National Offer Day

If you told a hundred adults that today was national offer day, I suspect that eighty or so of them wouldn't have a clue what you were talking about.

Of the other ten, about five would be only too well aware of that today was indeed National Offer Day. They would be or parents of children aged about ten, or teachers or other staff involved in the process of "secondary transfer," e.g. assigning children in the present "year six" to secondary schools in the coming autumn, would know exactly what you meant and I suspect most will either be very pleased and relieved or extremely upset.

The ones who knew what you meant but didn't already know it was National Offer day would be the parents who had been through it comparatively recently but don't have a child going through secondary transfer this year: and they would all say something like "yes: thank goodness it doesn't affect us this year."

Certainly I and my wife, who had two children to worry about, were peering at the computer every few minutes from very early this morning until seven minutes past eight when the two emails from Cumbria County Council arrived to let us know what school places our children were being offered.

A position which will have been replicated in a million or so households.

If anyone reading this has children going through secondary transfer this year, I hope you had the news you wanted.

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