WARNING : This post may make no sense to anyone outside of the UK Education system.
Yesterday was National Offers Day.
In September, we received the letter saying we had to choose a Secondary school (age 11-16 or 18) for the Adorable Child. Whilst the idea of my 'delicate baby' (ha!) at secondary school was a shocker, I filled the form in on-line, right away, and I took the same gamble I did with his primary school (5-11) in that I just put down the school we wanted him to go to.
It was a joint decision between AC, his father, his step father, and I. We all chatted it over and put him down for his catchment school. It's a mile away so he can walk, it has a good reputation for sports, it has had an OfSTED problem recently, and it's going Academy, but that last one is what the majority of schools in the UK seem to be doing, and it won't impact on him academically. The OfSTED issue is less of an issue that it seems. They were punished on attendance, which they can't do anything about if the lazy kids won't come into school, and for 1 years worth of results, and we all have a bad set of results every now and again.
Importantly, it has a strong reputation for discipline, for producing intelligent children who think for themselves, it doesn't have a gang culture, it will be able to support him emotionally, and it will get the best out of him.
Now we just have to wait and see how many of his friends got in. It should be all of them....
