How many high schools do you have to choose from?

[TommyKnocker]

Just wondering really as our options are pretty limited and I'm not sure if it's typical. Realistically there are only two options due to catchment/other criteria for us to choose from. One high school is really poor and the other is ok, not great but just ok. We live in the suburbs of a decent sized city and when I was looking at primaries I had about 6 to select from all being good/excellent. There is an excellent catholic high school which we know we wouldn't get into and one other good but not excellent high school that we are out of catchment for. That's it, there are a few other high schools/colleges but not only would we likely not get in they are not better than our just ok option anyway.

It just seems poor in a city of this size that there aren't more options - we have two universities, lots of brilliant primary schools but limited crap choices for high school. I think part of the problem is probably there seem to be quite a few private schools compared to the number of state schools so there has been less pressure to expand the number of high schools, unfortunately we may become part of this problem and send our kids private.

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Two comprehensive that we're within last admitted distance from, three grammars across two counties, and umpteen private schools if we were prepared to pay. We've also got 3 extremely well regarded primaries locally; we're very lucky where we are in terms of schooling.

We had a choice of one. 8 miles to the next closest schools and so very far out of catchment/ priority, and no direct buses (or buses at all in some cases)

We have 3 that my dd could realistically get into. All within a 40 min walk. (One is 20, 30 and then the 40 min walk)

Then there's another which is same distance but massively oversubscribed, unfortunately this is where the majority of her school will go and we are just out of catchment so no point in looking.

And a Catholic school which is a bus ride away. And a private secondary which we couldn't afford!

I realise we are lucky to have this amount of choice. In terms of ofsted rating, this isn't always the best way to judge. You get a feel for the school when you look around. The one which is highly sought after round here I didnt like and hear negative things about, whereas dd1s secondary isn't highly rated but she is happy, doing well and the uniform isn't so strict she can't express some individuality.

Yours seems fairly typical. We consider ourselves insanely privileged to have 3 options for boys. Technically 3 for girls too but the girls school is a bit further away and we are on the edge of catchment so it really depends on the year. DD wouldn't have got in this year.

Quality wise, the single sex schools are both considered outstanding (with Ousted to match). The co-ed schools more mixed but we're very happy with our choice of co-ed and the other one is in process of a huge improvement programme.

Oh, I forgot about the catholic school as we're not eligible. But if we were catholic, we'd have four. Like I said, insanely lucky.

We have...

• catchment school. (Fixed areas, not distance to school
• Catholic school... if you are Catholic
• Free school with wierd curriculum that allocates by lottery
• schools you aren't in catchment for, so bottom of the list.

We only applied for our catchment school last year.

3 in theory and we're in the catchment for all, but one Catholic (we're not) and one really poor, so only one useful option!

5 I reckon, 2 grammars and 3 comps.

London suburb. Not religious and was only looking at state schools / non selective.

We had 2 schools that we were pretty much guaranteed to get into because of being on our doorstep - one very good, one a bit ropey.

Probably another 4 or 5 good/outstanding schools there was a chance of getting into depending on number of siblings and distance of other applicants that year. My DD did get into one of these - our first choice - on the waiting list just before year 7 started. She’d already been accepted to our second choice, one of the above schools.

We have 10 comprehensives & 1 selective grammar school for boys & 1 for girls. In theory, we are only in catchment for 1 school, but children from our primary have gone to all 12 of the above schools.

We live in a village, there are no secondary schools in the village but there are three smallish towns (in different directions) that are easy to get to by bus. I'd say there are about 6 or 7 schools I could reasonably have put down on my DC's atate school application form (plus a couple of private schools). They're all reasonably good comps.

Realistically, you wouldn't get your top choice though. You can knock out at least 3 or 4 of those as you'd be unlikely to get a place.

@BadgerLovesMash I'm not just going off the Ofsted as I know this doesn't give the full picture, we've started the visits it just feels like there's not really options as such. All of my eldest's class are going to the just ok school because it's the only realistic option other than the awful school.

If we were in a village or outside of a city it would be different but just feels like where we live you should be able to choose from a couple of options that suit your child not just pick the least shit option from two or pay ££ (and we have three kids so £££££ ) and go private.

2 we'd have got a place at under normal criteria, one our catchment, and one we were at a lined primary school for.
Then 1 in the next town that was poor and undersubscribed.

In practice, as many as we could reach by car as they are adopted so have priority.

2 for each child. All 4 of them single sex.

We have three pretty much right next to each other then another 2 that lots from this area go to. One you’ve got to pass the 11 plus and have a musical talent though.

2 walking distance. Within a 3 mile radius maybe another 3 or 4 more. We’ve applied for the one closest to us that’s in the language we want so pretty much guaranteed a place

Where I live, close to the boundary between 3 ‘catchments’ of over-subscribed schools that rank applicants by distance from school, it has not been a question of ‘which schools do I choose’ but ‘which school might take me’.

I was lucky, as with ds is a low birth year one of the schools admitted almost to the edge of the catchment, and dd was admitted as a sibling. Neighbours with children in the year below dd did not get any, and even the historic undersubscribed school filled their places with people who named it somewhere, which our neighbours did not.

So realistically, someone in our house has a choice of 0, but a chance of a place at any of 4 schools if lucky.

1. luckily I’m very happy with my only option.

Annoyingly my children are barred from the other local state school as we’re not religious. I think this is unacceptable but that’s the way it is. I refuse to lie and fake religion to get them in.

Technically 0

We dont get a choice. They go to the catchment school.

If you dont want them to go that school you have to apply for a placing request which a lot of the time is rejected

The English system is batshit imo.

We have one that can be walked to, and one other that would be feasible by bus (but is worse than our catchment school). Other options are a car journey.

It seems to me that secondary schools are getting bigger than they were when I was a kid, but that might just be my impression.

We have 2. We're very rural and slap bang in the middle of two schools.

It's difficult to quantify.

One co-ed school on our doorstep that our primary is a feeder for.
One girls' school a mile away.
Two ropier co-ed schools two miles away each, probably could get in there.
One all-singing all-dancing co-ed school 4 miles away, takes kids by lottery.
Various private schools that I'm hoping not to have to consider.

So 3-4 realistic options, but two are a bit crap?

3 we're likely to get and 2 we might (we do live in a bit of a sweet spot as slap bang in the middle of 4 of them), not including grammars. There's also a catholic school practically on our doorstep but we're not catholic.