Just suppose

you are a parent of 10 year old child with 2 years left to go in primary school. Your child is guaranteed a trip on a residential week either in the current academic year or the following year. Your child MAY be fortunate enough to get a place on both trips, but due to numbers of children involved, they are guaranteed one visit.

So as the parent of this imaginary child, you are told that places are restricted for visit number one. The very strict system for ensuring that every applicant has an absolutely equal chance of being selected is fully explained. And you are asked to accept that if you make an application for your child to go on the first trip, your child may not be successful, but will therefore be guaranteed a place on the trip the following year.

You proceed to apply for a place for your child, but hers is not one of the 44 numbers drawn from a hat.

Do you either a) Explain to your daughter that you are very sorry she will miss out this time and not go to Wales, but "Don't worry darling, you have a trip to the Isle of Wight to look forward to next year" or b) Attempt to have the entire trip cancelled because "If my child can't go, neither can anyone else's."

One selfish git, a parent at another school in the local cluster of village schools with which I am involved has attempted to go for option b. As a chair of governor's of one of the other schools who participate in the residential (the provision of which by us OFSTED has described as 'outstanding') I have been up to my eyes recently trying to save these trips in the face of his legal challenge to the fairness and equity of our residential trips.

Last night at the last in a series of meetings which have dragged on through most of the past nine months his complaint was finally and categorically dismissed.

I can only sit back and wonder just exactly how spolit the child of this particular parent must be. Her father should bear in mind the warning from Mr Dahl in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory of what can happen when we spoil our children....

Verruca Salt

She is from England. She is capricious, spoilt, stubborn, demanding, selfish and narrow-minded. She looks like a doll. Her parents give in to her every whim. She always wants more: she is never pleased. She is insolent and rude. She manipulates people in order to obtain what she wants. She is a hypocrite. She thinks she is superior to other people. She despises the others. She is scornful. In the room where the squirrels shell nuts, she absolutely wants a trained squirrel. She is desperate to get her hands on a squirrel. They attack her and consider she is a bad nut, so they push her in the garbage. She lands on thre
e weeks’ worth of rubbish.

I am somewhat put out to know that a teacher at the school my kids go to (for that I am very sorry to say is what this parent does for a living) freely admits to caring about no children but his own.