School Assessments

The school traffic is back on the roads again, all around West Dulwich the traffic was at a standstill this morning. The Christmas holidays are well and truly over today. The local state schools went back a week ago, but the independent schools are a law unto themselves, and take a full four weeks off for the Christmas holidays. How are we supposed to find the time to work in order to pay the fees?

Yesterday morning I took my baby girl to her assessment at Alleyn's School - one of the best schools in the country. Poor Freya is only three and a half, and should never have to go through such an ordeal, but our local state school is a failing one - on several sections of the OFSTED report.

Would Ruth Kelly or Tony Blair send her children there?
No, certainly not.
Are the government going to do anything to put state schools on the right track imminently?
No, once again, our 'Don't do as I do, do as I say' government.

Freya slept all the way there in her pram, and when I woke her up, she cried and would not let me go. The little pudding is normally full of life and eager to play, this was not like her at all. For this reason, she was unable to be assessed, and the school will therefore be unable to consider offering her a place.

Little people of three and a half should not naturally leave their parents and trot off into another room with strangers - even with the encouragement of their parents. Separation anxiety such as this is a sign of normal development. I would not want Freya to behave in any other way under normal circumstances... if only they would let the children stay with their parents while being assessed.

I feel so sorry for Freya. She doesn't want to go to a new school, she loves the nursery she currently attends with her brother, but they do not accommodate girls there past nursery.

When we came home Freya slept all afternoon, and developed a temperature in the evening and now has a dreadful streaming cold. She was under the weather, and therefore 'unable to perform' yesterday.

The poor baby. Why do we put our children through such barbaric ordeals? If the local state school was anything like the little state primary we went to as children, there would be no other choice for us. Freya and Max would go to state schools.