School Transport costs and Social Exclusion

Gingham_Ribbon

silvercar wrote: »

Not every school can meet the needs of every child. That is why some areas are lucky enough to still have grammar schools where the more academic children can get their needs met better than a general comprehensive.

I know that. What happens to the thousands of others who aren't getting their needs met?

Fly_Baby

Gingham_Ribbon wrote: »

I'm not complaining on behalf of Fluffy's daugher. I'm trying to explain how it is, since I was asked.

It's great that she has a place at a school that can meet her needs. But every school should be able to meet her needs. Why should a teenager have to leave her whole school life and friends behind just so she doesn't have to sit and do nothing in class? NO child should be subjected to that in ANY school, yet it happens all the time.

I am sorry but isn't that a bit naive? There are schools of different ability, of different OFSTED rating, there are state and private schools. All schools cannot be 'outstanding' - teachers are different, too. There is nothing wrong with leaving your current school to move to a more academic one, if that's your choice. That's the way it has been and will always be, I am afraid.

So what's left is to do your best to get the best out of the system. And thank God, there IS provision in some areas for brighter kids to get to a selective secondary school for free.

Personally, I am going to face this dilemma in 4 years, when my son will have to go to the secondary school. By that time we've either begun to earn enough to afford £4K per term for a grammar school for him, or make sure we are in the catchment area for a good state school (and good catchment area comes with good house prices - so it's down to money again). Or I can do nothing and he goes to whatever school he's nearest to, gets whatever education he's taught - and blame the government.

Fly_Baby

Gingham_Ribbon wrote: »

I know that. What happens to the thousands of others who aren't getting their needs met?

I guess, the answer to that is they get screwed.

Mrs_Imp

fluffymuffy wrote: »

Sorting out the transport funding through the council assistance scheme is important to me as there's another stage to my campaign which will kick in in a few years time. Our local authority provides 330 grammar school places. 180 for boys and 50 for girls at two separate schools. Presumably because there are 3.5 times as many clever boys as girls. When youngest DD gets to year 6 we'll be applying to the boy's school as there are more places so surely more chance of getting in.

Ummm...your sums don't add up.
180 plus 50 is 230.

Spendless

fluffymuffy wrote: »

We will have to find the money if no help is available (and with tax credits being taken off every extra £1 we earn at the rate of 37p, and tax and national insurance, meaning we'll have to make an extra £200+ a month to get enough extra cash for that bus). But for families who need help there isn't any and this might mean having to turn down a place.

If you earned under a certain amount you wouldn't be paying tax and NI. (Sorry don't have exact figures at hand). In my area you would get help with school bus fees if you were allocated (rather than chose) a school 3+ miles away or if you were entitled to free school dinners. You say you are entitled to the latter. Sometimes because of how funding works you have to have the 'proof' (eg the letter) that says 'Mrs fluffymuffy is entitled to free school dinners for child x' even if you have no intention of your child eating them and send them in with a sandwich every day.

Mrs_Imp

Fly_Baby wrote: »

Personally, I am going to face this dilemma in 4 years, when my son will have to go to the secondary school. By that time we've either begun to earn enough to afford £4K per term for a grammar school for him, or make sure we are in the catchment area for a good state school (and good catchment area comes with good house prices - so it's down to money again). Or I can do nothing and he goes to whatever school he's nearest to, gets whatever education he's taught - and blame the government.

It may work out cheaper to pay the fees rather than the higher house prices and extra on your mortgage.

mrcow

Gingham_Ribbon wrote: »

Fluffy's daughter is a 'good' kid. She doesn't kick off or complain. And she's got the support of her family. But this is one of the reasons that gifted kids are failed by our education system and it's one of the reasons the kid messing about at the back disrupting the class may be the brightest one in there.

Gingham - it doesn't sound like she's being failed. I'm only disputing the allegation that the school allegedly turned around suddenly in September and said that the child wasn't allowed to attend any more science lessons. Looking futher into it, rather than the "failure" by the school which was initially intimated, they've actually turned around and highlighted that perhaps a different learning environment would be more challenging and/or suitable and have acted accordingly.

Fly_Baby

Mrs_Imp wrote: »

It may work out cheaper to pay the fees rather than the higher house prices and extra on your mortgage.

Yes, that's what I was thinking too...

RadoJo

fluffymuffy wrote: »

I don't know. I've never even been to the school. We only applied in despair when DD came home after her first day back last September saying they were no longer teaching her science. We had to wait for a place to become available and she sat the entrance exam with a group of others (who didn't get the place).

Ok - now I'm confused. Did you contact DD's previous school to ask what was happening with their science provision or did you just take DD's word for it that they weren't teaching her? If she's not even reached GCSE level then surely there would be more work available to her from the syllabus for the year above given the statutory requirement to teach science until 16 - did you ask about the possibility of being moved up a year for science at her old school?

Also, did you not contact the new school to ask if you could look around or meet with the teachers - they may not have specifically invited you as your daughter wouldn't have been part of the standard year 7 intake, but I'm sure they would have been happy to speak to you and show you around.

Has your DD actually been classified as G&T? If so, I'm not sure how she has ended up in the lowest set for everything, when presumably as she was so far ahead of her peers at her last school they would have provided data to set her appropriately in the new school? It sounds as though there have been an inordinate number of errors and omissions in your daughter's case - is it possible that you have not explored all the avenues available to you within the system?

Savvy_Sue

It's possible that the OP's daughter has been put in the lowest set while they work out where she should be. Even with information from a previous school that can happen.

We moved one summer, when DS1 was about to go into Year 8. I don't know why, but information from his old school didn't follow him, and he was put into the 'wrong' group for Maths, can't remember if it was the bottom or a middle one. Within a week or two his teacher asked "Can you remember what you got for your SATS at the end of year 6?" and as it was a 6 he was promptly shifted up.