Mr Boyle, 43, concluded: “We know that the council is fearful of legal challenge if it does do something but we regret to inform you should that something be these proposals, it will guarantee a legal challenge from parents in the areas affected, as we sincerely doubt that they meet the test laid down in the School Admissions Code that catchments be ‘fair, clear and objective’.
“These proposals are trumpeted as enabling greater certainty, but that neglects to state the bald facts: in order to guarantee choice and certainty for the majority, our children are to be denied choice, denied access to schools in their community, denied the chance to go to secondary school with friends in their community, denied the chance to face this most important choice to date in their lives full of hope and expectation and instead contemplate 7am starts and earlier in schools miles away from their friends and miles away from their homes.
“This is not fair; they are kids, not commuters.”So, it's OK to treat commuters like this?
But....won't your kids grow up to BE commuters? Better they get used to it, then!
I went to an independent school. There were kids in my class from all over the Glasgow area, some travelling over 30 miles every morning and afternoon. I know for a fact some of them were out the door well before 7.
ReplyDeleteSure, I didn't go to school with friends in my “community”, but I played with them at home. I had a much wider - and more “diverse” (hah!) - circle of friends than they did. (Thanks in part, it must be said, to the Assisted Places Scheme, now no longer with us.)
Then, in 1982, when the Labour manifesto threatened to close independent schools, I realised that these people whom I'd never even met wanted to separate me from my friends, probably, since they did live so far away, forever, purely in the cause of some political theory. They didn't really care about me; they cared about their ideas. That was what started me along the path first to Conservatism, then to libertarianism.
Judging by that comment thread, this looks like a classic red-on-red. The parents concerned sound like typical liberals, who will do anything for the 'underprivileged' - provided they don't have to actually deal with them. Now Junior has got papers for Hell St Comp they've suddenly found their inner Mail reader.
ReplyDeleteMeanwhile, the other half of the left's pantomime horse is all but getting out the kleenex at the thought of some rich kids getting thrown to the lions. Learning stuff is all well and good, but for a large part of the left, the main role of schools seems to be the humiliation and/or torture of the progeny of class enemies.
Mr Boyle, dismount from the outrge bus, your rants are offensive & inapproprite behaviour :p
ReplyDelete.
@Sam Duncan
Similar for me.
School 08:45-15:15.
Leave home 07:15, walk ~mile to bus stop, bus, walk ~mile to school.
Leave school 15:15, .... wait, wait, wait for bus..., home 17:45.
All changed when 17 & MBike commuter - home before bus departed :)
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OT: "Glad tidings we bring. Pick up a real, locally sourced Christmas tree for just £25 and get a £20 voucher to spend in store after Christmas. So, the festivities can continue. But hurry, these trees move fast."
http://www.ikea.com/gb/en/ikea/christmas-trees/
7 am starts!? WOW!How heart wrenching!
ReplyDeleteNormal school starts here at 8. Poor little darlings would be running to the ECHR on the first day.
"They didn't really care about me; they cared about their ideas. That was what started me along the path first to Conservatism, then to libertarianism."
ReplyDeleteSo, it achieved some good, then? ;)
"Judging by that comment thread, this looks like a classic red-on-red."
Yup!
"Normal school starts here at 8. Poor little darlings would be running to the ECHR on the first day."
Quite!