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.

Surely it's a rare parent who wants to drive their child to and from secondary school for five years?

Total madness, and almost impossible to fit around a normal working life.

If that's what you've committed to for the next few years, I can quite see that you want to feel like everyone else has made the mistake, not you!

PS: I have no axe to grind here. I'm driving one of my own kids daily. Bloody wish I wasn't, though.

Yeah, but you've said 'it dawned on you' - that basically means you've just got some random idea in your head. LOADS of people here have given alternative viewpoints. The inflexibility in your thinking makes you look thick and the way you're keen to judge others makes you look small minded.

You don't need to mention the faith thing because I'm not discussing it further. My Ds would have definitely got into the community school if he hadn't have got into the catholic school. I was happy with either. I found it very difficulty to decided between the two and ultimately I trusted my Ds's judgement and he asked for me to put the Catholic school first as he preferred it. Oh o will say this though. He's not been "indoctrinated" he believes in God and goes to church occasionally hair like 90% of the other kids and parents but that's it. He's not forced to believe anything and i don't expect him to just go along with what me, his dad and school tbibk without him questioning it, which he does sometimes. He's got his own mind.

Regardless of how good it was, there's no way I'd send my child to a faith school. I just wouldn't.

Fun story: I went to an OFSTED outstanding school was mercilessly bullied for years by the kids, ridiculed by teachers and developed mental health problems that I'm still to this day struggling with.

Ofsted Smoshted!

I'm going to put down faith schools. I'm a Christian and would have been happy for my DD to attend a faith school. However, she has a disability that means she isn't going to be a top academic performer. No behavioural issues but extra support required. The CofE and Catholic schools we visited (4 total) made it clear they were far more interested in preserving their good reputations and test results than in welcoming and nurturing DD. They were varying degrees of rude and discriminatory, often in front of other parents. I was totally let down. Unless you know all of these other parents intimately, bear in mind that there could be any number of reasons for their choice of school, and not everyone will want to share the real reason with you.

My friend is an ofsted inspector and has purposely sent his dc to their local school, which is on special measures. They get more funding amd more support than 'good' schools.

Also, did you serious call home school 'joke' school?!

So you asked all 10 parents you previously said are sending their kids to this awful school why they chose it? Yep, you definitely need to be less of a nosey bugger get a hobby

Well the way my hours at work fall and my dh's will mean i will drop off our Ds of a morning but I have to drop my youngest off at primary anyway that's round the corner from the secondary so it will work well. But at home time he will get the bus with friends. My point is if he went to the local dire school I wouldn't have to drop him off at all and he wouldn't need to get the bus but we chose the best option for him not the easiest.

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.

This doesn't imply causality - it may just be a happy outcome of the child being allocated that school.

Also, the religious element is a major factor. I'm Jewish and my partner is Russian Orthodox. I'd rather homeschool that send my child to a school that actively promoted Catholic values.

I don't care whether you'd ever chose to send your child to a faith school, really I don't. I chose to send my dc as I felt it was a lovely school with good pastoral care, the staff are amazing and so what if they learn about God. Every school has Re lessons it's just that at my dc's school they do two thirty second prayers a day and have a couple of assembles each year that are optional to participate in (some non Catholic kids don't).

What makes a school "dire"?

You've asked a question. Posters have answered. You don't like the answers so are refusing to listen/engage.

Not a very productive debate style.

I don't think you're grasping this. You're assuming that parents are sending their kids to the nearest school because it is easier for them and they are lazy. Others are saying, maybe it is because they don't want their kids going to a faith school.

Obviously you feel different - that is fine. But (I will speak slowly) you weren't asking about your reasons, you were asking about Other People's reasons, and you've got suggestions about what those reasons might be.

Read this through a few times. Out loud, if you have to. It might help.

I don't care whether you'd ever chose to send your child to a faith school, really I don't

Its an answer to the question. That you asked.

Did I say the school my DC is going to is outstanding, did I. Actually it's rated good. Oh and know, he joke school should have said home school. It auto corrected, sorry.

It is rare that parents drive their kids to secondary school.

But i remember the horros of getting on the school bus with aload of little shits and i hated it!

If my dd hated getting the school bus and public buses meant 2 buses each way then i would drive her. Obviously if work commitments meant i couldnt then that would be different but i would drive her without a doubt if i could.

A friend of mine drove her son to and from school every day for 5 years as he wouldnt get on the school bus. She worked her shifts around this.

But you did choose an easy enough option.

They probably just don't love their kids as much as you do yours.

Are you Peter Andre?

I'm bowing out. It's like trying to explain physics to a three year old. Except there would be a point to that.

I am engaging I assure you I am. But I've already said I don't want to discuss the faith aspect as it's irrelevant. I'd still think the same if my Ds had been allocated the community school as opposed to the Catholic one.

How do you define dire though? I visited around 7-8 schools when I was deciding where to send mine, a combination of state vs private and ranging from OFSTED outstanding to improvement required. Ultimately we went private as we felt it was the best option for our dc, but our second choice was the improvement required school which had just become an academy (and 3 years on is now outstanding so would have been the right choice). A couple of the outstanding schools would have been all wrong for our dc. I was staggered when in one, a reception child came up and whacked the headmaster who was showing me round, on the arse.

Children are different and what's right for one may be all wrong for another.

Why do you feel the faith aspect is irrelevant to the other parents please jet pack

A couple of assemblies a year? There will be a fuckton more bible bashing than that.