‘Over to God!’: how to decrease the stress of secondary school choices

All the school pick up chat at the moment is about secondary school applications. With the deadline for submission looming it is building up and up. Some parents have already submitted whilst others are adding it onto their long to do list and everyone is finding the whole process rather stressful. That appears to be the key word during this experience, stressful.

Choosing the schools you wish to look around can be stressful. Actually attending the open evenings can be stressful, actually, strike that, it is stressful. It is busy, it’s loud, there’s information coming at you left right and centre, and every classroom is done up like a carnival store with chocolate prizes to be won in exchange for completing a subject themed game. Then, if you’re like us in our area of Blackburn, multiple schools have their open evenings on the same night, leaving the parent with either having to choose to miss out on some or dashing across town to attend them all. Then there’s filling out the form and the final wait, they can also be stressful, or so I’m told. Something happened to us on the night we filled out our form which highlighted the importance of keeping God at the centre of everything.