Anne is a Company Secretary who lives in Llantwit Major. She has two children aged 11 and 9.

"We'd always planned to send our children to Cowbridge School. Both my husband and his brothers went there and we thought it would be nice to carry on the tradition. We also went to see the local comprehensive, a church school in Cardiff and two private schools, one in Porthcawl and one in Cardiff.

We live in Llantwit Major and thought it would be no problem to get my daughter into Cowbridge school from Wick School. Children from the area had gone there in the past, but the entry criteria has changed and we were turned down. Cowbridge has excellent results, due mainly to good parental support and, if we hadn't been in a financial position to go private, we wouldn't have hesitated to appeal to get in there.

The alternative - the local comprehensive - didn't impress us. We couldn't see much evidence of mutual respect and the teaching staff were making little effort to make us feel welcome. The school is obviously bursting at the seams with pupils and, with new housing going up in the area and the Army moving into St Athan, things can only get worse.

We thought one of the private schools was too small, but once we'd visited the other one, the Cathedral school, we knew that it was the one. We were really impressed. The classes are small and the children are well spoken and polite and all stand up when you enter the classroom. We were taken around by two Year 7 girls who were able to answer any questions we put to them and the staff were willing to explain everything.

I do have qualms about sending them to private school. I would much rather see a child walking to the nearest school than travelling away from home - but only if the school is a good one. But you have to think of your child's future.

I worry that my daughter is going to be away from her friends, but it's up to us to make sure that she is able to maintain her friendships at the weekend. She is very happy about the decision. She has spent a day at the school and enjoyed it. We were careful to include her in the decision-making process. My son, who is nine, is also keen to attend the same school.

Generally speaking, in an ideal world there should not be any differences between schools, but the intake areas do reflect the schools. It would be nice to see the local comprehensive servicing the local community, but I understand children are bussed in from Barry, where there are local comprehensives which could service their needs as well as Llantwit does. Sometimes it seems that children who do get on well do so despite the school, not because of it."

Anne, Llantwit Major