Woof !

After four months into this island adventure I have to owe up to my unremitting ignorance concerning the ins and outs of the UK education system. In my defense it should be mentioned, however, that there seem to be more outs than ins.

For one, it is rather unlikely that a first attempt at entering an educational institution in this country will be successful. When trying to place a child, so called catchment areas for state schools must to be considered.

However, living in one of these areas does not automatically grant a child access into one of these schools. In fact, we were told that London parents run off to secure a place for their child on the day of her or his birth. Now that’s a bonding parent!

However, as will be made clear to parent and child, remaining at a decent state school will depend on a series of drawn out tests and examinations starting at the age of seven.

Here is another little island fact: girls take secondary school entrance exams at eleven years of age but not so boys. For some reason only obvious to Brits, boys take the exam at thirteen, which by the way is also the last possible date to get accepted into secondary school it seems. I am not kidding. It’s 11, 13, or tough luck folks.

I virtually was told that moving to England with a child older than 14 at the most is a really bad idea since no ‘reputable’ school would want to ‘run the risk’ of taking in a...well, they didn’t outright say stray dog, but somehow I think that’s what they meant.