Review online application process for school placements; Prevent Unnecessary School Appeals
- Target:
- Council/Government
- Region:
- United Kingdom
The general approach to the whole admissions process seems to lack structure and balance. The online application for school placement has also proven to be a stressful experience for many parents.
For many the online application crashed, for others their preferred schools were overlooked and somewhere inbetween are other distressed parents who are unhappy with the admissions process for one reason or another.
Which ever end of the scale, children and parents are being subjected to unnecessary stress. They are being unduly upset as school places have been overlooked and some seemingly not recieved by the source they were intended for and therefore children are being made to move schools, which means being split from friends, teachers and in some cases being split from siblings.
Parents are being offered schools that weren't even their on their preferred school list and whether it be reasons of distance, lack of security at the school, educational reasons or simply social environment parents are left feeling helpless and children left with no other option than to rely on the 'waiting list'.
The most frustrating part is that people who are new to the area are given priority over those already in the area and therefore children who have attended the school before or have siblings in the school are being shunned down the list and are at greater risk of not receiving a place at any of their preferred schools.
The council have no proof of sending email reminders to the online applicants as they state it is an automated system and appeals are being refused! On what basis? Infant class size!
Children are being made to travel huge distances in comparison to where they live to local schools. One can only ask themselves is this in the best interest and well being of our children.
Do the people who make these decisions about our schools care what happens to our children? Do they take into consideration the impact mentally and emotionally on the children they are moving and disrupting? Do they take into account the child's personal circumstance?
In many cases parents would say no and this petition is to highlight said issues.
We, the undersigned, call on the local government, to seriously reconsider how school places are organised.
Education and social attachments are important factors to parents when choosing a school placement, how can you, the local government, ensure parents have been given the best tools to make the application when so many applications have been lost/overlooked/refused?
We want proof that the online application server was not in technical difficulty during the time applications were being submitted.
We also want to know what provisions are in place for parents who are being forced to send their children to a school that they are less than satisfied with?
Why are people who move into the area, closer to the school, given priority over those who have lived in the area for a number of years and previously attended the school or have siblings in the school?
Numerous schools have been closed recently in the Salford area, so how are our children going to be accommodated? Where are the surplus children going?
What is going to be done about the problem the parents face each year that they have to reapply to a school?
For those who have already been in the school for an entire year at pre-school, why don't those children automatically continue their education in the school they started out in, therefore eliminating this as an unnecessary issue for many?
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The Review online application process for school placements; Prevent Unnecessary School Appeals petition to Council/Government was written by Lyndsay Firth and is in the category Education at GoPetition.