On the dire thing that is Secondary School Transfer.

Lately we've been navigating the murky waters of lake 'School Applications', something which has not been pleasant. We have planned and tested and practiced and crossed our fingers but all our scheming has not worked and it appears we have now sprung a leak and are rapidly sinking into the mire.

This manifests itself in the form of living six metres out of the catchment area for the nearest good school, despite being comfortably within in for the four previous years.

Six metres is very frustrating. It means that if we stand at the bottom of our garden we are probably still in the catchment area and Harry would now have a place. I have considered pitching a tent for Harry to live in, and then appealing.

As it turns out we don't appear to be living in the right place for, in fact, any school; the upshot of which is that Harry has been offered a place in a single sex school three and a half miles away, one that is mainly populated by expelled boys and boys with 'special needs in learning'.

How they can justify sending him to a school three and a half miles away when he lived too far away from the one that was one and half baffles me.

There's also the fact that I am morally opposed to single sex education because why would you want a child not to learn how to communicate with one half of the population, especially during the five most formative years of his or her life?

So I am angry, and frankly he won't be attending the school he's been offered. The school we applied for is the one he should have a place at. The appeals process is difficult and frustrating but I don't see any other path. The appeals board told me that we have to show why an already oversubscribed school should take on my child, and that there have to be exceptional circumstances for this. Well, I think in Harry's case there are.

Queensbridge (the school of choice) is an up-and-coming school with a commitment to the Performing Arts, and over the last four years the Headmaster has completely turned it around. That's why suddenly everyone wants to go there. So we were in the catchment area when it was rubbish, but because it's based in between two very wealthy areas of Birmingham as it becomes better the catchment area shrinks and the kids in the less wealthy areas suffer.

And Harry has worked very hard in Primary school. He gets good marks, he gets privileges and rewards, he is a talented musician, playing guitar at grade three level and playing in the Birmingham Central Ensemble, and he sings in two choirs; the Selly Oak choir and the Birmingham Central Choir. He even campaigned to get bike racks put in the school and now lots of children cycle to school.

So I'm going to appeal on that basis. I'm going to say that the school should provide him with a place because he would be an asset to the school in every way and because his education will suffer if he doesn't get a place there.

And then we'll see.

And we'll cross our fingers because he's currently number five on the waiting list owing the frankly ridiculous six metre boundary, so that might change over the next few weeks. But if we don't get a place then I have no idea what we'll do.

The whole thing is utterly terrifying.