shebird:
I know this is a scary decision because like primary - the secondary choice is where you're child will be for quite a while (at least until GCSEs in 5 years time, if not A-Levels in 7 years time).
But....
This isn't just your choice - you have a young person with ideas/ opinions there too and they will have academic needs/ sports interests/ hobbies that also have to be considered.
I asked myself what I wanted as a parent -
My answer: a good school that will not waste my child's potential, but will be interested in teaching them to a very high standard.
I also accepted that it can't all be down to the school - some some pupils will drop out/ turn off/ not be suited to a more 'academic road' and wanted to understand that the school could also help them.
I looked out where students went onto next (not just results at GCSE/ A-Level). Did a small percentage make Oxford/ Cambridge/ UCL?
Did those who weren't particularly academic go on to vocational college?
Did those who were 'in-between' slip through the cracks or were they supported to navigate what to do next post-senior school?
I also let DD1 have a say. She wanted to go for the 11+ because friends were and she liked the idea of going to the same state-funded grammar school as them.
We also knew that there are very few obviously good senior schools here - so we moved to a location that guaranteed if our grammar school options didn't work out (which ended up being the case) we could be confident DD1 was at a good school (our previous local options were two schools in special measures and poor reputations locally). It sounds to me that you do have good options - so doing something that extreme isn't necessary in your case.
Don't just make this your decision. Your child has to go there - and so should have some input on that choice (be it for friendship reasons/ academic reasons/ avoiding problem children from the previous primary/ etc...)
Do visit the schools with your child and go in with questions (your DC's too) that you want answered (maybe what clubs? maybe about music tuition? resources for SEN? resources for G&T? whatever concerns you - for example one friend chose the school by how they responded to the question my DD1 is on the city's swim team and practice is from 5:30 - 7:30 each morning. It will be very tight to get back to your school in the mornings - how will you handle that? The schools who said that wasn't acceptable were off their shortlist. They found a school that agreed that swimming was their DDs talent and it should be supported - The school said what they would do was give her a pass to arrive late because of her G&T in swimming & make sure she didn't miss out on information/ teaching. And they've kept their word so far).
Finally remember that no school/ no person can ever be fully described by summary statistics on paper. You're not going to know if a school is a happy/ supportive environment from an OFSTED report or a rankings table - talk to parents with children there. Don't be shy about this - it is an important decision. Find out if they're happy with the school - good communication/ doing good things with our kid/ like the extra support when DC was struggling/ etc....
We've got DD1 (now Y7) into a school that is just out of 'needs improvement' verdict from OFSTED but has got >75% of pupils 5 A-C GCSEs for the last decade and is well thought of locally. Birmingham has had rather an interesting time with OFSTED verdicts which have been more about forcing schools to be academies than a fair assessment of teaching/ learning standards (Do remember several of the Trojan Horse schools were declared OUTSTANDING < 1 year before Trojan Horse broke).
We're happy with our choice. It's a stable, happy, productive place with lots going on (sports/ academic clubs like science, maths & poetry/ art & drama clubs/ music groups/ film & cooking clubs/ Duke of Edinburgh scheme etc...) that aims to create well-rounded human beings, ready for Uni or work. For us, that was the clincher.
But do accept - no place is perfect and every choice like this has its pros and cons.