Why do people really move for schools?

[benetint]

A great number of people I have met have moved house to get their kids into a 'better' school. But is this really necessary? Surely all schools employ teachers with similar ranges of qualifications and experience? What does better really mean? Is it ofsted that draws people to another area? Or league tables? Or do people think expensive area = great school? Are people moving to avoid schools with high numbers of eal/fsms? Or are people moving to avoid the kind of kids they wouldn't want their own playing with?

I moved for schools, with good reason.
DS's first school took a year to accept his deafness and do basic things like make sure he could see faces when talking to him (so he could lip read).
Ofsted put the school in special measures, re-inspected and kept it in special measures three further times , replaced the head teacher (the replacement was shared between them and another school).
Bullying was rife and unchallenged, I saw children leaving the school grounds during the school day without an adult, I once collected DS from school and couldn't find a single supervising adult to tell that I was taking him (he was 4yo at the time).
I moved to Trafford, both DCs are in lovely schools (2 different schools but that's another story) which meet their individual needs and nurture them socially and educationally.

Do you have children at school OP?

We have had experience of a large number of schools and there is a world of difference between a good school and a bad one. We were lucky enough to send our older kids to school when you applied direct to the school and not through the LA so when we found that our kids primary was rubbish and getting worse we moved them. (as an example we found out in the very last week of Y2 that our DC4 had spent the whole term outside the HT's office, and they hadn't said a word to us)

Depends what you want as a parent though.

There is far more to a school than the teachers' qualifications and experience.

How about the Head Teacher? She/he can make a huge difference to the ethos of a school. What about bullying? (School policies may be similar but the practice can be very different.) What about intake? What are the parenting skills of the pupils' parents and how will this affect discipline and learning? Are the children coming in with no breakfast after having no dinner the night before because their parents were too drunk to bother? Do said children have meltdowns, swear at their teachers and throw chairs? And what happens if they do?

Then there's the facilities. Any sports pitches on site? Out of date science equipment? Overcrowded classrooms so teaching has to be done in corridors? If you're at secondary, what are the possible subject choices? If primary, is there an after school club should you need one?

So many things for schools to differ on!

A few years back I spent a while covering mainly education stories (ex-journo)

So I went into a LOT of different schools. Most of the primary schools ranged from ok to utterly brilliant - and it didn't seem to make much difference where they were situated, in fact some of the most vibrant schools were in areas which on paper were much more troubled than other areas. However there were some which were either downright uninspiring or obviously had major problems of one kind or another

But it was at secondary that the differences between schools became enormous - some, quite frankly, were terrifying places to be for me as a 30-something adult so I shudder to think what they'd have been like for a brand new year 7. However others, often fee-paying but not always, were fabulous vibrant places to be. Ds at the time was a baby and toddler and I used to worry frantically that we might end up being forced to send him to one of the scary schools - and yes, if one of those were my only option I'd be moving for my child's sake

Goodness Sabriel and inmysparetime, I'm really sorry about the awful experiences you've had! Of course you were absolutely right to move.

Allpastyrears, that's a great list of pointers to look out for in a school. How would you find out about the issues in your middle paragraph though (whether dealing with bullying in policy was different to in practice, your sad comments about the children coming from difficult backgrounds)?

Yeah i have 2 young dcs, not yet in school and all my friends have moved away from my area now for schools. People keep asking me in a concerned manner whether I'm moving too!

That's really interesting basildonbond thank you! That really scares me too! But great to hear about the primaries being mostly good!

We moved 70 miles so our DS would go to a different secondary. I work in primary and it's true that the vast majority range from good to brilliant, but secondary is a different matter. DS left school this year, and I think we made the right decision. Our only choices were boys only, and I don't think DS would have thrived in that environment - bourne out I think by the fact that he has always had as many (if not more) female friends as male. Then, when the school he would have had to go to installed a knife arch and shortly after the boys from that school and the local girls school rioted in the local train station, our decision was pretty much made. I'm sure the issues at that school were addressed, but DS only gets one education and I wanted him to have a good a chance at it as I could give him.

Best source is word of mouth. They don't put these things in Ofsted reports! Not easy to access if you're new to an area though - it comes from knowing other parents, maybe parents with a child at the primary your child is at and an older child at secondary, or parents who've moved schools for whatever reason. If you're lucky you might know teachers - my comment about the drunken parents was based on a student teacher I knew some years ago who was sent to one of the worst primaries in my city, and spent a lot of time dealing with the results of drink, drugs and inadequate parenting.

I wouldn't dismiss a school based on a single bit of hearsay, but if you hear a lot of similar things about the same school...

Oh and here is another idea for getting the lowdown!

I wouldn't have moved specifically to avoid a school, but when we reached a decision to move house for all sorts of other reasons (needed more bedrooms, wanted to be closer to work etc) we did make sure that we were moving into the catchment area of a good secondary school - seemed daft not to. We based the decision on the Ofsted report, league tables, local opinion and specialism - we didn't visit the school at that time because DC were a few years from secondary school age.

Educational peovision is patchy in the UK. Some schools are fab. Some are dire.

Many parents will do whatever they have to to secure a place in the former or avoid a place in the later.

I didn't need to thankfully, but I wouldnt have hesitated to move if Id had to for schools.

I would avoid schools that have poor results, poor OFSTED, or who have parents who swear and smoke outside the school gates (and I'm a smoker!). I would look very closely at schools that have high numbers of EAL and FSM, although it woudont automatically put me off. But I wouldn't send my child to a school where a large number of the parents were unemployed because I would worry that there were too many parents who don't place enough value on education and employment and that that attitude would affect my children though their children. I would happily use a school with a high Number of EAL if English was spoken fluently by the students and it was the dominant language in the playground, but it woudo put me off if a large number of the pupils came from a single community that my dc weren't a part of especially if they tended to use their own language the majority of the time.

benetine

I think if you visit several schools, you will begin to see a difference, and why people move. A new headteacher though can change a schools within a few years though, so it doesn't always pay-off.

For us, number one selection criteria about where to buy a house was it had to be in the catchment of the secondary I wanted my DSs to attend. I could practically recite the names of the streets 'in' (and frequently had to correct estate agents who were trying to convince me otherwise) .

I looked around 4 secondaries; one other would have worked for both DSs, another just DS1, so we chose the one we did because it would be fine for both DSs (one is rather more academic than the other), was close enough to both our workplaces, the ethos is solidly what I'd call middle class, it seems to do well by all its (MC!) intake, the OFSTED is Outstanding, other parents rate it- and it happens to produce the highest GCSE results in the county by all measures- even its Value Adding is second in the county!

'No brainer' comes to mind!

As another poster says, especially in these straitened times, your DC only get one crack at education, you have to make it as good as you can.

Round here people do move for a school. There is no really dire poverty and a low % FSM. No grammars either. The choice is single-sex, smaller and more academic or large and specialises in the performing arts and sport (OFSTED 4's across the board). Postcode is the only deciding factor as the smaller are oversubscribed.

Round here you are either in the catchment area for two good schools, or on the boundaries. Children on the boundaries get offered a really appalling school with high levels of class disruption, poor exam results, violence and fast teacher turnover, and have to use three buses which take 1 1/2 hours each way, for the privilege. I'd move.

We plan to move for primary. Not the only reason for the move - we need a bigger house! But we are restricting ourselves to the catchment for one primary. If we moved anywhere else we would be moving into a school that is classed by Ofsted as"Good", but is in a horrible building, in the middle of the only dodgy area in the town, and is about to increase in size by at least 50%.

It could be said we moved for school... I prefer DS to go to a secondary that is 11-18 rather than 11-16. all the city secondaries and the rural ones on one side of the city are 11-16. We have moved from city to rural area on the other side of city where the local school is 11-18. We moved before DS started primary school. Loving living in small community, glad we left the city.

Benetine, I noticed in my local newsletter that the schools have open days. I'm not sure what the ettiquette is for attending when your child is many many years away. Maybe you can have a noisy and attend one of them? They should be held soon after September for the next year intake.

Thanks everyone for replying, it's really helpful

We moved 0.25 mile to cross a border to a different council.

If we had stayed put we could have paid for some excellent Private schools, hoped she got into Suoer-Selective Grammar (she didn't) or go to comp where only 7% of pupils got 5 A-C grade GCSEs!

Moved into catchment of Outstanding rated Comp (which took kids from notorious council estate as well as posher private estates) and she flew.

(DS made it to the Grammar!)

7% school has since been shut and merged with another school, which suffered, but is now rated "good with outstanding features" so I am very pleased for the local kids now.

In our case I think it can depend on the child. Our local comp isn't great, (57% a-c grades). our 2nd choice comp is in an affluent area , has glowing reports on paper and would probably mean us moving as we are border line catchment, but it has a brush under carpet reputation, and has done for years. We have a few friends who have moved to get Thier children in and they are not happy, they now wish they had sent the children private. In our case a glowing ofsted means very little.

Our son is very bright, and has always been desperate to please, so if he went to comp 1 or 2 we know he would be fine. Our daughter however, also bright, is totally scatty.

We made the decision to stay put and send them private. The cost of moving to a house the same size we live in, in catchment area for comp 2 now matches the school fees.

I used to live in the catchment for a secondary school where a pupil was murdered in the corridor. Who wouldn't move???

Moved partly because I was sick and tired of people judging us for living on an estate, and didn't want ds to go to a school where they write him off for his address before they ever meet him.

It was a great estate to live on, lovely place, it was the middle class snobbery all around us that eventually got to us. People want people to live in clearly set out little boxes, you are middle class, you must want to live in a leafy semi detached, it's not allowed to be middle class and living in a flat on an estate. Sick of those attitudes, feel cowardly for giving in to it.

Also wanted my children to enjoy the kind of high school I had, a mixed comprehensive. I loved my school. The options where we were before were boys schools and girls schools. My dh went to one of the boys schools and hated it with a passion.