To wonder why when choosing a school parents go for the easiest option despite it not always being the best choice for their kids.

[Jackpack]

My Ds is due to start high school in September. We put down a catholic school with a great reputation, good feel to it and with excellent ofsted reports and results and for our second choice we put down an equally good community school, both around 2.5 miles away. My Ds does go to Catholic primary so he'll move up with the majority of his friends, most of whom live closer to the school but he'll also have kids in his year that live close by to us as one of our local primaries is a feeder to the secondary, so making friends local shouldn't be a problem.

The reason I chose these two schools is quite simple, the rest in our town are diabolical, in every way imaginable. I wouldn't ever want my child to go there and if we'd have been allocated one of these schools then I'd have quit my job to joke school him. That's how bad they are! So, there are I think seven children in our street in the same year as my Ds so they are going to secondary as well this year. Each of their parents have chosen one of the failing schools to send them to and two of my friends, and a family member have chosen to do the same.

Obviously it is their choice to send their child to whichever school they like but why on earth they have chosen these schools i don't know, but then it dawned on me, because it's easier for them, the parents not the child I mean.

Sending their kids to the nearest school means they won't have to get up early and drive them to school. One of my friends was on Facebook recently raving that she can stay in bed longer come September as she won't have to take her child to school. I mean come on. I realise that a lot of kids do go local and there are certainly advantages to that including walking with friends etc but what's more important, thier kids get to walk to school with friends or that they get a better education. If all the schools in the area are equally as good then o can see why parents would want their kids to go to the local school, but when they're all exceptionally bad why not try for a better school slightly further away. It's just seems like laziness to me.

Have you been enlightened yet op?
As you can see, there are so many variables when it comes to finding a suitable school.
It isnt the business of anyone else to even have an opinion.

I wouldn't allow my children to attend a catholic school. I moved across the city before primary school because I was so concerned about school choices and subsequent secondary schools. The area I live in now has excellent schools up to 18. So I guess in some ways I agree with the op. However I was a single parent then with the resources/cash to move without it affecting my job. I appreciate this isn't an option for every family but I wAs thinking about school choices before dd1 was even born!

As a secondary school pupil I chose to leave the selective private school when it moved sites away for my house, and go to the local comp. Don't regret it one bit. It meant I could get there and back independently, and had much more time for my extracurricular activities compared to if I had had to wait around for buses or lifts. And school friends were local. There are big advantages to a local school for the kids too. (I still got my Oxbridge place.)

Bear in mind also that the friends may be being polite in not telling you the reasons they hated the schools you chose. You may not have heard their real reasons.

Also, as I said when choosing primaries, a lot can change about a school in 5 years, but it's location is unlikely to. In fact, for the schools we were applying to public and ofsted opinion has reversed order since; DS is just finishing year 2!

Oh and incidentally I was bullied far less at the comp.

Jackpack, what are their % of pupil premium children compared with your two choices?

(DfE website will have that information)

Oh don't even start with that rubbish. I'm not about to go digging for Information as it's completely irrelevant to my original post. I assume though becusse you're asking, that you assume all faith schools are full of advantaged, rich kids from privileged families who's parents are all doctors and lawyers. I know the general consensus seems to agree with this but in my dc's school anyway this isn't the case. The families are from a variety of backgrounds, most are obviously Catholic but the majority aren't middle class or wealthy. I know it would be easier for you to think this was the case and that schools cherry pick their students but quite frankly it's crap. You don't have to be rich or middle class to have your child baptised. You don't need to live right near the school (the nice part of town) to get your child into it, therefore people on lower incomes renting further away would stand a good chance of their child securing a place, and finally you don't have to be, well anybody, rich or poor, middle class or working class to go to church every week.

How is the air up there OP on your pedestal whilst you sit looking down upon us all??

I haven't read the whole thread because I honestly CBA.

But I do wonder at all these people who splutter about schools and how they're going to HD their DC.
Unless you're a teacher qualified in Mayjs/Physics/Chemistry/Biology/English/French/Spanish/History/Geography/RE/PE/DT.....add you own

How the feck are you going to accomplise that ?

It's like me saying "Stuff the mechanics, I'll service my own car" when I struggle to put screenwash in.

Mayjs = Maths ,,>

No, I am saying that Ofsted reports are tightly linked to intake - of all schools, not just faith schools, in fact faith schools are the only ones which (slightly) buck the trend that higher FSM = much more likely to be RI or Inadequate.

So if your chosen schools have 10% PP children, and the 'dire' ones have 30%, then actually the Ofsted rating just reflects this difference, and says nothing at all about the school.

target. You clearly have no idea whatsoever about homeschooling.

(A point which I made up thread, and which you have ignored)

I suspect, however, that your absolute refusal to engage with the question means that the schools that you regard as 'good' have many few PP children than those that you regard as 'dire' - otherwise why would you be so defensive?

teacher I said I hadn;t read the thread, so I haven't ignored, I haven't seen it,
But , how do people expect to HS and get their DC through exams ?

I'm a HCP , I couldn't teach my DS through his exams.

And no, I have no idea about homeschooling? Why would I?

You'd have to be mad to think that you could cram all children into two schools and nobody would have to end up with the other four. If some parents are pragmatic and have looked at the options and decided that one of the supposedly inadequate schools actually seems to be OK and has a good strategy in place for dealing with the issues which affect it, and that they are therefore reasonably happy with it, then good for them.

My children are going to the local comprehensive. It does need to improve, but I know a lot of the children who have gone there in the last few years are from educated, engaged families and that encourages me. As a family we value education and I will do everything I can to support the school. I think community is very important and this is something I want to I still in my children. Schools can improve if local families support them rather than ruling them out based on reputations.

Above all though, both my children have a very close group of friends all of whom are bright, courteous, lively children and all of whom will go to this school. I think at secondary age their circle of friends are almost more important than anything else.

As my neighbour OP, no doubt you would just assume I am lazy and don't care.

I hope your child's wonderful school teaches him to treat people with a little more respect than you do.

The point of home schooling isn't to replicate school. In the same way that parents of children at school access tutors to assist their children's learning, so can homeschooling parents. Contact time per child at school is tiny - less than 1 hour per day. Many homeschooling parents manage to teach subjects more effectively just by having the time to do it. And as there's no requirement for homeschooling parents to follow a curriculum or put their children in for exams, the whole set up is radically different.

70, I'm really sorry, I was addressing my points to OP and yours popped up in the middle of them - many apologies for the misunderstanding!

Back to the point of the thread - the main predictor of success in education (worldwide) is level of maternal education, not the school.

Anecdotally, this is absolutely borne out by my own family - I (top private school on 100% scholarship) and my DBros (local state just ex-secondary modern with VERY poor results) all ended up at Oxbridge with identical A-levels.

I think your point might have been wasted anyway, teacher. I don't think the OP is going to properly engage with it since it doesn't back up her point of view.

Yes the schools I am talking about are all rated inadequate by Ofsted

Blimey OP where on EARTH do you live? All rated inadequate...I was going to call you a liar but then I remembered that everyone on here tells the truth

So your mythical area has several secondary schools and all except the Catholic one are rated "inadequate"?

Riiight. I believe you.

I am calling GF and I am certain you posted this same thread previously....either under this name or another one.

As I said,he number of mumsnetters who live in the catchment of inadequate schools is amazing...........b

I think some of them were RI up thread. They must be going downhill quite quickly.

I do live in an area of deprivation. I've never been surrounded by quite as many grade 4 schools as many MNers seem to be.

I don't think you can judge a someone's interest in a good education for their children or their parenting generally by what school their child attends.

But there also seems to be an assumption on this thread that education matters to every parent and every child in a failing school is there because of good reasons. There are loads of parents who have no interest or minimal interest in their children's education either because it isn't a priority for them or they have little interest generally.

Bloody Hell all the schools have a shite rating apart from the Catholic one? Where do you live Craptownshire?