redjam Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > I was at the meeting too. Feelings running very > high, and frankly I was embarrassed about some of > the behaviour of the parents in the room - people > shouting over each other, not listening to the > answers, noisily insisting on having their > questions heard even though they'd run out of > time. Like the OP I am saddened by the > divisiveness in all this and wish everyone could > just take a step back from their own personal > positions and see the bigger picture. One of the > saddest comments I heard was one woman asking > angrily, 'Why should I support this school if I > don't even know if my child will get in?'* To me > that's absolutely the wrong way to look at this. > My feeling is: it's 240 new school places for the > area, surely that's good for everyone even if my > child personally doesn't get in? Why WOULDN'T you > support that? And anyway, it will free up 240 > places in other local schools so of course it will > still benefit your child indirectly, even if they > don't get in themselves. > > I have to say I thought the Charter panel were > excellent, all of them, and handled what was > clearly a difficult meeting very well. Whatever > the outcome of the consultation, I really hope > that everyone will start pulling together more and > get behind what is going to be a great new > school. > > * This was in reference to the Charter panel > encouraging us to tick the box in the consultation > to say that you approve of the school being funded > by the DFE, which is crucial to the new school > opening. This exactly. Some of the views / behaviour was pretty depressing