No pennies from Heaven for Westbury family

[maxi]

http://www.wiltshiretimes.co.uk/news/latestheadlines/4405259.No_pennies_from_Heaven_for_Westbury_family/

[LONDONER]

Having read the article why not rehouse the family in Warminster, problem solved, plus less cost for the parents to get to their place of work

[Yokel]

No sympathy with the parents at all - on top of which they are showing intolerance.   Feel sorry for the kids cos I'm sure they couldn give a flying fck where they go to school so long as they can make friends and have fun - which would be a lot easier if your friends were local..........

Quote:  “I’m feel like it’s an invasion of my privacy and Lauren’s privacy that they’ve checked to see how many times we’ve been to church.”   What a load of rubbish!! For every single benefit you can ever claim you have to provide supporting evidence.  The terms of the child's attendance to the school are plain and clear and the parents, through their own decisions regarding their working circumstances, have failed to meet them.     

[cuthbert-murray]

there is in fact a roman catholic church in westbury, next to the doctors surgery in west end its called St Bernadettes.
perhaps the family could attend this church in the town where they live , which do evening services, I know that as a catholic personally .

[Soup]

I had exactly this problem when I went to school. My free transport was taken away as I wasn't a Catholic attending a Catholic school. Ultimately my folks had to pay for private transport. I do actually feel for their situation, I don't think the kid's education should be disrupted because of discrimination - the school accepted the pupil, so he/she should be treated the same as the other kids in the school.

[Yokel]

When all's said and done its not the council that are interrupting the child's education - its the parents.  The rules havn't changed.   They knew the rules and if they can't stick by them then thats their fault.  Asking for special treatment because of your belief and then failing to prove that belief under a set of rules you've agreed to abide by, is NOT discimination.

[Soup]

Surely it's neither the council nor the parents, it's the school itself, along with their connection to the local churches, that makes the final decision. I don't knopw the ins and outs of it, but I'd have thought a better solution would be to encourage them to attend church more?

[Yokel]

Looks like they arent prepared to attend church more - and thats the problem.  Its the parents - the rules havent changed.
ANyway, if it is the school that makes the decision then the school havent been convinced by the parent's behaviour that they are sufficient catholic to justify the school place.
Whichever way you cut it - this is down to failures (and I sense arrogance but I may be wrong) by the parents.

[Yokel]

Also it says this "“If there are exceptional circumstances, the parents can write to the council who will reconvene the review panel to consider the further information provided.”"

I sense the parents have gone to the press far too soon -  suspect, and a part of me sincerely hopes - that doing so has damaged their case for their display of kneejerk disprespect to the school and the services that allow them such freedom of choice in the first place.  A share of the money it costs to send their kid to the school of their choosing is coming out of my pocket and given the choice I wouldn't give them a m,illionth of a penny for it.