Thursday 13 May 2010

Update on the school situation.

Firstly a note to self: the garden centre is NOT the place to call the council. Blubbing mess is not a look to be seen outside of the house.

When I dropped Phoebe off at school today someone told me that the waiting lists were out. Clara and I had to go to the garden centre to get plants to fill a flower bed now my tulips have flowered. Anyway once we got to the carpark I googled the number and called them. We are 29th on the list for our favoured school and 16th on the lists of the other 2 we like. I sobbed down the phone at the poor woman, she asked if we had appealed and I pointed out as there was no section on the application about faith we had no grounds to appeal. So it looks like Phoebe will be attending the school we don't like come September unless a miracle occurs.

Our only other thoughts are to try and appeal on the grounds of my mental health. The 3rd school on our list is on it as a Mybecky's girls go there and therefore I have guaranteed support if I have a bad day (or another migraine). I will see what happens but if needs be we will have to follow that route, although I really hate having to play that card. Especially for a new school as I don't want Phoebe to start under the tagline of "warning Mother is a looper".

I have been looking into home schooling for us and have ordered some Jolly Phonic workbooks for Phoebe and I to do together (and, lets face it, Clara too). I haven't ruled it out yet, although I do think she deserves a better teacher than me.

What is getting to me the most is the great unknown of it all. I have no school to go and look around (at least none of it is relevant to me yet as Phoebe isn't a junior and the new site is a junior school) and no head teacher to talk to. Once I am less emotional about it all I will make some calls and see if I can find someone who can reassure me about this new school and what the ethos will be like. However as I have been crying on and off all day about it, it could be a while before I make those calls! I just wish this was straightforward and I had some sort of say in it, but alas I am a passenger and I am not a good one.

5 comments:

l'optimiste said...

oh no!! calm, calm - everything will work out!

and if you have to play the 'mental health' card to get what you want for your children, DO IT! So what? People do worse I am sure. [I do for example...heh heh - play the cancer card - I am evil]

I am so sorry you are having this additional strain - hope it gets sorted the way you want and need it to.
Hugs sweetie
x

JaneV said...

Poor you, it's such a difficult situation. Could you home school for a year and then review the situation next year?

Vix said...

I am not sure I am up to it Jane. Plus if I don't get her into a good school by the application deadline for 2011 entry then we are going to go through it all again with Clara! Such a headache.

Tilly Floss said...

Hugs,
Be so, so careful though that Phoebe and Clara don't pick up on all this, it will be so hard for them not to, and the very last thing you want, I know, is for Phoebe to start school unhappy that it's the wrong place and that you are devastated that she has to go there. I know you'll be consciously trying to ensure that this doesn't happen but children are far more perceptive than we ever give them credit for.

Vix said...

Phoebe is thankfully just excited about going to big school. We don't really discuss it around her so she is none the wiser.