The Big Day - Which School Next?
Yesterday was 'the big day' for local year six children to find out by which secondary school they had been accepted. A tough day for kids - amongst the jubilation of many, there were bound to be tears from those who hadn't got the place they wanted.

It doesn't affect my family yet but my heart went out to others. There was the crazy logic of a child living a stone's throw from a school not being accepted, but another child living many miles away from the same school, getting accepted even though it was second choice. So both children will have to travel miles each day to school, whereas one would have been able to walk.

I don't want to sound too old but.... in my day it was much simpler and there was less heart ache and stress for the children because most kids went to the nearest school. Easy peasy - hopefully a good mix of children, who lived in the local area.

Going to the nearest school meant we could almost all walk to school, there was minimal traffic congestion and lower costs of travel, eg bus. Okay, so there are some benefits to having a 'choice' but the disadvantages of the current scheme are massive in terms of increased pollution and congestion for society and are detrimental to the health and well-being of our children.