Did I destroy my daughter’s prospects?

Every year, thousands of parents face the situation I did in 2014 when I realised that I could no longer afford to educate my ten-year-old daughter privately. At first, I didn’t panic. After all, I lived near some excellent state schools.

After queuing for two hours one cold winter Saturday morning for Open Day, we learned that to gain a place at Holland Park you had to live within yards of it, or win a heavily oversubscribed art scholarship, which my daughter attempted — and failed. I still didn’t worry. Why should I have, when 93 per cent of children under 16 in England are educated in state schools?

We queued for one Open Day after another. We tried a couple of church schools, but as non-churchgoers our chances were slim. I visited Hammersmith Academy, Burlington Danes — the list went on. We loved the West London Free School, so I started phoning the admissions secretary with a regularity bordering on harassment.