[Closed] So did everyone's kids get into School then?

We got into ours, she was already at nursery there though. It wasn't our first choice nursery.

It's annoying, because it's a drive away, but we did want her to go to a Welsh school. It's pretty cool hearing her come out with a second language at the age of 3 so I guess it's worth the driving.

[i]It's annoying, because it's a drive away, but we did want her to go to a Welsh school. It's pretty cool hearing her come out with a second language at the age of 3 so I guess it's worth the driving. [/i]

Even funnier than your overtaking post...

My In-Laws are all Welsh, and the only Welsh spoken is when the MIL is gossiping to her one Welsh speaking mate on the phone. Waste of (public) money IMO.

Racist 😆

Still, its very much worth the sacrifice.

Got this weeks lottery number to hand? 🙂
As with anything - past performance is no guarantee of future outcomes

Waste of (public) money IMO

Do they also think it's a waste of money? I've met some that do.

In any case, it's widely acknowledged that being fluent in any second language is a major educational benefit - even if it is Welsh 🙂

Plus, if you're looking for casual work as a student, you get some great opportunities if you speak Welsh and live in Cardiff - lots of people having to provide services in Welsh and not very many speakers.

Wouldnt it be better to get your child educated in a language more widely spoken internationally? Rather than one with limited appeal outside of one small nation, where most people there speak english anyway?

Tell you what is scary

The fact that little Miss Ro5ey will have done her first year at school in a dozen, or so, weeks.

Wouldnt it be better to get your child educated in a language more widely spoken internationally? Rather than one with limited appeal outside of one small nation, where most people there speak english anyway?

I hope so I dropped them off at 8.45am...

Yep, my daughter got into the school we wanted her to go to. The ones we looked at all had good Ofsted reports but this one just felt right when we visited. So I hope she is happy there.

Tell you what is scary

The fact that little Miss Ro5ey will have done her first year at school in a dozen, or so, weeks.

Agree with that sentiment!

We got our second choice. No hardship, its a bigger school a bit further away, 1 mile vs 500m. Still judged outstanding.

Twins here, so the big childcare bills stop, means more disposible income for me 🙂

However, it does make balancing work more tricky, afterschool club closes at 5:30 and I work almost an hour away..

We find out tomorrow. Bit of a double edged sword for me personally as the best school in the area (and the one that is our first choice) is a faith school.

I am happy to compromise my principles in pursuit of the best education we can offer our son, but it is frustrating that in order to get into a school rated 'outstanding' as opposed to just 'excellent' (or whatever second place is) at least one of you has to subscribe to the church.

I'm all for freedom to worship but this sticks in the throat a bit.

FWIW, I wouldn't chase the ratings too much. I had a right hassle last year as my son didn't get any of our choices but went to a school which was well rated but further away.

Eventually we got to a closer school which according to the assessments isn't quite as good. Thing is the new school is MUCH better academically and for my son I can't see anything that isn't so good. I suspect that the other school progresses kids more given that a lot of their intake didn't speak English as a first language but isn't so good for the other kids...

but it is frustrating that in order to get into a school rated 'outstanding' as opposed to just 'excellent' (or whatever second place is) at least one of you has to subscribe to the church.

God smiles on the righteous 🙂 . (God also smiles on fools and drunks though - its a broad church)

Agree with clubber, best to, go with the school you like and feel comfortable with. We were offered places in two primary schools locally when we moved, one close and outstanding, the other a mile away and satisfactory.

We felt a lot more comfortable with the satisfactory school when we visited, and chose that. Last month it had its first ofsted for several years, under the new no 'no notice' rules, and was rated good.

at least one of you has to subscribe to the church

Can you not just buy it in WH Smiffs?

They need your subs up front otherwise after one issue you realise it's a load of rubbish and never bother again.

To balance it my mother was head of a Church school for over 10 years without really believing in any of that...

Yep. We chose more by feel than ratings, happily the one we liked best is all of about 50yds from our front door. We could chuck a zip line from the kids' bedrooms straight to the playground if only they'd let us 🙂

As mentioned above, I can't believe Jnr W2K MkI is already heading to school. We're going to do a lot of stuff this summer! 😀

I think in Scotland, if you live in the catchement, you get a place. Do you guys think this is better or worse than what we have in England now?

We got ours in our first choice.

Slightly deflated after calculating the cost ok school dinners, breakfast club and after school club on top of KJ02's nursery fees all happening in parallel. 'king e'll how much? Still, its very much worth the sacrifice.

Still cheaper than 2 sets of nursery fees though! We had 2 at nursery for about 18 months, saved us a fortune my eldest starting school last sept.

I am happy to compromise my principles in pursuit of the best education we can offer our son, but it is frustrating that in order to get into a school rated 'outstanding' as opposed to just 'excellent' (or whatever second place is) at least one of you has to subscribe to the church.

We did this. But my wife being in church (well, in the creche) twice a month with the kids opens up more riding opportunity. Every cloud etc... 😆

Like MR P above, our was our first choice on merit, but also on instinct so good news all round. Its also the only school in 5miles that does a fully organic menu cooked on site.

Now, I'm not a parent, so I couldn't possibly understand but...... When i was a lad, you went to school. That was it. You didn't have to choose a school, or compete to get into a school. You went to the local school, your siblings, friends and neighbours were there.

Its strikes me that the only outcome from offering choice is people don't get what they want - don't get to go to a the most convenently local school, don't get their kids in the same school, put on a faith act to get into a certain school (or not get their kid into a faith school). I've got friends who've got kids in different schools with different term dates - so not only do they not go to school together, at half terms they don't even get to go on holiday together. The younger kid was denied a place in her sisters school on terms that were both so arbitrary and so utterly revolting that I won't go into it.

So is this better for anyone or just shit for everyone?

Yeah my youngest got in but as her big sis is there already it was not likely to be an issue. some parents were getting stressy though!.

breakfast club and after school club

Surely you have kids and make some sacrifices in order to have at least one parent with them for periods of time whilst they are actually awake?

Its strikes me that the only outcome from offering [s]choice [/s] [u]a rating on how well the school performs[/u] is people don't get what they want

FIFY
Regarding having different kids at different schools, that is really bad. I actually thought schools were supposed to give preference to children with older siblings to avoid precisely the reasons you've highlighted above.

That really is pretty shocking.

That really is pretty shocking.

its the least shocking thing about it sadly.

Regarding having different kids at different schools, that is really bad. I actually thought schools were supposed to give preference to children with older siblings to avoid precisely the reasons you've highlighted above.

by making sacrifices?

by making sacrifices?

Come on Clubber, you must know how hard it is. Both parents working and you want to make life even harder by having to do two drop offs at different times not to mention the increase complexity of making child care arrangements during out of term time.

[i]Plus, if you're looking for casual work as a student, you get some great opportunities if you speak Welsh and live in Cardiff - lots of people having to provide services in Welsh and not very many speakers. [/i]

No, its because a couple of folk wityh self-interest have managed to make it a requirement to work with the Welsh Govt (sic).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Welsh_Language_Board

So they're trying to force your children to speak Welsh to each other:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-20677528

[i]Earlier, First Minister Carwyn Jones said the next challenge for the Welsh language was to ensure young people spoke it outside the classroom.

Mr Jones said his own children speak English to each other, despite going to a Welsh-language school.

"Cracking that is going to be crucial to the future of the language over the next 10 years," he said.
[/i]

[i]Do they also think it's a waste of money? I've met some that do.

In any case, it's widely acknowledged that being fluent in any second language is a major educational benefit - even if it is Welsh

Plus, if you're looking for casual work as a student, you get some great opportunities if you speak Welsh and live in Cardiff - lots of people having to provide services in Welsh and not very many speakers.[/i]

The other plus being that when she is a stroppy teenager she can abuse you in front of her mates without you realising what she is saying 😀

I was pointing out how silly and full of assumption his original comment was geetee...

blimey Mister P school already!

I was pointing out how silly and full of assumption his original comment was geetee...

One decision is controlled 100% by the parents, the other decision is 100% controlled by the LEA.

That I don't get either - someone in our area is in that position - how on earth are they meant to get different kids to different schools at the same time?

does this question not go some way to answering your earlier one?

johndoh - Member

breakfast club and after school club

This I do not get. Sorry.

Surely you have kids and make some sacrifices in order to have at least one parent with them for periods of time whilst they are actually awake?

Schools start at 9 and end at 3 - its not always easy to manage two people jobs around those hours including travel to and from, especially when yu need those jobs to earn money in the first place - isn't this obvious?

I was pointing out how silly and full of assumption his original comment was geetee...

Ah OK forgive me, I misunderstood.

Regarding kids not getting in to the same school as their older sibling, I don't know how it works in other areas, but there are at least 5 kids in my oldest son's class who have younger siblings applying for school this year. The thing is, all of them apart from us are outside catchment, which puts them lower in priority than kids without siblings who are in catchment. I think they should all get in given the amount of out-of-catchment the school takes, but no guarantees and it's easy to see how such a situation could happen - the politics will be interesting if all but one of them get in (I think of the 4 the furthest away, so the least likely to get in is the one who's dad is a governor!). Of course policies vary from place to place.

Schools start at 9 and end at 3 - its not always easy to manage two people jobs around those hours including travel to and from, especially when yu need those jobs to earn money in the first place - isn't this obvious?

I'm with you on this. The length of a school day is based around how long a child can sustain academic endeavour. It has the spin off of freeing teachers up to prepare lesson mark etc when the kids leave. It's still a royal pain in the arse for parents doing normal jobs to have to collect them or be at home for them. Kids still can have plenty of capacity to be away from home in this part of the day without missing out - they have just had their fill of "learning". Schools don't have the resources to en mass supervise the entire cohort and society seems to have moved on from allowing kids to roam free at the end of the day like we did in the 70s and 80s so paid after school clubs make perfect sense. From what I've seen a lot of them are great with opportunities to get homework done in the right environment, social engagement and physical activity. So much better than most kids get at home at that time of day plonked in front of a telly.

I don't think any parent should be made to feel guilty for using the services of a good after school club.

It depends on your LA.

In Bristol there is no catchment, just distance and siblings factor higher than distance so that if/when you get your first kid into a school, you're near enough guaranteed the second,etc will get in too.

its not always easy to manage two people jobs