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.

We're equidistant from 4 schools on the edge of a university town, all around 5 miles from us. Allocations are done on distance. Three are good but oversubscribed, and we are too far away or not Catholic enough to get in. The fourth requires improvement and had 2% of children achieving grade 5 in maths in the last published data. It has a tough catchment, which i could live with, but also a negative progress 8.

We are trying to move. Economic climate absolutely not helping.

1 there are others but would involve a 45 minute drive by me so that isn’t happening.

1 catchment but it won't be one of my 4! 2 others that should be a yes. 1 grammar if you pass. All of them will be an hour travel with train / bus as we are rural. 2 more that we are out of catchment but usually undersubscribed, both nearer than the other 2 but travel is impractical as I work. Another grammar I work at so could get kids in on that basis, way out of catchment though!

I'm in Scotland where every school catchment area has a non denominational and one Catholic school.You can apply for an out of catchment placement but places aren't guaranteed.

7 or 8 off the top of my head, but children are baptised catholic, attend C of E church and took the 11+ so could almost go anywhere!

Technically we have 9 state and several private schools that my DC's classmates will/have attended,
Outstanding Faith school,
Two comps with terrible reputations,
Two outstanding schools out of catchment for us,
Three ok schools out of catchment for us,
Welsh medium ok school,
Private.

Realistically it's not a choice as we'll get the closest comp with a bad reputation, in and out of special measures.
Faith school is out unless we change Faith or lie,
Out of catchment outstanding, both oversubscribed and seems pointless applying as we don't have good grounds to appeal,
Same with OK out of catchment schools,
Welsh medium, we don't speak Welsh and DC have no desire to do the intensive immersion programme,
Further away rubbish comp is probably worse than closest rubbish comp,
Private is financially not an issue but I don't really approve of it and DH is the rags to riches type who really doesn't approve. They are also quite far away.

So we will take the rubbish comp plus lots of extra curricular activities and tuition if needed. Older DC did well enough that way.

Suburb close to Manchester city centre and we've got a good choice of decent schools. We have three high schools (one all girls) that we'd be close enough to most years.

Local Catholic high school is under-subscribed so could be an option if we wanted, even though we're not Catholic.

There's an academy school with a strange selection policy that offers some places on distance, some on language aptitude and some by lottery in bands based on a test.

Also border an authority with grammar schools and our postcode is included in the catchment for the closest one.

Reported as on the wrong thread.

We have 1 realistically, and then a grammar school which is a fair drive away but we're just in the catchment for

Bit of a mixed bag then. Lots of people seem to be in our situation where there isn't really a choice and some seem to have a few options. I do think the high school system in this country is poor. Considering we seem to have a decent amount of good primaries (I know not for all) and good universities.

One that's great and thank fuck DH teaches there so we got in, otherwise they're all a bit shit unless you can get them through 11+ into an out of county grammar

Yes, it's terrible. I have written to my MP about it, but just got a general response.

1 grammar for each sex then 3 comps. Two of the comps don't have 6th form though so post -16 is trickier as colleges are all miles away.

There are about 8 secondary schools that children from my dc's primary regularly go to, and 2 grammars. 4 of them being more popular then the other 4 as they are closest. None of them are amazing or over-subscribed, only one of them is pretty rubbish, but is the one that most kids go to as its the catchment school and only walkable one.

1

Two local secondary schools in the catchment area. One absolutely awful, the other ok. One C of E school which requires regular church attendance, signed off by the vicar. And two private schools, which I really wish we could stretch to financially but unfortunately that isn’t going to happen.

So we either start going to church and hope that the vicar will sign our form, or we go with the “mostly ok” school.

1, we're in Scotland. The next closest is 10 miles away.

2 if you include the private school.

Realistically we had 3, one walking distance, one by public bus (we chose that) or the Catholic school because the school bus route stopped on our street.

There was a private school in walking distance and a private school bus route (different) on my street.

Everyone got their choice as far as I'm aware

One here.

Theoretically several, but the nearest one is 10 mins walk and all the others are several bus rides away (and therefore several hours) even though not far as the crow flies. We are rural-ish.
DH and I work so bus would be only option for the DCs none of us like getting up at 6am

We live in a large town (city size) and there are a total of 11 secondaries I think in the town itself, and then 4 more in smaller towns around.
Then there are 7 grammar schools in the neighbouring county that you can access if you pass the 11+
So potentially a total of 21.

Pretty much all the schools would be possible. None are oversubscribed. Some you might end up on the waiting list, but would get in by september, and one I think is now too popular, so we wouldn't get it.

The problem is that all 11 in our town are crap. There is one good one, it is catholic, and very catholic, so I wouldn't want to use that. There are 2-3 that are OK, but not amazing. At least 5 of them have been in special measures at some point in the last 10 years. 2 are new and have no results yet (one of those is potentially good, the other I know people who have removed their kids due to bullying)
The 4 in the outlying towns are better. One of those is the popular one, that we wouldn't get into, one is also crap, so that gives us 2 decent schools to choose from. And while one of those is good on paper, I really disliked it when we went round and I have heard there are big bullying problems there. That leaves 1.

On that basis we put our kids into the 11+ and they travel out of county.

So lots of schools does not mean lots of decent schools.

Realistically 1 comp and 2 grammars that are 12 miles away. Only one shot at the grammars though as they operate a joint test. The local comp is not brilliant and I was very disappointed with it when we went round.