DD is moving to high school next year, and we are struggling to decide between her catchment high school and a private school. The catchment high school is pretty good and I think she would get a good education there, but it's huge and I feel she would get lost in the crowd a bit. She's bright but doesn't push herself that much and I feel won't be stretched that much. At a private school, I think she would get a bit more individual attention. One of the private school options is also large but they have more staff; the other one is much smaller. Money isn't too much of a consideration - it would be great not to pay out all that cash but we can afford it and my main priority is DD's education.
DD wants to go to the catchment high school as that's where most of her friends are going, but I think she will make new friends pretty soon either way. But I don't want her always regretting that she wasn't allowed to go ..!
Another factor is that DS, two years younger, may not be able to go to the same school because of catchment changes - his state school option may be considerably worse, in which case we would be pretty likely to consider private for him - but I really want them to have equality in education.
I'm finding it really hard to make the decision! If anyone has any thoughts on a good private school v a good state school, it would be helpful to hear them.