Something different! I have a guest post on today, but I can’t tell you who it is. You have to guess! Sound confusing? Read this and it will all become clear. Can you work out who is blogging where? Author unknown, a fantastic post about the rollercoaster that is a Secondary school appeal!
IF ONLY I’d chosen a home 2 miles to the left! – Secondary School Appeal.
My daughter didn’t get into the secondary school of her choice. It’s been a disaster. We knew it was a long shot as the school was oversubscribed and we live the furthest away but after relocating 2 years ago and my daughter settling in with a new group of friends, it’s become very stressful for her that she has to go to a different high school to them; a high school that she really doesn’t like.
Preparing for the appeal panel was tense. Finding reasons to justify that the stress to my daughter outweighs the logistical difficulties faced by the school for allowing her a place was a challenge. The Powerpoint presentation cover had lots of photos of my daughter with her arms around her pals (children that had all been allocated a place already) in the hope of tugging the heart strings.
The reasons where three-fold and very detailed, focusing on mostly emotional arguments. Presenting them to the panel last week, I battled throughout to maintain composure. 28 children are appealing and it seems that they usually allow 3 or 4 children in on appeal. Why does my daughter deserve a place over the other 27 children who are also heartbroken that they cannot attend the school of their choice?
I thought we had a strong case, drawing examples from our lives that have been a bit of a nightmare the past few years. I threw into the presentation a photocopy of a court order that could be used to support my argument and tried to wow the panel with my daughter’s high achieving school grades. I also mentioned my other daughter who was 12 months younger, also wanting to attend this school and how her life would be turned upside down if we were denied a place. The unique point I had was that my ex husband is a supply teacher in the area of the school that my daughter has been placed but not in the area of the school she wants to attend.
Turns out, after finding out a bit of gossip in the playground, everyone else seems to have a strong case too so I’ve started gently mentioning to my daughters that the appeal will not be successful.
We’ve had tears and tantrum while we wait for the results next week.
I’m pretty sure that we haven’t been successful with our appeal and I’m not sure how to deal with the consequences.
