Going for better school...

The difference is, in a place the size of Manchester there will be a large number of schools - which means that there is at least the illusion of parental choice (aka middle class parents playing the system). In contrast the OP says this is the only school. Which means that parental choice isn't even an illusion. And if this is the case, inevitably there will be parents (including parents of the pushy MN variety) who simply have no choice, as private really isn't an option for the majority. Therefore there will be other high achievers, even if there is nobody at the OP's son's level.

We shall have to see how my academic child does in a few years time at his school with low high ability intake.

Hey who are you calling random?
I do have a role in education as it happens not that not having one would make me random...
Mumsnet is a funny community sometimes...

Of course it doesn’t but if you have a good number of high achievers then they play off each other. Working hard and doing your best is the default. When you have a good number of children who are high achievers and are expecting high grades then other children are pushed to think that they want to try and achieve that too. They no longer see a 5 or an old C as the aspiration but think, well of they can get 8’s or 9’s then I can too and then expectation increases. Where there is a core of high achievers the school makes sure they are preparing children for top universities, they realise that Oxford, Cambridge and Russell Group are absolutely where they want to be and they don’t settle for less than that and therefore those aspirations become the norm.

Of course it doesn’t make it automatically a good school and as a comprehensive there will be lower achievers too and the school has the challenge of supporting them to do the best they can and that might be a 3,4 or 5 which is absolutely right but I simply can’t see why it would be beneficial to put a highly academic child in a school where only a handful of children are working at the highest level and one would have to question if the teachers are actually following enough of the curriculum to deliver those results.

There was the school on tv a few months ago, a very challenging school in Manchester I think. It was a wonderful school with an inspiring head who was doing amazing things with a very deprived and difficult cohort. It had a very good ofsted and was clearly a wonderful school but they had less than 20% of children getting 5 GCSE’s and literally none getting the highest grades, their top sets were still getting D’s and E’s. I can’t see how they would get the best out of a super academic child who would have virtually no academic peers to work alongside.

Noble is a state school math teacher. I think the OP is better off listening to her than random posters with bright kids who are against private schools.

I removed my Ds from a private school as it wasn't the right environment for him but he is about a year ahead in maths at his new school.

At the private school he used to attend a child such as the OP would be given the chance to sit GCSE maths & Further maths in Year 9/10 & would be able to sit A level maths early if appropriate.

A school with no A level teaching & no experience of further maths would not be able to push him in this way. I suspect he would become bored & unhappy & possibly disruptive.

A comp that is full of high achievers does not by default make it 'better' than a school with fewer higher achievers on entry.
A lot depends on cohort choosing to go to that school.
People play fast and loose with the word 'better' schools including of course our wondrous government.
As you were!

I think he needs to be with a proper cohort of high achievers. My kids are at a comp but it’s a very good one. My eldest is around the middle of the top set in maths. His minimum target grade is an 8 which means that there are at least 15 kids ahead of him who will be expected to get a 9 and another 15 in that set who are expected at least an 8. The middle sets have 7, 8 & 9 as their targets. There are also 20 kids taking additional maths. Therefore I’m happy there are enough kids of high ability to make sure they’re challenged. Unless the comprehensive you have in mind can offer this then make the decision on your son’s behalf and send him somewhere more suited to his needs.

I do agree though Brenden about a negative cycle and schools re admissions...

A school that let brighter children coast would negatively impact their progress 8 score.
A school with a good moral compass, will aim for ALL children to progress well from their starting points.

Matilda, I don't agree that bright children may end up at the 'sink' comp. Else results would be better and pull up the rest, as I mentioned in an earlier post. If you are faced with an average comp that just focuses on those weaker kids for the progress 8 measurement, and lets stronger kids coast, what does a bright/exceptional kid gain from that? That's why so many discussions on mumsnet are about looking elsewhere for a school that best fits a child. The comp never gets better as it is self perpetuating, good kids go elsewhere, the comp always ends up with the weaker kids, results are lower, good kids are sent elsewhere and so on.

That’s what made me think about schools with extra-curricular maths provision as well as ones that would be happy to teach A level content.

I think a schools with a decent array of STEM clubs would probably catch his interest and be an easier sell.

It's natural your son wants to go with friends.

Can you confirm if friends are going to sinking school? If not your son may feel differently.

Show him the new school, is there any way he could meet people from new school? If there is a local club some pupils go to perhaps he could attend?

Reassure him you will help him maintain contact with existing friends if he goes to the other school.

That may well be the case rafal but someone was misunderstanding what schools have to do for progress measures.

Fair enough. It’s difficult to be helpful if we don’t know what we’re dealing with, though! And when I was dealing with less than ideal schools the appropriate statistics were burned into my brain in lertters of fire.............

Focusing on him getting a 9 Sort f demonstrates the issue. Yes, it looks like progress on paper, but in reality him getting a 9 in year 11 and that being all he had been taught would be an absolute failure by the school.

The question you need to be asking is what they will do in the next couple of years to stretch him beyond the GCSE curriculum. If they can’t give you a fairly specific newer to that then it probably isn’t going to be meeting his needs.

It's UMS Irvine so you don't need to get them all right to get 120. If he is anywhere near as gifted as you say he will get 120.

Op, that is the difficulty with tests and I would hope general progress and interviews would count but I know nothing about the grammar or private system.

OP, you've made your decision, and that's fine. You don't want your ds to go to the local comprehensive. But please don't assume, based on gossip and an assumption that private is always better, that a comprehensive is sink.

I'll repeat this again, as I think it needs saying. If the school is the only local school there will be other bright children. It does sound like your ds is an outlier - but that will be true wherever he goes. However, there will be children surrounding him who will do well, who will go to RG universities, or even Oxbridge.

You need to realise this, as the local school may be the school that your ds will end up attending. And the more negative you are about it, the more likely your ds is to have a negative experience there.

I agree with Shimmer re progress. If DS1 does not get 8/9 in most subjects [9 in a couple the progress needed] the school and him will be deemed as him not making enough progress from starting points.
DS2 a different kettle of fish and will have very different starting pints for progress and the school needs to support all types of children.

Having read threads about irvine’s DS and discussed his maths ability with her, it’s worth pointing out that her DS isn’t ‘120 in Maths SATs bright’ or ‘not really working at KS4 level’. He’s genuinely exceptional, and it won’t even out at A-level. What he really needs is an expert to take an interest in his maths education (at the moment he is teaching himself from the internet). He would be treading water in maths lessons in whatever school he ends up at, but private schools will have access to more resources.