This whole system really is a waste of time and money for everybody: students, parents and teachers too when you take into account open days, banding exams, and the huge amount of time administering the whole system. After many school visits i?m told I have to go to, DD will still most likely be offered a place at our nearest school which, while good, doesn?t offer the foreign languages I want her to learn. I?m going to sound very old, but ?in my time? all schools offered English (brought up in France), German and Spanish and you could easily get yourself into the ones which also offered Italian and Russian. This really is a mess.