Finding the faith in time for September.
Last Sunday I Shunned my usual morning routine of a long run
and a big breakfast. Instead, I ushered my little flock, freshly groomed to
within an inch of their lives, in to the pews of our local church.
An epiphany! I hear you cry. Well, sort of…
It was not divine intervention but (whisper it) desperate
intention which led us into the open arms of the lord. The truth, I confess, is
that we were there for our son.
With the nearly 9 year old’s senior school application is
looming ever nearer I spent an afternoon reading Ofsted reports for the
local secondary schools in my area. I came away feeling desperate.
Unlike their primary school counterparts, when it comes
to non-faith secondary schools the outlook is bleak. I read reports for my 5
nearest non-faith schools, two are in special measures and the rest require
improvement. Horrified, I turned my attention to faith schools whose reports couldn’t
be more different. All of my local C of E and Catholic Schools scored good with
outstanding elements, these schools have strong leadership and pupils who feel
challenged and supported enough to go on to smash national averages come GCSE time.
When it comes to secondary school attainment, faith schools are head and
shoulders above the rest.
My husband and I had a huge decision ahead of us. Do we
stick to our guns and allow our son to choose his own faith, assuming he wants
one. Or, do we befriend the man upstairs to better our school application. We chose the latter.
If the truth be told our little boy isn’t the cleverest in
the classroom, he isn’t the worst either. He sits somewhere in the middle. That
dreaded grey area so often overlooked by overburdened teachers with overfull
classrooms. He needs that extra bit of support to keep his grades up and
there’s a real danger he could get lost in a school struggling to manage the
behaviour of its students, like our nearest academy. So, we are doing what any
loving parent would do. We’re trying to get the best outcome for our child.
My question is should this be the only way? Aside from paying
for a private education (and re-mortgaging our house in the process) a letter ‘from
God’ seems to be the only way in to any of the good schools. Would it not be fairer to introduce a system
which requires all schools to achieve a good or above Ofsted grading or face
closure. That way, faith or no faith, every child is guaranteed a first class
education.
We are one of the richest countries in the world. We should
have an education system which reflects this.
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