Secondary school choices

[Grace204]

We live in a town with one secondary school. It has a bad reputation and results are in the bottom 30% of schools nationally. I have a DD in year 5 and the majority of children from her primary will go to the local school for secondary. She would be able to walk to school with her friends if she went there.
Our other options are to send her to a school in a nearby town where the schools are much better but they are about 20 minutes away. She'd have to get a bus but that is fine.
We've looked round all options and teachers seemed much more engaged in the other schools and not the local one. The pastoral care also seems better.
I'm just wondering whether any mumsnetters have been in a similar situation or could advise what they'd do in this scenario. How important is it to live near to your school friends. Is she likely to feel left out if she goes to school out of town and presumably I'd have to drive her to see any friends.
DD is keen to go to the local school with her friends although she liked the others too when we looked round I'm just concerned the local school won't provide her with a great education even though she'd socially be better off.
Any thoughts much appreciated ! Thanks

20 minutes on bus isn't far. My daughter does the same. You may just need to facilitate friends getting home etc for y7 if they walk to school and are not used to get buses alone. Also in the winter example if you don't want her out in dark.

They learn fast to cope with public transport. Also, depending on the size of the school, it could very well be that she won't be in forms/sets with her current primary school friends and will make new ones.

It's perfectly possible to keep exisiting friendships with some effort on the parent side for the beginning.

At that age parent's concern about education tops staying with friends.

It will depend on whether the one further away is over subscribed too. If it is, you might be low on the list of criteria for admission.

If you look at the admissions for the school in the next town, what is the furthest admitted distance for the past few years? NB the current Y6s are a big birth year round us.
Are you likely to get in?

FWIW, we had a decent chance of getting into 2 outstanding schools. One walking distance (we could see it from the end of the road), and one required a bus. Oldest was adamant he wanted the bus school. Youngest followed him. We have since moved house to walking distance (plus a home office for DH) as busses plus after school was not a good combination. And they are actually proposing cutting the bus service from old house -school so we'd have been totally scuppered.

There is absolutely no disadvantage to putting the further school first. You still have the same possibility of securing a place at the nearer school - and will only loose it if you also qualify for the school named first choice.
Just consider how you would get to school in next town if cuts are made to bus routes.

Thanks all. There are 3 other schools in 3 nearby towns - all 20 mins drive away although presumedly the school buses would take longer than this.
School 1 is faith based and we would qualify for a place based on this so definitely get a place
School 2 is not normally oversubscribed but was last year and likely to be again this year as it improved significantly and therefore more popular
School 3 has never been oversubscribed so chances of getting a place are good.

@CatsOnTheChair I didn't consider what would happen if bus services were cut so thank you for pointing that out. School 2 and 3 are public bus services so could potentially be cut at some point. I also hadn't really considered how dd would get home from any after-school clubs! We have flexible work but I've got a younger one at home too so would have to factor that in.

We live on an estate where nearly all of dd's friends live at the moment so she can walk to their houses after school and at weekend so one of my concerns her feeling left out if all of the children nearby are going to the same school. She doesn't have a mobile phone yet but will do by secondary so I would hope she could still stay friends even if she went to a different school

Get your child into the best school you can, now. Disregard 'friendship groups', how fickle they are. Be prepared to negotiate bus routes, bearing in mind their should be other local parents also not happy with the local high school provision.

Secondary is the lynchpin of future choice (note: I didn't say 'success').

It took me 45-75 mins to get to my grammar in 1973. I am forever grateful.