We live in the Finchley black hole' for good secondary schools especially those that take girls.

Our stark choice is the local equivalent of sink schools or somehow finding £6,000 a year to educate our daughter privately. The LEA know all about this black hole but ignores it.

For 16 years we have religiously paid taxes and in return we expect a good state education for our children. We did not realise it would be this bad.

We wanted our daughter to go to Queen Elizabeth's Girls' School but the boundary has been slashed to a mere 1.123 miles. The LEA has fed us guff about changing demographics, different attitudes to schooling and oversubscribed schools on cramped sites.

What that hides is a lack of foresight, poor planning, inability to come up with radical solutions and a desire to keep the status quo.

We are appealing of course but this year around 75 other families have also appealed to this school alone. Is it any wonder we feel betrayed?

Jerry Williams

Hutton Grove, North Finchley

July 1, 2002 15:30