Would you turn down this State school for an independent school? (a bit long!)

But most foreign holidays don't really improve your language skills that much, confidence possibly.
I'd go for your ds's choice tbh.

I'm still plumping for the independent choice in this case. You don't know what may happen in two years - your ds2 might get a scholarship, as you said you could possibly get a better job, lots of things may come along to change your circumstances. Dh and I are having the small mental struggle at the moment but in our case, our default state school has just been OFSTEDed and had all 1's (without exception) and has a far higher percentage of A-C grades than your local comp. However, we still struggle with the fact that when we visited the local comp we were shown around by a couple of perfectly pleasant, but giggling, girls whom you really couldn't imagine being anywhere near ready to hit the world of work. Whereas, our favoured independent school seemed to be stuffed to the gills with bright, motivated, polite, intelligent young men, any of whom I felt I would like my ds to grown into. But it is a horribly complicated and expensive decision to make. We also have two ds and like you will struggle with the second set of fees.

Ah, cross-post. Tbh if ds wants to go, and has got a place, then this discussion is at least 6 months too late isn't it?

I'd really worry about the science thing if my dc seemed into it at all. I know you can catch up from double award science, but doing 3 science A levels after double award would be REALLY tricky. I'd worry about science much more than languages (agree w snorkle, you could have lots of foreign holidays for that, or extra lessons...)
I am DREADING these decisions...

Tell us more about your son - what are his strength and weaknesses?

Tbh a single statistic doesn't really give you a feel for what the experience of your child would be. It may be the case that he would automatically be in the top set at the state school where the average outcome could be 10 GCSEs at A/A*.

I think that you need to be able to assess roughly where within the range your ds would come academically in each school, and how would this impact his experience of the school. For example, lower streams in independent schools do not always get the best teachers. And what about extra-curricular stuff, sport, music, drama, cimmunity service etc. Apart from the academic results the single thing that depressed me most about our local comp was the very small number of pupils taking music lessons.

Not having separate sciences isn't necessarily a disaster - I know children who have done double science GCSE then gone on to be vets/doctors or whatever.

Language provision - that would bother me. Why isn't it great, in what way does it fall short?

The 53% pass rate would not necessarily bother me - if that school is taking the whole range of pupils (and their parents!), then by definition it will not get the same results as a school selecting by ability to pay and ability of the child. Doesn't mean the school is a poor one.

Finances - you seem doubtful about this. If you honestly feel you could not offer the same chance to both your children, I think you have to think long and hard about letting your son go there.

The fact that you are concerned and supportive and that your son is obviously bright means he will be in a privileged position wherever he goes, and there is no reason to suppose he will not do well wherever he goes.

Duel science is fine for science degrees and medicine so not an issue. Languages granted - but for the fees saved you could holiday abroad probably several times a year and compensate for the poor provision with real life practice!

On balance you are right snorkle but from what queenmeabh says, even the brightest children at the local state school are not well served by either the science or the languages curriculum
Those are two big core areas of learning to be underresourced for an academically bright child

No separate sciences...could be tricky if ds wants to be a doctor or vet
Poor language provision that would clinch it for me I'm afraid
53% A-Cs, also, as annh says, that's not great.
I would be thinking hard about that independent place, tbh
Never mind your dh, what does your ds think?

Your local comp is a lot better than ours but it's an interesting thought as to where you draw the line as to what is good enough. My thoughts are that it depends a fair bit on your child as some children at independent schools make a lot more use of the facilities than others. For instance, if your child is very sporty, then having lots of teams and sports facilities is great, but many children don't gain much from great sports facilities as they're just not interested. Similarly if your child is very into music or drama then they will probably benefit more from the add-ons at the independent school. If your child is fairly bright and likely to be in the top set at the comp. then they will probably do well there, if your child is likely to be in one of the lower sets where the behaviour is more challenging then maybe the independent with smaller classes might suit better.

School fees always seem to go up more than you expect year on year.

I think it really comes down to finances. Can you comfortably afford the fees and the extras? Will you be able to afford for ds to go on the school trips that come up? Will it be a struggle for you to go on holiday as a family?

I would take the independent option in this case. A 53% A*-C pass rate in GCSE means that almost half the children will not receive what the government terms an acceptable level of education and what many parents and employers would still consider the bare minimum.

I think this depends largely on your child. If he is intelligent and motivated to work and achieve his best then it is likely that he will do well wherever he was placed. I went to a comprehensive and my work ethic got me through even though the school had fairly low expectations of their pupils.

Although I know you are talking about secondary level my ds goes to an independant prep school because I took the view that he would not achieve his best without smaller class sizes. He is easily distracted and not vastly motivated to work. Had I had dd first she would definitely have gone to the state alternative as she is much more motivated and has a desire to please that was absent in ds when we were looking for schools for him.