Q: What makes normally truthful parents start lying through their teeth?
A: Meeting secondary schools’ admissions criteria.
Schools in Brighton and Hove are the first in the country to this year use a lottery system to allocate places for over subscribed schools. Letters informing parents of the decision will fall on their doormats tomorrow.
It is intended to be fairer to poorer families who cannot afford to live closer to popular schools. It means that families living close by could find they are forced to appeal, or have to travel three or miles to the nearest alternative.
It is all highly stressful and unfair.
The Brighton Argus has today reported how dozens of anxious parents have already started to form appeal cases, and I wonder if these could be challenged in the High Court.
I know from personal experience what a worrying time it is, how it causes sleepless nights and anxiety. We had to go to appeal so our eldest David could be admitted to the best local secondary school which is just out of our catchment area. It is an outstanding school, and other parents like me who wanted the best education for the child have fought tooth and nail to get their child admitted there.
David has dyspraxia and we appealed on medical grounds. I prepared my case in advance, gaining supportive statements from his doctor and paediatrician – and thankfully we were successful. David had his first taste of champagne that night as I opened a bottle to celebrate.
However, other parents, whose cases were based on how clever their child was and that they would not be able to reach their full potential at the less desirable school, were not.
We told the truth and won, but I know of parents who have lied and fabricated totally fictitious stores – and succeeded – to get their child a coveted school place.
Every day I have counted our blessings that David went to such an excellent school and gained brilliant results. It also automatically opened the door to James as a sibling.
But should parents have to agonise over their child’s education in this way? It is unimaginably stressful. I wonder how many government ministers would like their child’s school selected in such a cavalier fashion..
Can anyone suggest a fairer system? There is obviously a shortage of excellent schools with sufficient places to meet demand. But I really don’t see how a lottery system is fair.
Update 5 March: What do Brighton parents think about this? Today’s Times says: "Allocating secondary school places by lottery has split communities, created rows between friends, and led to a “dog’s dinner” of a system."
And this thought provoking report also in today’s Times highlights the anguish and despair faced by parents throughout the country over secondary school selection, some children have not even been allocated a place. Why should four children from family be forced to go to four different schools? Where is the logic in that? It is a total shambles.
A lottery is actually totally ‘fair’ in that it does not have any prejudices and you can’t influence the outcome.
Any other system means that the rich, articulate, powerful, active or – as you say – the mendacious – have an unfair advantage.
One marignal solution is to allow good schools to grow and take over other schools. But that has its limits.
The only long-term solution is to invest as much in our state schools as we do in our private schools.
And that means higher taxes.
At the same time, you can’t really blame them. Parents only want the best for their children. I’m not at all surprised or see what some of them do as a heinous act. If only the world was a bit more fair and if only there were more great schools… Perhaps the problem isn’t with the parents but with the system.
School lotteries are about social engineering, pure and simple. Schools tend to be ‘good schools’ because they have a high proportion of pupils whose parents are themselves well-educated, motivated and who place a high priority on learning. Those qualities are not exclusive to the middle class, but they are certainly far more prevalent amongst middle class parents. Hence the more middle class the intake, the better the learning environment and results. If you kick out half the middle class kids and replace them with kids from welfare-dependent homes, you will not be ‘giving poorer kids access to a middle class education’ because the school will not remain the same school. If the ratio of disruptive kids to motivated kids has risen in the process to a level which
_ staff cannot comfortably handle,
_ or which or which leads some teachers to seek a job elsewhere,
_ or which makes other kids worry about being seen as swots and therefore not trying as hard
_ or makes the school choir/ orchestra/ drama group/ chess club no longer viable
_ or where bad behaviour eats into teaching time
…that school will slide down the league tables.
Charlie, we already pay high taxes for education, this is why this doesn’t make sense. I shall look forward to following the outcomes of this lottery. David Allen mentions some valid concerns which, I imagine, are on the minds of parents in Brighton.
And I thought school days were meant to be the happiest of your life….
They say all’s fair in love and war but maybe also in securing one’s child a place. There’s little a parent wouldn’t do on behalf of her child.
The only solution is to improve the quality of the bad schools. Presumably good teachers could be rotated between schools in an area?
James, true, that’s part of parenting, wanting the best for your child.
WW, how many good teachers are unable to teach because they have to discipline unruly pupils instead? The bad behaviour of a few can make a teacher’s life a nightmare.
It’s disgraceful that some parents are forced to send their schools to poor schoolsd farther away rather than a better closer school.
when i had to move house and live here…through no choice of mine. A big upset was that matthew could not go to the school in the local catchment area . This means he has made no friends in the village which made the move even harder.
when its comes to education i sometimes think that the kids that want to work and do well will do just that at what ever school they go too.
Ellee, it sounds like the appeals process favours manipulative, well presented and prepared middle class parents at the expense of working class parents.
I hope Labour ban it soon! I have little sympathy for complaining parents when they vote for political parties offering the electorate no real educational choice by offering the return of grammar schools.
Not having kids I have no strong feelings about the Brighton lottery. I would imagine that if I could afford to live in a good catchment area I’d be against it, and if I could only afford to live in a bad catchment area I’d be for it.
The recent bout of house price hyperinflation probably has tipped the scales against younger parents when it comes to getting a good school place. In fact I’d imagine young parents support this measure more than middle aged folk do. It is an interesting experiment though.
We do not pay high taxes – this is the same argument made against our health service versus, for example, the french system. I am in totaly agreement with Charlie, if people were willing to pay more taxes then we would have a better system – it really is that simple. And in this case surely a lottery is the only fair solution – anything to stop manipulative middle class parents playing the selection process to their own advantage.
It isn’t that simple, Kat. We get such proflicacy in our public services. Also there are hidden taxes, petrol, VAT, council tax, alcohol … I could go on. I can’t move for being taxed.
“Any other system means that the rich, articulate, powerful, active or – as you say – the mendacious – have an unfair advantage.”
(Charlie Beckett)
And why not build on success and healthy motivation rather than stifle it ? Do you really want middle class families quitting the UK in even greater numbers than they are already ?
The big question is why is there such paucity of supply in the face of huge demand for good education ?
I’ll tell you why.
It’s because our governments ALWAYS pander to the lowest common denominators and it looks as though they want to lower them even further.
I pity any willing child left at the mercy of a ‘bog standard’ comprehensive where they will be put into mixed ability classes with teacher’s time taken up dealing with the unteachables who don’t want to be there.(it happened to me in the ’70s)
As for the idea that intelligent children will drag up the general standards this is preposterous. As we have seen in recent reports they huddle together in their own peer groups and avoid children of lower social status and ability where they can.
The grammar schools WERE the fairest way of elevating poor children into the middle classes and – because of technical colleges, the OU and mature studentships – this didn’t mean that late developers were consigned to the scrap heap for life.
To sort out the education issue we need to reinforce the family and not undermine it as our benefit system (and political correctness) does. A poor ethic at home means a poor ethic at school and this is what causes the problems.
But we will never recover. Britain is being experimented on and tested to destruction over demented ideologies.
Hopefully I will be able to have my boys educated well enough that they will be able to quit the UK if they want to. I feel it is my duty to give them that opportunity whatever the cost to me.
Comment 13
‘profligacy’ and not ‘proflicacy’
Ironically, the use of a lottery system puts the brakes on all these parents who are willing to screw the system in any way possible. The fact that so many parents are complaining goes to show that actually a lottery opens up access to schools and encourages more applications, which means that pushy middle-class parents don’t always get their way.
Why do “middle-class parents” have to be labelled as “pushy” because they simply want the best education for their child? Surely there are parents from all classes with this aspiration.
“Pushy” because they are willing to stamp on children other than their own whose parents might not have the knowledge or time to dvote to manipulating the system…
Kat, everyone has time and everyone has access to knowledge – that they might not bother to use their time to seek out knowledge is surely an indication that they or their kids won’t make good use of their education.
We are asking the wrong question.
We should be asking WHY are so many schools crap ?
EK – I agree with your comments but Kat has a point; it’s not just the children that huddle together in groups.
I’m dumfounded as to why schools have children sitting in huddles around tables, half of them with their backs to teacher.
What is this about ?
Another issue:
How green is it to have children being bussed out of their way to go to schools beyond their immediate vicinity ?
So people buy houses in expensive areas – the prices often reflecting the quality of the local schools, which in turn reflect the quality of the people in the area. Which came first ??? The schools, the people or the houses ? You can kick these people as much as you like – they’ll always win. Their skills and wealth will be in demand abroad and that is where they’ll go if you keep offending their sensibilities.
This is about jealousy and an instinctive desire to keep people down rather than build them up.
The killer question – why does Government insist on providing us with dire schooling which people run away from (most notably Labour Ministers)?
21 wasn’t in response to my friend Philipa. Pure coincidence that ‘huddle’ was mentioned in posts being written concurrently.
Electro-Kevin- I simply can’t agree that everyone has access to the same knowledge and information. What if that parent doesn’t have any fellow parents to advise on the appeals process? What if they don’t have the access to the internet – or even the knowledge to use it, to access this information? What if they are working jobs that don’t allow them to take the time to attend to the appeals process in person if necessary?
And your comment that if they are unable to do this that their children should suffer, and that these same “kids won’t make good use of their education” smacks of the keeping people down rather than building them up mentality that you claim to be in opposition to. Best keep those nasty working classes where they belong eh?
Point by point, Kat.
“No parental advice or contact.”
Ans: are these people unsociable/anti-social, uncommunicative ? What is their value to the school then ? Is the greater good of preserving the standard of an excellent institution not more important than ‘fairness’ to any one individual ?
“Internet access problems”
Ans: access is free at the library. If I can get around the Net anyone can – it really isn’t difficult to use.
“Jobs taking up time”
Ans: I posit here that company directors, head teachers and businessmen probably have far less disposable time than most working class people.
“Keeping nasty working classes where they belong.”
Ans: Thanks a bunch, Kat ! I’m working class as it happens. We are striving to get our boys into Grammar education because the local comprehensive is chaotic and the parents just don’t care. No formulae is perfect, but my rule of thumb is that if the parents don’t care then neither will their kids – so why foist them on schools that are doing things right.
“building up and not dragging down.”
The good schools are good because the people in that vicinity strove to make them good. Some have selection on ability – I see nothing wrong with that, the working class accept that this works in football leagues (from which I was excluded) so why shouldn’t this work in academia ?
The bad schools are bad generally because the people in that vicinity did nothing to make them good. The impetus to make good schools comes from good families with good values. The root issue is family breakdown and the fact that a disorderly minority are always allowed to ruin things for everyone else.
From a purely pragmatic point of view we cannot keep slapping the middle classes round the face. They will remove their children to private ed. Failing that they will emigrate because they are QUALIFIED to emigrate and further exodus of qualified people is the last thing we need if we wish to remain a first world country.
At the heart of all this is the failure of the progressive educationalists and their socialist sponsors running of our education system.
They have failed to improve things – so now they want to destroy the evidence of their failure by randomising school allocation and creating educational qualifications which are designed to obscure the qualities of those who hold them.
Socialism – equality in misery – coming to your children’s future if you let it.