What value is there in going to a secondary school which specialises in a particular subject your child is good at ?

[whitecloud]

Dilemna - the nearest secondary school to us does not specialise in sport, which my dd loves, but the one furthest away does. It would be good if she could go to school 1 and walk there with friends. Does anyone have experience of their children going to a specialising school - was it worth it or was it very competitive to get into teams for sport, for example ? The school near us is fine for sport, I hear. I wonder if dd would be better being a big fish in a small pond. Does anyone have experience of pros and cons ? Thanks.

bumping as am interested. Only experience is as an aunt - my nieces go to a specialist sports college and my bruv and SIL hate it because it's compulsory to do GCSE physical education which they would prefer that she didn't. I don't know if that's normal. Based on that I'd say go for the closer one but as I say it's not my direct experience.

My children go to a 'Specialist Sports College'. None of them are particularly good at sport, in fact the younger one has a chronic medical condition which means that she doesn't participate fully in PE.

The reason that they attend/ed the school is because it's our catchment school and the 'better' school in the area, also our other preferred school is in another LEA and we wouldn't have got a place. Ds1 has completed his GCSE's and left now. He got a C in PE despite not being sporty as quite a proportion of the qualification relates to Human Phys & Health. The school offer other sports related qualifications too, in Dance and at BTEC level.

IME 'specialist' status means the school has had quite a bit of money thrown at it and not all of it has been spent in the PE dept.

Whitecloud - will you actually get a choice? In our area places are still allocated by catchment and the school cannot choose children from outside the catchment just because they have a preference or a talent for a particular subject.

I think it's an odd arrangement as in our area there is one of each eg science, arts, sport and the main difference is that it means you have to pick gcses in the specialist subject (more than one)regardless of your inclination..i think it's mad

Hi whitecloud. I think some of the specialist schools are partially selective, in that a proportion of their kids get in because thay are good at the specialism? So your dd might have to pass some kind of sports test to get in as one of those pupils, which is worth bearing in mind. Sometimes only the children who get in via this route reap the benefits of extra specialist teaching. At other schools all pupils spend greater than average time studying the specialist subject. It's worth clarifying how it all works with the school.

But it's mainly a dosh thing I think. Schools develop a specialism to attract extra funding. This may mean that some schools have rather tick box specialisms as opposed to an absolute passion for the subject. My guess would therefore be that a specialism alone does not necessarily make a great school. Have you been to open days/evenings at both to see what you think? I won't be at this stage for a while yet but personally would need a very strong reason to bypass a good local school within walking distance where my children had some friends.

Lastly, but I think importantly, where does your daughter want to go? Choosing a secondary school is clearly a parent's job but I really believe that at 10/11 your child's views should carry great weight and influence your choice as far as practicable. If you're faced with a choice between 2 equally good schools and can't decide it may be that your dd can provide you with the final answer. Good luck.

unless she's a potential olympic athlete I would choose on other grounds, like where her friends will be and what the schools are like when you visit.

You may not have much choice anyway, depending on catchment areas. Of course you could go to appeal but I doubt tis worth the hassle.

I hate this system. All schools have to specialise to get extra money yet parents really have very little choice about sending their child to a "specialist" school that may not suit them. If we hadn't moved the children would have had to study 3 languages when they have no aptitiude for languages at all!

our catchment school is a specialist sports college but I chose to send dd to a language college instead which also happens to be a higher achieving school within the borough. I think it is a funding issue for some specialist schools. Im v happy with the language college as dd is now doing German and Spanish out of a choice of german, spanish, italian, french and chinese and has already been to germany with a possible trip to Spain later in her school life.

oh and possible latin which horrifies her

tricky dilemma.
I think I would go with the shorter journey to the nearer school, on the grounds that its less stressful and being a teenager is pretty stressful anyway.
My parents sent me to a high achieving school with a long commute. I ended up as a high achiever with a candida infection and depression from the stress of it all, which I am sure was not what they had in mind at the start

Thank you all so much for advice. We are going to look at the further school on Thursday, so will bear in mind what you said and questions to ask. My gut feeling is the nearer school would be better, but dd wants to look at both - good way to make an informed choice. Nightynight, I can identify with your experiences - I had to go a long way to school because there wasn't one in my town - I lived a long way from friends and it did get lonely. A big consideration for us because dd is an only child. We might not get a choice anyway - I agree it is dishonest for the government to go on about it when it doesn't really exist.

in the opposite position here, but will offer my opinion FWIW
DS's grammar school is sports specialist.
He is woeful at sports - but brilliant academically, we decided it was still the best option for him, as it has a superb academic record. He does have to do rugby but hey, he'll live

If she's a potential olympic athlete, I'd choose the one which had least travelling, regardless of how good the school sport is to give more time for training required outside school.

Also those potential star athletes/sportspeople may find htat a comeptitive school places a lot of pressure on them to compete for the school which may conflict with their outside commitments. E.g. friend whose son is star rugby player - his school wanted him on first team for their big match of the season on the Sat; scouts were coming to view his club team on Sun. His mum was adamant he should not play for school because it would affect his Sunday perf; school were adamant he should play for them....

whitecloud - yes! being isolated from schoolfriends is huge. Can see that a parent might find it preferable at times though[thoughtful emoticon]