the school at the time of application were ‘not siblings’. Some state school ‘flex’ this sibling rule to suit their circumstances and they put families into a really difficult situation with two children at different secondary schools, often miles apart.

This ‘rule’ was imposed on us was because one child would be off at university when our son started (fair enough) and the other was going into sixth form (they claimed this was separate from the school itself). This was of course complete and utter rubbish. The sixth form is a building on the same site with classrooms which are used across the school. Completely ridiculous. We appealed and, even though the panel admitted it was ridiculous, it was a case of IT’S OUR PROCESS, COMPUTER SAYS NO.

We even took legal advice and were told we’d probably win but it was a civil case, would be costly and would take months even years to resolve, so he’d have to start at another school anyway…

At our appeal hearing there were 12 sets of parents and only one succeeded – because a mistake had been made around the child’s address.

The school loved me, of course, because I told the story to the national media and it comes up again from time to time. Be very clear I’D DO EXACTLY THE SAME TODAY. I have zero regrets about holding them to account in the court of public opinion.

Having said that, for David, it turned out better than we could ever have hoped. He went to Lydiard Park Academy and his experience there was much, much better than his sisters. They treated him as an individual, played to his strengths. He made friends for life and is still in touch with those friends today – he even sang at a teacher’s wedding.

Now he’s living his dream training to be an actor and singer at Italia Conti in Greater London. All thanks to that amazing school and the teachers who empowered him.

Frankly one school’s loss was another school’s gain and when and if he ever lifts an award of any kind (got to dream big) guess which school he will happily go back and visit?

Sometimes that which seems devastating turns out to be a blessing in disguise. Take heart from that.