When Emily Phillips walks through the doors of Ark Conway Primary Academy with her four-year-old daughter, Scarlett, she will scarcely believe that she has made it to this point.
It has taken nearly three years of hard work, setbacks and, at times, despair to see her vision of a new primary school become a reality. But as 30 excited children in their uniforms of blue V-neck jumpers and ties run through the gates of the Grade II-listed former library in Shepherd’s Bush, west London, the 39-year-old knows it will have been worth it.
“Scarlett was only two when I plunged into this mad journey,” she says. “I knew parents in this neck of the woods were struggling to get primary places and their children were being sent to schools miles away. It was a big problem. It was all people were talking about and had become a real obsession. Some people moved house to get near a good school, but I just thought: 'Better to start up a school than move house.’ ”
Mummy Rambles was lucky enough to get her son in to the school of her choice. Here she shares her experience of Monty's first day at school.
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