by Comedian Romesh Ranganathan has lost an appointment which school will attend his youngest son, and he wants to raise awareness that “the system does not work for many people”.
The 47-year-old Host Link, who lives in West Sussex and shares three sons with his wife Leesa, revealed news about the appointment on Instagram yesterday.
In April, Ranganathan announced that his youngest son, who is scheduled to go to secondary school in September, had assigned a place “on the other side of the city” and to another school for his older brothers.
Ranganathan, who was a math teacher before he became a full-time comedian, said at the time when he sent the West Sussex County Council (WSCC) six times by email, but did not belong back. He also contacted his local deputy.
On Monday he shared an update about the situation in a video posted on Instagram. “Some time ago I posted a video about our son’s secondary school and that they had not given us a school that had our preferences and we made up against this decision,” he said, adding that the family found out a few days ago that the appeal had been rejected.
While Ranganathan said: “We just accepted it” and “We are in a privileged position, so we will simply go with the alternative,” he said that many people had contacted that they had similar and worse situations.
“It is particularly bad for people with children with special educational needs and and disabilities,” he said. “I just think the system doesn’t work.” While he recognized that there was no simple solution, he said: “The long and short distance is, it is s ***.”
In the record of the video, he wrote that he “very much considered how to raise awareness of the fact that the system does not work for many people. And tries to find ways to change it.”
The BBC reports that a WSCC declaration is: “We do everything to provide young people to school places. This year we were able to offer 87% of the 9,050 secondary school applicant a place in their first choice of school, while almost 97% were offered a place in one of their three preferences.
“Applications are taken into account by our admission team according to the relevant review criteria for your preferred schools, which can include the proximity of the school at home and whether other siblings attend the same school.”
How are the secondary school assigned?
In England, parents and legal guardians apply to the local council for state secondary schools and lists the schools that they apply for in the order of the preference.
Applications that are normally open on September 1st, the year before the child, will rise to the secondary lesson, although this can vary from the council. You have to apply until October 31 of this year.
Each school has different admission criteria, which are usually determined by the local council. According to GOV.UK, you can do those who:
-
who live near school
-
have the siblings at school
-
From a certain religion (for schools of faith)
-
that pass an entrance exam (for selective schools)
-
Who went into a certain “feeder” primary school
-
The right to the student bonus or the service student premium
-
whose parent worked in school for two years or more
Councils send offers for secondary schools on March 1. If your first choice is not available, the Council offers you a place in another school. You can add your child to a waiting list for your preferred school, even if you have an offer for another place.
You can insert the decision to the decision of a school and follow the steps that you send in the letter about your child’s place.
