So so so conflicted about secondary school choice

[Bellocy]

Firstly, I'll preface this by saying that I fully recognise how privileged we are to have these choices.

Dd is going into year 5 at a private girls' junior school, which has a secondary on the same site. It's very rare for a child at the junior school not to get into the secondary - they just have to pass the exam and don't have to do an interview - so as dd is very academic, she is effectively guaranteed a place.

Alternatively, we could send her to our local Ofsted oustanding state comprehensive, that she is also almost certain to get into as we can see it from our house.

We've been trying to weigh it up:

Private school pros
- super academic, she'll be surrounded by bright kids like her
- smaller class sizes (max 24) - more individual attention
- incredible facilities - swimming pool, brand new library
- all girls - no disruptive boys

Private school cons
- Coach journey takes 40 minutes each way. She leaves the house at 7:20 each morning
- Huge catchment area - friends all over the place
- All girls - she doesn't have much interaction with boys outside of school as she has two sisters, and her main activity is GirlGuiding; would it mean she won't learn how to interact with boys?

State school pros
- She could leave the house at 8:20 and be on time - more time for sleep
- Get home 1.5 hours earlier (shorter school day) so get homework done sooner, more free time
- Local friends within walking distance
- learning to interact with people of all academic abilities
- If she and her sisters all go state for secondary, we could afford much nicer holidays, can save loads more for them for university/first cars/house deposits

State school cons
- not all the kids there will want to learn, more disruption?
- less focus on the brightest kids, not being stretched as much
- larger class sizes, less individual attention

We have a similar choice to make, but I’ve got to say it’s parents like you that irritate me at ds prep school. Your attitude is the reason why I don’t socialise with a lot of them.
Oh and the very famous all girls independent school in our town has a reputation for being incredibly bitchy. Yes girls can be disruptive too but just more underhand about it.

You'll make your own decision regardless of what I say. However, I teach in an outstanding secondary. It is a school where I can teach - and I've taught in other schools where discipline is a third of the lesson. You don't get results like that at state without being able to teach; remember the whole of society attend a state. I did extremely well at state, many do and I'm sure your dd, with supportive parents will.

I hate long journeys to school. I love friends around the corner who can call to play.

But - you do get better contacts at private and public. That's certainly true of my university and post graduate friends.

Girls do academically better at all girls schools, this is a researched and proven fact.

I have a son but I'm not offended by the reality of single sex education.

I would keep her in the school she’s in and reconsider at sixth form.

The fact that private is all girls would be completely off putting for me. The brightest kids in my sons' secondary (maths/science) are boys. Children need a balance. And girls can be disruptive too, and extremely hierarchical too in that set up I would imagine.

One thing I would be wary of is the ‘ofsted outstanding’. Check when this was awarded and how long it’s been in place. We live in an area that has several outstanding secondary schools. The outstanding was rated in 2012/13. They were re-inspected this academic year and the 3 we looked at have all been downgraded. All 3 are now requires improvement. My children attended one of these. It was a fantastic school when my eldest started there. We were very happy. It’s selcted (but not by academics, Banding) and there are 600-800 applicants for the 160 places. We had noticed many changes over 5 years, academically the school performs well, but so much has changed and slipped. Bullying and behaviour were poor. Staff and management were poor. The teaching overall was still rated ‘good’.
We moved and 2 schools on our list were in exactly the same position. In September they both still advertised as ‘outstanding’ by April, both downgraded and again to requires improvement.
Basically be aware that ofsted outstanding basically means that after this level they receive no further inspections for years and a lot can change and they get complacent.
I would personally go with what feels best but as you’ve listed a school as outstanding I thought I’d add in our very recent experience.