The Appeal

Last week we received notice that our appeal for an infant school place had been unsuccessful. Whilst this might sound like particularly bad news, it isn’t really, although the results of which will have a lasting effect upon our day-to-day lives.

At the beginning of the year we had to fill out an online form listing the three schools we would like Oliver to attend in preference. We chose Riverview as our first choice and Shears Green second. To make sure that we got either first or second place we put Cobham down in third knowing that this was highly impractical and almost unlikely to be chosen.

Academically, Riverview and Shears Green are equally as good as each other, so we are very lucky that it could have fallen either way, but what made the application process more interesting is that as a child, I went to school at Shears Green, whilst Stephanie went to Riverview, so it was in a way, a little race to see whose footsteps Oliver would follow in.

But for practical purposes Riverview was our number one choice. We are so very fortunate that we have a family who continue to help us so that Stephanie and I can both go out to work. It’s not a lifestyle choice, it’s a matter of necessity that both of us are in full-time employment, bills need to be paid. With this in mind and that Stephanie’s parents live close to Riverview, that our nieces and nephews all attend the school would make picking Oliver up afterwards all the more stress free.

It may seem a little frivolous, but this was the reasoning behind our appeal. We read all the documentation beforehand and the criteria in which children are allocated to specific schools. It all made sense and was 100% fair. We could have been given reason to feel guilty had Oliver been accepted into Riverview and someone else a lot closer hadn’t, but we would have felt a lot worse had we not at least tried. Not for our sakes, or indeed for Oliver’s, but for those people who continue to help us on daily basis.