To move child in the last term of year 6

[Relaxaholic]

Hi- my DD has been offered a place in an outstanding state primary school where her sibling attends. She currently attends an academy which has been struggling a bit and which has no secondary feeder option. The outstanding primary feeds into an excellent catholic secondary school.

I am really torn about whether to move her to a new school at this stage. She is a popular girl and has really lovely friends at her current school. She is happy. But I am tempted by the move because our current secondary options are not very good and she is probably also underperforming at her current school. The new school will be better at preparing her for SATs which will help her going into secondary.

AIBU to be considering this?

@Tumbleweed44

Confirmed children have top priority to get in, but then there is a ranking for non confirmed children to be admitted as well. So we don’t need to have her confirmed in order to get in, provided she is at the new primary. Her sister is at the new primary, not the secondary yet

We moved house when DD was in year 5 and so she moved school - best thing ever, she moved in the November so had two school years almost - she was so much happier in the new school and primary is now a positive memory. A year in a child's life is a long time. If it's going to be a better year then go for it, with thought about secondary school and friends and the impact on that transition.

So the admissions criteria are (roughly) in order or priority

1. Catholic children
2. Children attending feeder schools (where DD would be in new school)
3. Children in catchment
4. Everyone else? (DD in current school)

i.e. being at the specific primary school trumps being in catchment?

Sorry to labour the point, but I've seen too many threads on MN where people have "assumed" things based on what's happened in previous years and not checked actual criteria. Didn't want you to move your DC and then find she still didn't get a secondary school place.

I'd also suggest that you should take things you've "heard" about your local comprehensive with a pinch of salt. I've "heard" all manner of things about my DC's schools, most of them either wildly out of date, or entirely inaccurate or some combination of these.

@RedSkyDelights

That’s nearly right, except after 1., catholic primaries have priority. Then the primary my DD is considering is next on the list. Attending the specific primary does trump catchment generally.

The information I have about what has happened in reality is based on a discussion with a parent whose child was accepted into the Catholic secondary and started this year. I don’t have raw data however. There is definitely some uncertainty around this.

@Tumbleweed44

I hadn’t made up my mind before posting, which is why I posted this AIBU. I am flip flopping because, while my head says the move is right, I am worried that once my DD has thought it through a bit more she will be resistant. I don’t think I will force her to move if she is firmly against the change but want to get this straight in my mind first. However if she is only concerned about missing the residential and otherwise not bothered, then I am minded to move her to the new primary.

There's likely a Year 6 residential in the new school - most schools do this as a SATS reward. Can you check?

Either way I'd take the new place as it might not come up again.

@roses2 there is a residential at the new school but it is in the UK with activities like raft building, climbing, water sports, etc. The one at her current school involves going to a European city and then a major amusement park (think Disney). We didn’t have anything like that when I was at school!

I wouldn't even be having this conversation with her in a way that implies she has a choice. She's 10, she doesn't have capacity to make decisions that look at the full life picture, hence her desire to stay for the residential.

If she is def going to the catholic secondary school, move her.

And sorry if this comes across like I'm giving you a tone, I don't mean to!

I'd be looking very carefully at the historical data on intake and never take anyone else's word. People don't always remember correctly.

A lot of false information about SATs here. The data from the exams determines the end goal points for GCSE that the school need to get the child to in order to show neutral or, hopefully, positive progress. Because the "Progress 8" measure is a key metric as to how a secondary school is judged, this means SATs results can affect a range of things, including but not limited to:

• the classes, sets and band a child is placed in,
• the teachers assigned to that class (and their relative quality),
• whether they are eligible for any additional boosts or support,
• whether they are a focus child for the teacher,
• whether they get taught the content leading to "higher maths", or, in some settings, whether they get the option of Triple Science.

This all happens behind the scenes: parents don't know about it and, really, most teachers don't either. But the data managers and progress leads do.

Unless you move house, you’ll still be out of catchment though.

I don’t have raw data however. There is definitely some uncertainty around this

I would NOT move my child unless I was 95% sure that the move would allow her access to the good secondary school

If it really is just because of the residential then fair enough. But if she comes back with more reasons such as her friends being there, then I would really hesitate to force her to move.

Academic achievement is important but social development is more important, I think. Growing up with self-confidence and feeling secure in relation to others will stand her in good stead for life over and above what grades she might get. Moving a kid to a new school where most other kids have already been there for over 3 years, could be too much for her socially. It depends on how confident and secure she is now, I guess, in terms of how much it might affect her.

On the other hand, if she is clever then she will probably enjoy a good secondary school much more than she would enjoy going to a crappy one. I was bored shitless at my comprehensive and my parents refused to let me go to a grammar school, partly because of the social thing. But I believe they should have let me go because spending all day miserable with boredom is terrible for a kid's mental health, and I didn't get on socially at the comprehensive anyway so it was lose-lose.

So if she considers that side of things, the benefit of a good secondary, then she might choose to make the move, as an investment in her future. In that case I would make sure she has lots of opportunities to see her old friends, hang out with extended family etc and make it clear you are there for support, you and other adults perhaps, if it gets difficult.

Not to suggest you wouldn't be doing all of that as a matter of course anyway.

This too.

It's a high price to pay for a gamble.

Your LEA probably post some statistics about school admissions. That will include how many children got into what school under what criteria and how far out the last child admitted was. If you look now you'll get last year's admissions, and this year's will be available soon (after national offer day).

Of course it will vary year on year, but that will give you 2 year's worth of data which will at least give you an idea as to whether it is probable/possible/unlikely.

I'd err towards moving her. If she's a friendly popular girl chances are she'll make new friends easily enough. Tbh primary school friends are important in situ and at the time but rarely persist unless there are other anchors like hobbies/clubs.

In your position I would move her to ensure she got into a good secondary school.