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What makes finding a good London school so painful?
Evening Standard2 Mar 2009
League tables
says Grace Saunders, author and mother of three
"I recently met a girl who had been tutored from the age of two to get into a top girls' school in north London. How can anyone justify pressurising toddlers?
"This is why my husband and I decided to “opt out”. Taking our cue from the Scandinavian approach we chose one of the only non-academically selective private schools in London. While many of my seven-year-old daughter's peer group slog away at long division, she's having a teddy bears' tea party with friends in her room."
The failed state system
says Tanya Hughes, mother of three boys
"We had applied to three state schools for Callum, the eldest of my three primary-school age children. The private school option wasn't a certainty because they constantly raise the entry bar to protect their place in the league tables. In the end, Callum won a place at a good private school that has a sibling policy."
Misguided parents
says Dr Shomit Mitter, a private tutor
"Schools at the top of the league tables do set difficult tests. And why shouldn't they? As someone who taught at Cambridge for some years, I understand the pursuit of excellence. But there are far too many pushy parents out there forcing their children into big-name schools simply because they are itching to drop at cocktail parties that their children go to St Paul's Girls."
The lack of grammar schools
says Sonia Purnell, mother of two boys
"We have dragged our 11-year-old son Laurie through three private school exams plus two state grammar school tests with all the coaching, angst and sleepless nights. He said to me recently: “All this has robbed me of my childhood, made me a serious person that I didn't want to be.”
We have just learned he has got places, including a scholarship, at the three private schools we applied for but we are still waiting to see if he got into the biggest prize, a place at Tiffin grammar school. We find out today."
Exam pressure
says Lisa Freidman, education specialist
"A child, who elsewhere in the country would glide into a high-performing academic school, will often fail to make the grade in London because there are 10 applicants for every place. If early selection and perfect exam scores are our means of judging pupils and schools then pushy parents and stressed-out children are an inevitable result."
