Would you complain?

pingufan

Bit annoyed today, will try and keep this short and to the point but I'd like to know if this is something we should formally complain about.

My DS is in yr6 of primary - due to move up to secondary next September. The traditional secondary that all the kids went to (which i will refer to as school 1) is not in our local authority but geographically closer. This school has had some issues - originally being in band 5 of the school league tables 2 years ago but now in band 2.

My older children both go to this secondary school and we are very happy with their progress and the school in general.

There is another school that is in our local authority area that traditionally very, very few pupils from our primary went to. This is a high achieving school (in band 1) but slightly geographically further. I shall refer to this as school 2.

About 2 years ago there seemed a shift change towards school 2 with most of the pupils going there instead, You may surmise that this coincided with the publication of the school league tables - fair enough - but there seems a huge change in the attitude of the head of the primary who seems to have forged strong links with this school, they send teachers down to give extra lessons etc. There has been some talk that this is simply because school 1 wasn't very helpful in providing a concert hall for use when the primary was having biulding work done but I don't know this for sure.

The problem I have is that this head seems to be publicly and privately to the children in school pushing school 2 - my DS says that she tells them that they should be going to school 2 as it is 'better'. This has caused no end of problems at home it has created a lot of confusion in the mind of my DS who previously was quite happy (as we were) to send / go to school 1.

I have expressed my concerns to DS's teacher and explained that as parents the decision on which school to send DS to rests entirely with us as parents and should not be 'swayed' by the headteacher. She agreed, my husband had a word with the headteacher who denied any 'favouritism'.

All fine until last night - there was a school concert by the primary (which is now being held in the hall of school 2 every year - such are the strong links with that school) where an almost evangelical speech was given by the head and one of the local councillors about the merits of sending your children to THIS school. Cue some of us parents looking at each other wryly as we are not planning on doing this!

The biggest problem though is when we got home my DS again feels like he's doing the wrong thing in going to school 1 - I just wish the primary head would keep her opinions to herself as the kids hang on her every word and it makes life very difficult when youve got her 'brainwashing' for want of a better word our kids!

I feel like writing to the education dept and the local council to comlplain but I dont know if its common for headteachers and schools to be able to push a certain school or play up the merits of one particular school to the children.

Any thoughts? Or am I over reacting?

balletshoes

I'm not sure its worth getting het up over to be honest - end of primary school is when lots of parents and children make their own decisions about which secondary school they'll go to.

My daughter's primary school definitely pushed a certain secondary school as number one choice, but it didn't mean that that kids all wanted to, or thought they would, go there.

pingufan

Thank you, I'm not sure we should be getting het up over it either but it seems extremely unprofessional that any head should actively push one school over another - especially directly to the children. I also feel that the issue is a personal opinion of the head too that she is trying to foist on others.

Alikay

Are you sure the primary head is actively "pushing" selection of one secondary over another, or merely being a bit overly positive about the school the primary has links with?

We found it similar when our children moved from primary to secondary, as ours went to the CTC in the city centre rather than the local community comp. They DID feel a bit sad and left out during the plethora of link activities in year 6 when their friends were getting familiar with the comprehensive school and all they'd had was a quick tour of the CTC during the application process.

I didn't think a complaint was in order, though, as the primary were catering to the bulk of the children in planning a smooth transition to secondary: It was only the odd few who moved on to the CTC, Catholic school or went private.

You can prepare your child yourself, via his siblings already attending school 1, and pointing out all the positive reasons why you've selected it for him (ie the proximity, rapidly improving results, siblings being happy there etc).

nearlyrich

Have a chat with the head in a none confrontational way, sometimes people don't realise in their enthusiasm they are causing issues...

pingufan

Yes, my child wants to go to school 1 along with his brother & sister so thats good. Oh I'll be glad when all this transition business is over and they have moved!

TeamLowe

surely the application deadline has passed for secondary schools? hopefully that means the head will die down with this business anyway as there's not much point anymore

Dunroamin

If the school is, as you say, better, surely the head is right to encourage the children from her school to go there?

poet123

You are choosing to send your child to one school for your own reasons, which is entirely your prerogative, but the head will only have generic reasons; academic sucess, links with the school, confidence in the staff that they will help settle pupils,etc. She is as entitled to put forward those very good reasons as you are to choose to go elsewhere for your own reasons.

Indeed, she would be failing those pupils who were undecided if she didn't.

susancs

The Head of the Catholic primary school both my children attended favoured the Catholic secondary school she had attended as a child, rather than the other Catholic school which was a similar distance away. There were more trips to her favoured school and more teacher visits from this school, plus she spoke glowingly about her great time at that school, but there was still a 50/50 split between the schools each year, despite this (with both my children prefering the one the Head favoured less). Both were rated outstanding and had similar league table results.

cootuk

The head of the primary may be trying to make the primary a preferred feeder school for school 2. Nothing wrong with that though it depends what arrangements your education authority has regarding schools outside the area (school 1) and the selection criteria used.