Difficult choice

Patrick and I find ourselves facing a problem many parents have already gone through: finding the right school for our son and, most importantly, getting a place for him in it.

After our frustrated attempt with DSJ - the German School - we decided to visit all other top schools in the city, choose the best one and get Antonio into it no matter what.

Yesterday morning we attended the open day of The Ridge, an amazing school in the Westcliff area. I must admit I have never seen anything like that place. It is overwhelmingly beautiful and their boys are formidably polite. Their facilities are absolutely state-of-the-art and on top of that the staff is incredible.

Next day we went to Pridwin, a much smaller elitist school, good on sports, top in Maths, with beautiful manicured gardens. We chatted to the headmaster, a very fine chap, who assured us his school was no worse than other top schools worldwide, having one of his pupils recently accepted at Eton.

The funny bit was a tale we heard in both schools: in Joburg, parents put their kids' names down in waiting lists of top private schools as soon as the wife gets pregnant without even knowing the baby's gender. Later on they must drop out as they realize it's a baby girl coming along. And both schools are boys only.

I applied for The Ridge in 2006, as soon as we arrived in SA, knowing his starting date would be January 2009. It was for sure a shot in the dark as we had no idea if we'd still be here.

And now, after 2 years waiting, it's fingers crossed we get our little one into either or.