School 'choices'

When my daughters were coming up to secondary school choices, it seemed simple enough. They'd been to a truly excellent junior school with none of the SATS nonsense back then, and it seemed a natural progression for them to go to the mixed comprehensive just a bit further up the road. Everything within walking distance, please note.

Both our girls were gifted musicians, and there was considerable pressure from their music teacher for them to go to a famous and high-performing mixed comprehensive in the next town where they travelled to have their (private) lessons. But it was a rigidly CofE establishment, which was a bit of a problem for a rabidly atheist family. You had to have clergy recommendations and so forth. Apparently, the music mafia could have sorted that for us - the school wanted talented players and singers and a nod and a wink system was in place if you knew the right people, which we did, quite by accident.

Anyway, our two went to the comprehensive, which, with the benefit of hindsight, was not the best choice. As it happens, Son of Sid, my younger daughter, is going to her first school reunion this weekend, while her sister looks on regretfully from California with the aid of Facebook.

Now I am finally coming to the point. My eldest grandchild is now in Year Six and we are starting on the whole secondary school fiasco again. And fiasco it is. Go here to see what a friend of mine thinks about it. We are not as badly placed as her. Her local authority asks for a list of five schools. Ours demands three.

In practice, and despite all the spin about parental choice which has developed over the years since I took the dreaded 11-plus, because of rules about catchment areas and the high demand for places at the best schools, it comes down to two.

You are virtually guaranteed a place at your nearest secondary school which is fed by our junior school. We'll call this school A, which no way would be our top choice and which is well under-subscribed.

We could opt for one of the on-paper top performing schools in the country, our next closest, a former CTC, now an oversubscribed business academy. But friends have characterised it as an exam factory. It also has terms which do not coincide with the rest of the county. Bit of a problem when mum is a teacher.

We could opt for a well-respected and over-subscribed performing arts college. We'll call it School B. But we're outside the catchment area, so the prospective student would have to compete by an audition for one of the 20 places offered to gifted and talented pupils. And you thought the 11-plus was tough?

We are in the catchment area of the other possibility - but only by a quirk. Because it's a single sex school, only one of three in our county, it has to accept applications rather in the way that faith schools are obliged to - it's parental choice. By the same token, the LEA has to provide transport for pupils. So this is School C.

So what do we do with our list of three? Put School A at the top and our gifted and talented child will get a place, no question. But then neither School B nor C will look at her. Put B at the top and C will ignore her - and she may fail the audition. C at the top and B will ignore her.

So our 'choice' is between A (as second choice) and one other which our student may or may not get a place at. I would genuinely welcome feedback and thoughts from any families.