Choosing the right school for your child...but what about their siblings?

[puddle]

I was thinking about this on another thread.

There are lots of threads on here about choosing the right school for your child and I put a lot of thought into where we sent ds. i chose in the end the school I felt would suit him best. But to be honest, DD will just follow him there.

It's a great school and we're very happy with it. But do other people look at the schools again for siblings and possibly send them elsewhere if they think it may not be right?

Do people

I've known people do it at secondary level, generally only at primary if there is a SN to take account of or family have moved into area and can't get all children into the same school. I think it's easier at secondary level because they tend to travel to school on their own at that age so it's less hassle for parents

I really think that it cold depend on the child:

If you had one child who was musical for example and another who was sporty, I could see sending them to different specialist schools if appropriate.

my bro and I went to different secondary schools - his was all boys mine was all girls

Schools cater for 100s of children at a time, and the children have to learn to fit in - that's just part of life. When we chose our ds's school, we chose according to how we felt about the school overall. In our opinion, an overall good school will be good for different types of children. If one of our children turns out to have a talent or difference that matters educationally, then either we keep them at the same school as before and supplement their education with extras, or move them to a different school.

I'm expecting DS to go to the same school as DD unless anything happens in the meantime which means he would be better elsewhere.

However I do know of a few parents who have primary aged children in different schools.

One family moved house and rather than up-root their eldest from his school they let him stay there and there DD started at the new school. Another family have 3 children in 3 different schools - 2 are in private schools.

"their" not "there" DOH!

can't bear the stress involved in sending them to different schools

anyway we don't really have a choice as there is one local state secondary

I was thinking more at primary level than secondary, it makes sense to me that secondary schools may excel at different parts of the curriculum so for instance and cater for children with interests like music or sport.

We chose the school that we thought would suit both our children at time. We thought DS1 would flourish anywhere but that the school we chose would suit DS2 well because of it's less regimented approach to learning.

DD will have to fit in when it comes to her turn though :

I will have a think about where to send DS when he goes in 2 years. He is most likely to go to the school where DD is as I am very pleased with how they have been with her. But she will be leaving when he starts so it had occurred to me that maybe I should have a look at one of the others for him and not just assume that the one DD is at will be the right one. Chances are he will go there though.

mea nd my brother went to different schools all the way through

me - local primary till 10, then to local private girl's school till 16, then local sixth form

bro- local primary till 7, mixed prep school till 13, mixed private boarding school till 18

Obviously he could not have gone to my school, but i was given the choice to move at 14 to his school and chose to stay where I was and then chose my own sixth form.

Alos have a friend whose brother (older) went private, while she (through her choice) went to local comp

Kittypickle we're in the same situation in a way, dd will be starting infants when ds starts juniors and they are different schools, but next to each other. So logistically it would be a headache if we went back to the drawing board with dd and she went to a different school.

I had no real sense of DD's personality when we chose ds's school. Now I can see she is very different to him - I wonder whether we should at least ask the question (although as I say I love ds's school).

children change so much anyway in the years 5-11; a child's personality changes as it goes up the school so it would seem to me an unreliable way of choosing

i have got four of my five at all different schools - two different religions ( kind of) ..three different towns!