School Admissions Day!!!

Very emotional day today as its the day we find out if our little ones got into primary school we wanted them too.

I didn't really have much of a worry as I live right across the road from the school and my daughters older sibling goes to the school, so we got in.

But my daughter has a close group of friends (one is missing from the photo as she was ill) but their little group is lovely. They all get on well and play lovely together - Madison, Bryony, Erin, Laila, Annabelle and Lauren.
They've all been friends since they started playschool (Laila, Annabelle and Lauren for longer, Bryony and Erin too) they have other friends as well but they always come back to each other.

Madison, Bryony and Erin all live in the same village and have applied to the catchment primary school - Manorfield, Madison has got in so I am assuming Erin and Bryony have too.
Laila is going to another school as her older sister didn't get in at Manorfield 2 years ago.
But Annabelle and Lauren have applied to Manorfield as their first choice of primary schools. Annabelle has an advantage to this as she has an older sibling at the school already - her mum has also posted on fb that she has got into the school.
Lauren has no older siblings but we don't want her to have to go to school on her own and its been very stressful for her mum to think she won't get to see her friends everyday, or get into any of their choices of schools. Most people will say that friends aren't everything but at 4 years old you just want your kids to be happy, with people they know and spend the first year of school getting use to things and being happy. Lauren is a lovely girl and will make friends easily enough if she went to another school but why should she have to go through that stress.

When I say they aren't in catchment the border and lines of the catchment daft anyway. They live in the next village which is a small village it has no shops, schools, doctors or anything just houses. They use the doctors and playschool in our village as we are the same council area. But when it comes to primary schools for some reason they have been put in a different council area and school that is further away from them then Manorfield.
I really don't understand how they have worked out the catchment areas and why you'd send them to a different council area and feel the catchment areas need looking at.
I think its probably the fact that the school they are meant to go to is not great and has a poor offsted report and in a rough area so they use this village to fill up the numbers well try too. I don't actually know anyone who lives in the village who sends their child to the catchment school, some drives miles out their way to avoid it.

So it turns out that Lauren didn't get into Manorfield her first choice, or her 2nd or 3rd choice. She's not even been offered a school on her form. I am feel awful for both the mum and daughter. It must be awful to know your daughter may not go to school with her friends.

Now her mum has to appeal the decision and hope the outcome is better. But its just more stress and worry them. Its hard enough sending your children to school but with all this stress on top of it makes it worse.

Anyway rant over!!!