Tap dance and school

Mia has officially started her first out-of-school activity - she is going to start tap dance. Mia and Andrea went to get tap shoes today and Mia was so proud that she could make them tap really, really loud. Tonight after I got home, she showed me how loud they can go by thwacking them on the floor repeatedly. It was wonderful and a joy to hear (read: I need to remember ear plugs)! After that we played ice skating. It was cold and we had to constantly break to warm up.

Yesterday, we went to visit a school for next year. Mia will be starting what is called reception. This is when she will first enter the actual school system. This was really hard for me as I saw this as a huge move toward Mia leaving the house and being married. Okay, so she has another few years before this happens, but before we know it she will be saying goodbye to us and hello to a family of her own. It just seems to me that school is just another step towards independence and a move away from from our continuous and wonderful and always appropriate input and rearing.

The school system is a bit strange here. For starters, parents go and visit the schools that they are interested in their children attending. There are usually a few schools in what is called the catchment area - the area around where you live. What parents do is try to live in an area that has the best schools. This is not unusual, yet. Then the parents fill out a sheet with their top choices of schools. Now there are good schools and there are not so good schools; schools that teach a child independence, literacy, social skills, language, ect and schools that are essentially holding pens for future criminals. So, of course, all parents want their children to go to the best school. We live within the catchment area of the two of the top schools in the city. But this is really a strategy game. What the parents have to do is take into consideration that these top performing schools are oversubscribed and that their choice will come down to a system based on three criteria: medical need (I cannot imagine what medical need Mia would have to attend a particular school other then parents who cannot be bothered to walk the extra distance), a sibling who has gone from that particular school up to the next level (an example of when having a sibling would have benefited), and lastly distance to school. The last criterion is the one that Mia will have to meet. The strategy comes in when listing the schools you want. If we put the oversubscribed schools as our three choices, and we do not get into the our first choice, we will then not get into any of our choices because all the spots will be filled in those schools by people who put that particular school as their first choice and met the criteria. We will then be relegated to a school that we did not choose, does not perform as well, and that could be very far from our home (thus making us walk further then we had wanted or are in a condition to do).

This is very confusing I know; just understand that it is either all or nothing. Either Mia gets into a school that will teach her reading and writing, or she gets into a school that will teach her the finer points of chav etiquette (i.e. speaking with a fake Jamacian accent and wearing the finest track suits and trainers). Anyway, we will find out in May what school Mia will start to attend, but until then we will start to pray and out if the system can be bought.