To move child in the last term of year 6

In your position I would move her to ensure she got into a good secondary school.

I'd err towards moving her. If she's a friendly popular girl chances are she'll make new friends easily enough. Tbh primary school friends are important in situ and at the time but rarely persist unless there are other anchors like hobbies/clubs.

Your LEA probably post some statistics about school admissions. That will include how many children got into what school under what criteria and how far out the last child admitted was. If you look now you'll get last year's admissions, and this year's will be available soon (after national offer day).

Of course it will vary year on year, but that will give you 2 year's worth of data which will at least give you an idea as to whether it is probable/possible/unlikely.

This too.

It's a high price to pay for a gamble.

If it really is just because of the residential then fair enough. But if she comes back with more reasons such as her friends being there, then I would really hesitate to force her to move.

Academic achievement is important but social development is more important, I think. Growing up with self-confidence and feeling secure in relation to others will stand her in good stead for life over and above what grades she might get. Moving a kid to a new school where most other kids have already been there for over 3 years, could be too much for her socially. It depends on how confident and secure she is now, I guess, in terms of how much it might affect her.

On the other hand, if she is clever then she will probably enjoy a good secondary school much more than she would enjoy going to a crappy one. I was bored shitless at my comprehensive and my parents refused to let me go to a grammar school, partly because of the social thing. But I believe they should have let me go because spending all day miserable with boredom is terrible for a kid's mental health, and I didn't get on socially at the comprehensive anyway so it was lose-lose.

So if she considers that side of things, the benefit of a good secondary, then she might choose to make the move, as an investment in her future. In that case I would make sure she has lots of opportunities to see her old friends, hang out with extended family etc and make it clear you are there for support, you and other adults perhaps, if it gets difficult.

Not to suggest you wouldn't be doing all of that as a matter of course anyway.

I don’t have raw data however. There is definitely some uncertainty around this

I would NOT move my child unless I was 95% sure that the move would allow her access to the good secondary school

Unless you move house, you’ll still be out of catchment though.

A lot of false information about SATs here. The data from the exams determines the end goal points for GCSE that the school need to get the child to in order to show neutral or, hopefully, positive progress. Because the "Progress 8" measure is a key metric as to how a secondary school is judged, this means SATs results can affect a range of things, including but not limited to:

• the classes, sets and band a child is placed in,
• the teachers assigned to that class (and their relative quality),
• whether they are eligible for any additional boosts or support,
• whether they are a focus child for the teacher,
• whether they get taught the content leading to "higher maths", or, in some settings, whether they get the option of Triple Science.

This all happens behind the scenes: parents don't know about it and, really, most teachers don't either. But the data managers and progress leads do.

I'd be looking very carefully at the historical data on intake and never take anyone else's word. People don't always remember correctly.

I wouldn't even be having this conversation with her in a way that implies she has a choice. She's 10, she doesn't have capacity to make decisions that look at the full life picture, hence her desire to stay for the residential.

If she is def going to the catholic secondary school, move her.

And sorry if this comes across like I'm giving you a tone, I don't mean to!

There's likely a Year 6 residential in the new school - most schools do this as a SATS reward. Can you check?

Either way I'd take the new place as it might not come up again.

So the admissions criteria are (roughly) in order or priority

1. Catholic children
2. Children attending feeder schools (where DD would be in new school)
3. Children in catchment
4. Everyone else? (DD in current school)

i.e. being at the specific primary school trumps being in catchment?

Sorry to labour the point, but I've seen too many threads on MN where people have "assumed" things based on what's happened in previous years and not checked actual criteria. Didn't want you to move your DC and then find she still didn't get a secondary school place.

I'd also suggest that you should take things you've "heard" about your local comprehensive with a pinch of salt. I've "heard" all manner of things about my DC's schools, most of them either wildly out of date, or entirely inaccurate or some combination of these.

We moved house when DD was in year 5 and so she moved school - best thing ever, she moved in the November so had two school years almost - she was so much happier in the new school and primary is now a positive memory. A year in a child's life is a long time. If it's going to be a better year then go for it, with thought about secondary school and friends and the impact on that transition.

I would move. Friendships transition in Year 6 a lot anyway. Particularly kids at smaller schools who just get bored of each other after 7 years or longer in the same class. Particularly girls.

Even if they do stay friends in Year 6, they drift in Year 7 as they have a wider choice of friends.

I'd not move specifically for SATS but they do indicate someone being better prepared for secondary and whilst a secondary will do CAT tests on admission, they will also take into account standardised scores and SAT results. So if you think the new school will better prepare her for secondary AND she stands more chance at getting in, do it.

Have they changed the law we had to get DS confirmed before he was accepted to the secondary catholic school (dh catholic I am not). We never did it abroad when they were a baby as we just didn’t. Although they did admit non catholic in later years when places became available.

Will she not get a point for her DS being at the secondary too?

SATs and year 6 performance at this stage I wouldn't be bothered about. (SATs are for school anyway, not for the kid)
The only reason to move really is the secondary issue

if this is really the only way to get into a decent secondary school, then yes move her.
I also agree that while you do need her onside, she can't possibly understand the significance of secondary at this point.

A decnet secondary is worth it.

I would consider a school that didn't go mad on SATS to be a bonus tbh. But are you more concerned about the general standard of education being poor at her current school?

What would be the difference in chances of getting into the catholic secondary school from her current school versus if she moves to the other one? Catholic schools generally have religious criteria ahead of feeder schools. What is the realistic secondary option if she stays where she is and why do you consider that school less good?
I think that for me would be the main consideration.

Generally I'd be loathe to move a happy child, so if there were no/little secondary school difference, would the perceived benefits of a better education for a year outweigh the time it would take for her to settle in, get used to new routines etc in a new school?

@Relaxaholic I think you have already made your mind up and this thread was primarily to garnish support to rally your cause.

Nothing wrong with how you parent or I parent even though it does seem to be very different you know your DD best.

We are so proud of our DC but it wasn’t always easy sailing but one thing my DC always knew was that he had some autonomy and we would never just do something without his consent.

My advice is try and find anyway possible to get your DD on board.