Moving from London to Cheltenham with Y9 DD

[Nevermindthesquirrels]

Are we being unreasonable? DD is 13 and isn't happy as she loves her school. Although the school is lovely, she really needs more support and is unlikely to get any GCSEs if she stays here. Her current EHCP is great but she will likely be moving to a dyslexia school in the Cheltenham area.
She is excited to get a dog as we will be moving from a flat to a 4 bed house.
I have seen many threads showing how damaged kids have been when moving at this stage in their lives so I just wanted to see if the general consensus is that we are being unreasonable? She has just started Y9.
As far as I can see:
Pros-
Better school
Bigger house
Safer
Lots more outdoor activities we won't have to drive so far too (mainly mountain biking which she loves)

Cons:
New friends
Know very few people there but have some old friends we can rekindle things with.
New school

Our jobs are from home so no change there. We can afford to pay for train fares for her to travel back to London to see friends. I assume this will be quite often in the beginning.

Any advice? Should we suck it up and move at 16?

@Kjr33 Alderman knights website says it's for moderate and complex SEN. My DD would not fit their criteria in the slightest.

[quote Nevermindthesquirrels]@Washeduponthebeach There's really nothing on the market there.
We have been chatting tonight as the Worcester comments threw a spanner in the works. I'm going to chat with Bowbrook about post 16 options that the kids take. I don't want to have to move again for that or make her travel really far at a point where she really does need to be independent. If we decide on Cheltenham, she can go to Bredon and stay there for sixth form or she can go to Hartpury College if she's still very keen on that type of course. I will definitely speak to Bowbrook though and take their advice.
The middle ground is Tewksbury but I've done a Google Street view tour and it seems so tiny. She could go to either from there.[/quote]
Pershore High School is a good option for post 16. My next door neighbour ‘s daughter did that after Bowbrook. It worked really well. My experience was good with Pershore High too. Could you buy in Drakes Broughton or Pershore? Where do you intend working?

I second those saying Tewkesbury and Gloucester are to be avoided.

@Kjr33 I thought that would be the case. We will see how it goes. She has 3 trial days at Bowbrook. We will do one in train and 2 by car and see how we go. If it doesn't work it's either Bredon or back to Balcarras to see if they might want to actually use their lovely learning support building.

Pershore also has a direct train to London. Buses to Worcester .

Bredon and Balcarras are both good schools.

@Washeduponthebeach thank you for that. Just had a look at their sixth form prospectus. It doesn't have many vocational courses but otherwise looks great.
We work from home and always have so that doesn't really matter. We have a pretty good budget so the buying isn't the problem, it's finding the school and then the house. I also don't want to buy out of the city and from what I can see in Worcester the city isn't all that nice, it's the outskirts that are lovely. I don't know why but my heart is swaying me towards Cheltenham more. We are going to view a house in Worcester on the weekend so might change my mind.

Did you consider Rendcomb? I always thought that had a good reputation for learning support/pastoral care? But maybe I’m wrong?

I never liked Worcester much either. It’s a bit meh . Sorry to those who love it. However I also found Cheltenham soulless. Yes, it looks pretty but has no real heart.

@Washeduponthebeach neither does London 😂 I really don't like it here. Some places are lovely but all the nice people have had to move due to house prices. It's just not what it was when I was growing up.
@Bayleaf25 yup 😂 they have Saturday school. We also looked at sibford.

It’s a difficult one because I think the grammar system in Gloucestershire kind of messes up the overall system a bit so maybe there are fewer private schools or fewer specialist schools? It might mean some of the Comps are really good at dealing with sen issues though? Like I said my knowledge isn’t first hand on the specific schools…..the traffic however I definitely know all about unfortunately!

Another option might be Kings Hawford.
Small and gentle school just outside Worcester. The problem then is where she should go for Secondary.

I moved schools half way through year 8 and it was really hard for me as I was very shy. We moved from London suburbs to Stroud and although at the time it was really hard for me. I can see it was all for the best and I loved growing up here and it's where I've chosen to stay and have a family. Cheltenham has some lovely areas to live in.

@Kjr33 the biggest problem is that there really isn't enough schools for kids like my daughter... anywhere. And there are a loot of kids like my DD. They are kids who can manage in mainstream and are capable of getting age expected qualifications but will not cope with a 30 person class. If that class was taught in a dyslexia friendly way they probably could but it's not. These kids equally are too advanced for special schools. Most often, special schools would also not suit them socially.
As an example my DD was completely failing maths. Her school used the covid money to create a class of 4 kids. They were all very dyslexic and had massive gaps. They were doing the exact same lessons as the class next door of 27 kids. My DD was in this class from when schools reopened to end of the school year. She passed that end of term test with 48/52 marks. She'd never got more than 5/50 on an end of term test before.
This is just not something that most mainstream schools can provide.
The special schools like bredon have a very difficult job in deciding which borderline mainstream/Sen child you choose. So when I go to look at a school like that, I look at the year group my DD would be in, not even the school as a whole, as that is the biggest factor of her social and academic experience there.

I would really factor in journey time, if she's too tired to truly benefit from the school it won't be a good fit for her. I love Worcester! So I am slightly biased, but I know very little about Bowbrook but have heard good things about Bredon.

Trust your gut and you won't go far wrong!

@Washeduponthebeach she's in Year 9 already sadly 😂😂

@CloudsandTeacups I agree completely. In a dream world she'd go to Balcarras as on paper they have everything she needs but my gut just doesn't like the place.
Although Bredon is far, she's on a school coach with no problems around delays, traffic etc. If the bus is late, everyone is! That puts my mind at ease a lot.

@Cotswoldmama that's so lovely to hear!

Alderman Knight School caters for some children with quite severe SEN. Tewkesbury itself is nice enough but not very exciting. Cheltenham would be a better choice. (taught in Tewkesbury for a number of years)

What about Sibford school near chipping Norton , lovely school great SEN provision.

@HarrietPierce thank you, that's actually very helpful. I though so too.. I think a lot of people mistakenly assume all special schools are the same.
I don't know of any state dyslexia special schools.

@littlefireseverywhere I mentioned a little earlier that we looked at it alongside Redcomb. It was lovely but way too far.

Sorry, just saw that, however if you want a complete change the villages around chipping Norton are wonderful. However, I hope the trial days go well at the new school.

Might this specialist dyslexia school in Bristol be suitable? belgrave-school.website/

Bowbrook only goes up to 16 and I imagine a lot of the pupils would go on to the 6th form college at Worcester or perhaps Hartpury College. Bredon caters for 6th form and seems to offer a good range of options including A levels and BTECH.

I'm a Londoner living in Cheltenham with a dyslexic ds. Most of the nice parts of Cheltenham are to the south of the town centre which does make a journey up north a bit of a chore. If I was aiming for those schools then I would live in Pershore, but appreciate that would probably be too sleepy for you. Balcarras has a great reputation in general, but I'm not aware of it being great for sen. I may be mistaken though.
As an alternative, how about Appleford school near Salisbury? I don't have any personal experience of it, but if looks like the right sort of place and also a bit nearer London.