how many secondary schools did you look at?

Just done another one and that was most revealing! On the phone they assured us that they had full disabled access and that several disabled children were being educated successfully at the school; also that the children do not have to walk long distances (all relevant to ds' condition). The SENCO stared at us in disbelief when we mentioned this! Apparently they walk long distances, and there is only a lift in one building, there have been disabled children, but they have had to be taught separately in the main building for part of the school day.

Friends have said that the school has a lovely ethos but all that was mentioned in the talks was how much money had been spent on their new gym and their IT suites, the corridors were full of enormous posters about How Do I get an A* (no sign that you are valued if you don't), the classrooms were full the college's own students hogging the equipment and ignoring the visitors, the teachers made no attempt to initiate conversation or inform about their subject, and the SENCO seemed really negative. He asked ds about his grades which I was not happy about either(got a distinct feeling that if he had learning difficulties- which he doesn't- they would have tried to make us feel unwelcome and hoped we chose somewhere else.

This is the Ofsted Outstanding secondary- it won't be on our application.

DS1 is as I've been told repeatedly "very bright" so we've gone through the 11+ process and looked at two super selective grammars. Also looked at our local catchment comp which is ok but just average and one other specialist comp which I really liked.

Glad I have looked at the options and feel reassured about the choices (we only have 4).

We are lucky enough to be reasonably ok even if he gets his last choice.

The only thing is that after seeing the specialist comp I would in a way now rather he went there as DS2 would also be able to go - hence the stillconfused...

Just been to our first open evening. Quite interesting as it is the school our dd has already been at and we know they are very good, so thought it would be interesting to see how they present at an open evening. And they did present well. What we saw is pretty much what dd has been telling us: pleasant staff, good pupil-teacher relations, stimulating atmosphere. So tonight we are off to a school we know nothing about to see how that compares.

But LEA admissions officer was very reassuring and said we would almost certainly get a place for ds on the sibling rule alone, let alone his disability (same as dd's). Which is just as well, don't think I could go through the appeals process again.

If we had a decent state secondary on our doorstep I doubt we'd have bothered looking elsewhere. As it is, we seem to have spent this September and last September looking around schools, and we're not done yet. Can't wait for it all to be over with.

I've sent you a PM Clary.

Hi Roisin

Yes he's just in yr 7. Been a bit of a nightmare tbh. He really struggles to note down his homework and gets really uptight when I ask him to do it

I asked the school to check he had noted down homework (eg he came home with just 8 of the 10 spellings he needed ) and today found a teacher had clearly made all the notes in his RE lesson! Like, two pages!! Not sure why DS couldn't do some of it .

His writing and reading comp have always been a problem, he had a good year 6 but we all knew he would find yr 7 hard

Still he says he likes the lessons, esp science

I don't think any of this is the school's fault; it's all abotu DS and his inability to concentrate/laziness/avoidance of work. We have an apt with the medics in half term.

[Roisin waves to Clary! - quick hijack]
Is your ds just in yr7? Hope he's settled well.
ds2 was nervous about starting as none of his mates got in, but he's astonishingly happy and confident there already. It feels as though he's been there 3 years not 3 weeks.

I really hate open evenings - so busy and so crowded. So mostly sent dh
He visited 2 in yr4 and 2 in yr5 and we all went to the open day of the local inde school in yr5.

We visited our favourite two during the school day in yr5 (just me and dh, not ds1).

Then we took ds1 in yr6 to the open evenings of those two schools before applying.

Hat we just looked at one and we had actually already applied to it!

We live in a middle class lovely area of town and the school is 5 mins round the corner. It is the one the vast majority of kids from DS1's junior school go to, along with DC from at least 2 other local schools where he knows/knew a lot of people (thru cricket, Scouts etc etc).

It gets good results (not surprsing given the catchment) and is one of the higher-achieving schools in the city FWIW.

I honestly couldn't see the point of looking at other schools when they would mean a bus ride/long cycle; there would be no-one there he knew; the results etc are generally poorer; who knows what the teaching is like after all?

Yes I suppose some may have nicer buildings (our BSF has been cancelled ) but it just seemed like a no-brainer. Some DC from DS1's school went to a comp in the next village which is Outstanding and one of the sought-after schools in the area. We are not in catchment but I'm guessing may well have got a place. But tbh the last thing I want for him is a 15 min bus journey each day to an academic school where I suspect he would quickly sink.

DH and I both had mega journeys to secondary (esp DH) and all our pals lived miles away so we never saw them. DS1 can walk round to a friend's house from school; that has a lot to recommend it IMO.

Funnily enough cecily we are in an urban area (sort of - small city) tho there aren't really many walkable options.

I visited 3 schools even though I had already decided which one I wanted to pick.
It could have been between 2, but the other one that I didn't pick has some severe behaviour issues so I took that off our list.

We had to put at least 3 choices on our application form, I put 5. I knew we definitely wouldn't get 4 of them so knew which school we would more than likely be offered, I was right

one

none

"Last time they allocated dd to a school that did not have wheelchair access because the school we had mentioned was not on their list of Schools Suitable for the Disabled, so it was obvious disability could not be a real issue. When we queried why our preferred school was not on the list, it turned out they did not have adequate provision for the visually impaired. And therefore it logically follows that it could not be the right school for a child with joint trouble..."

Oh man. Now I am REALLY hoping that my disabled four year old remains happy with home education and never wants to try school. I can't be dealing with idiots like that!! Where do you get the patience? Would have made a nice story for the local newspaper though.

(Sorry for going OT to the original post!)

if you have one school that your DD wants to go to, you are happy with and you are guaranteed to get a place at, why would you put yourself through more than one open evening?

like muminbeds, i have only ever gone to the one for the catchment area school- we are also in beds. we are fortunate in that we are in catchment for good comprehensive education. I still know parents who drag around, say 4 middle schools before choosing the one down the road that all the local kids are going to.

Have looked at four, some twice, or dh went separately, so far. Helps a lot to even out impressions. Rowdiness, cramped classrooms, spotty teenagers - it helps to see these things in several different settings Every school so far I've been to has had something to recommend it, that is the problem! I think also size and location can be a shock at first, on second visit schools can feel more neighbourly or more user-friendly.

Only one (grammar). Luckily ds got it as his first choice. The others I put down in order of league table rankings.

Haven't read whole thread but I did learn something the hard way in my area. Only put one preference, not two. That is the way to get into school no. 1 where I live.

We have to think and look and measure carefully as our catchment school is not suitable to ds' disability and council are likely to try to fob us off with some unsuitable school.

Last time they allocated dd to a school that did not have wheelchair access because the school we had mentioned was not on their list of Schools Suitable for the Disabled, so it was obvious disability could not be a real issue. When we queried why our preferred school was not on the list, it turned out they did not have adequate provision for the visually impaired. And therefore it logically follows that it could not be the right school for a child with joint trouble...

We only looked at one as there is only one in our town. Going anywhere else would mean a 45min bus ride to school. Luckily our school is very good and dd loves it there.

Hatwoman

Sounds like you are in a good position - our choice of one got ranked as totally useless by Ofsted!

In your position I would be very happy and stick with just the one! There really isnt a lot of purpose in looking at other non-options.

I think there's always this feeling when your children are in year six of "are we doing enough?", especially when other people all seem to be busily scoping out lots of options. If you are happy with the school, and it's nearby (that is SUCH a big thing in secondary school - my DS just started and I'm thanking my lucky stars we didn't choose one further away - they get loads of homework and it would be so hard to fit it all in, plus clubs if we were further away) then fill out that form and sit back for quite a nice year, before the big change next year! (Yr 6 is fun, especially if your school decides to boycott SATS!)