Secondary School Applications

Lately, I have been consumed with trying to find a secondary school for Abby to go to beginning next September 2015. Here in England, you don't just go to the nearest school, it is much more complicated than that. At the beginning of September, the year before the student is due to go to secondary school, you must tour all the schools you are interested in. That was five schools for Abby. All the schools have what they call "open evening." Open Evening is where you go to the school in the evening and a "student tour guide" shows you all around the school. All the students are there doing experiments in science, showing off their art or playing instruments etc. You then can chat with various teachers or head of departments about the school. Lastly, you listen to a speech from the headmaster about the school and how wonderful it is. You then go home and must come up with a list of your top four schools that you have chosen and are acceptable to you for your child to attend. You must register online and enter in four top choices. Sounds relatively easy, right?

No. First of all, ALL the schools in this area are OUTSTANDING. That is the highest ranking for a school in the UK. I have been absolutely flabbergasted at all the latest and most advanced technology they have, how organized, disciplined and well-run they are and how incredibly qualified the teachers are. I have also been surprised at the amount of trips abroad the students do. The schools are like little universities in my opinion. They make the  junior high I attended as a child, look like preschool.  Abby especially liked one school that had a Starbucks located on its campus. I think she was dreaming fo hot chocolate everyday. Because the schools are so fantastic, they are completely oversubscribed because people come from miles around to attend them. It is kind of irritating when you actually live in the same village but aren't sure if you will even get in. When you put down your top four choices, which are due October 31st, you don't even know if you will get in any of them and you don't find out until April 2015. People have all kinds of theories about what order you should list your schools. Some say, you should pick a school that you could definitely live with and put that as your third choice. That way, if you don't get in you will still be considered for your top two choices (if that even makes sense). There are many other strategies, but I won't go into them here. Supposedly, your school is chosen for you by some computer system that does calculations and considers a series of criteria and whether or not you meet them.

One of the schools we are applying to is a Church of England school. It is a very old school with a very prestigious reputation. In addition to applying for their school online, they require a clergy signature to prove you have at least attended church for the past two years and extra forms to be delivered to them by hand by the 24th of October. However, your church must be a member of the Churches Together in Britain and Ireland organization or must be in association with the Evangelical Alliance. Our church is neither listed or a member of these organizations. Therefore, we will apply but I have no idea if we even have a chance. They say it is non-denominational.

I hear all kinds of theories on how to get accepted at this school. People say to put down on the application that you are interested in having your child board at the school (even if you are not). Another one is that you should put on the application that being a foreigner, a sense of community is important and the community at this school is what your child needs. (Or some other rubbish...)  This school also requires that you attend three of their church services per term. Girls are required to wear a green tie, white button down blouse, a green blazer with school logo and a green tartan skirt and green tights everyday.  (This is the uniform at most of the schools. They just vary in colour).

Another school we are applying to is an all girls' school. It is also oversubscribed and is one of our top choices. It was so impressive to tour and see a room full of girls in wood working class making stools. This school is very strong in maths (that's how they say it here, with an "s"). It claims to test the girls in the first two weeks of school, find their weak spots and assign them to special groups. Abby sometimes struggles in maths so this would be very good for her. They have a large percentage of girls who go on to do their A levels in Maths which is very impressive (don't get me started on GCSEs, A Levels or Six Forms - I am still trying to figure out how it works here). All the schools seem to have very strong music departments which is good since Abby plays both the violin and piano. However, one of the downsides to this all girls school is whether it would work for all 4 of my girls. I am not sure it would. You see, there is a sibling rule - once a child is accepted into a school there is a greater chance siblings will be accepted too. However, if the sibling doesn't want to go to that school or is more suited to a mixed sex school, you would have to do this process all over again.

Through this whole process, I feel almost like we are applying to university. Each school hands out books to the parents and child that are professionally designed with glossy pictures of children happily excelling at their school. The books are full of information on the school. Something I got when I toured universities. People take it very seriously. Most parents start touring the schools two years before their child is even due to attend, some even earlier. I know several families who have put their house up for rent and moved into our village from neighbouring villages just so they have a better chance at getting into the schools they want. I find it a bit ludicrous. Some people tell me that we live in the ideal location but others tell me that we don't because we live on the very edge of our village. I don't know who is right honestly but I am not moving. The open evenings are absolutely packed and overflowing with people and parking is horrendous. Several of the schools have recently been given millions of pounds of grants to upgrade the schools even more. I must say, I feel privileged that my children get to go to any of these schools. The question is which one? Never mind, we will just put down our top four choices and not think about it until April....