Thanks for your thoughtful reply. I'm in Year 10 at the moment. I have told them all of the above, but the response is 'because we are your parents and we thought it best'. There are local schools which don't do as well, because of the inherent bias that a Catholic school will have with selection (pupils from wealthier areas are bussed in on free bus passes because it's the nearest Catholic school).
They don't seem to think that I would have got into the better school, with it being slightly farther away. My dad was pretty insistent that I didn't go to his former school. I think I could have done just as well as I'm (not) doing now at a different school. I don't know if it makes a difference now, the damage is done. I have been so badly depressed since I came to the school that I'm worried I won't remember any of my childhood, and on top of that I don't really have friends at school. I feel as if I've lost these years of my life, and that school has made me into just as much of an insufferable, feckless twit as the staff.
My parents are quasi-Anglican, and sent me to Church, mysteriously stopping once my religious grandmother had passed away, and they had me signed off as a practicing Christian. Given my dad's sort-of irreligiousness (he'll rant about how silly organised religion can get after a few beers), he's kind of annoyingly sympathetic towards the Christians, and really believes in their right to run state schools. He seems to think it's okay to put children with insufferable people, and if they like them, great, and if they don't, it's a life lesson that insufferable people exist.
The problem is, I've grown so hateful of absolutely everyone around me that I have no anchor in life, and in a way there's nothing that is solid to me, no relationship or hobby which really drives me to enjoy life.
In all honesty, I wish I had a better education, and I wish I was afforded the opportunity to participate in intellectually stimulating activities with my school peers, such as debate, but alas, it seems closed-minded people drop closed-minded sprogs. In some ways I am led to believe that I could have been afforded this by the independent education sector, as schools like those often have the resources and the desire to seriously create well rounded human beings who are geared up for life. At my school if you can't sing, pray, play sports or raise money for charity, you are pointless.
I think to some extent I just need genuine, friend-like love from another person, which I've not really come across. I don't know what it is like to talk to someone about problems and to be truly understood by them.
I'm severely annoyed by this and I'm not sure I can really continue like this. My parents seem to think happiness is some mathematical function of how well one does at school. That's quite the surprise, given that they are largely the reason for it.
Anyway, I need to get on and do some work from the lessons I should have had today. Goodnight and thanks for the advice.