Triumph over hypocrisy

We aren't religious. We only go to church when invited to attend a life event or when nagged by the children.

The nearest primary school to our house is a Church of England Aided school.

A common practice amongst parents of pre-school children is regular attendance at school until the school application form has been signed by the priest. We didn't do this. Hannah managed to bag a place at the school anyway.

This week we waited to see whether Ethan would be equally lucky.

The council make the decision these days which has its downsides. If the school were to make the decision we may have had a few factors in our favour.

• Ethan's sister is very well behaved at school and she also performs well academically.
• Ethan's mum has a history of cake-baking to support school cake sales.
• Ethan's mum has a history of supporting school fund-raising activity.
• Ethan's parents never miss a parent's evening for his sister.

But none of these were considered, and still the top 5 criteria for admission relate to being demonstrably religious.

We didn't crack and betray our beliefs by attending church just to make our lives easier. We just hoped for the best. And it seemed to work, because yesterday I read the e-mail that confirmed he had a place.

It's a relief. Handling school runs for children attending different schools would have been a challenge, but one I risked rather than live with hypocrisy.