Lynne Featherstone

Nearly all the morning was surgery (i.e. meeting succession of constituents who have individual cases they want to raise with me face-to-face). This is the time of year when a trail of virtually suicidal parents come to see me because their children have not got not only their first or second choice schools – but as of today – not even their sixth choice.

It is a woeful process and totally baffling at times. Whilst not every child can get in exactly where their parents want, there are some examples that are quite extraordinary when several children from different families all living close to each other get into a school – but another child also living right next to them all doesn’t (and none of them have siblings at the school, so it’s not the siblings rule at work). So how can parents believe it is fair? Perhaps it is time that Haringey was forced to publish who gets in from where and why!