RNE - I havent mentioned a school, so why do you assume you know which I speak of. Since the school is not mentioned I think your comments are not appropriate.
However, as I have said before any school is only as good as its intake. If aschool is consistently on the receiving end of a poor report from people here, it makes an impact on others like me.
Call me a snob if you like but I do not want my DC in a school ( and certainly one I am paying for) which has a poor rep. I dont care how it may have got that or whether it is justified or not. It becomes a self fulfilling prophesy I suppose as no one wants to go to a school when it has a poor rep. It takes in a smaller number of less able pupils and therefore results go down and so its reputation is reinforcedetc. I have seen this in different schools many times. I think some of the schools named in this thread have also suffered that fate. It is true also of many businesses who do not have good marketing and let things slip toofar. They get a reputation for shoddiness.
Other schools again mentioned, have a similar reputation in their locality and hence they too begin to struggle. They struggle to find DC ( maybe like my own who are not stella performers in a school like Exeter but are in top sets and who are earmarked by the local state school ( where they are currently) to go be university material. One ( currently year 8) has had Oxbridge suggested, although it is a while off.
However I know GCSE and A levels are an important time in a childs life and I want something better. Yes, "good " kids can keep their heads down and be in top setsand do well enough and avoid the challenging pupils and distruption (mostly) but why should they have to? Besides, I do think it will make a difference at the end of the day, no matter what.
There are many things I am looking for in this school I will be paying for.
I have looked at Exeter and its slick, its has good marketing and is impressive but I feel lots of under currents. I worry because I know Anne is correct, that the school employs a policy of segregation, those who are Oxbridge and those who are not and those who are also rans and are not anything. I see a similar thing going on in the grammar schools ( I will not say which). What if my DC does not make it in the cream of Exeter and ends up in the also rans? I do not want a school like that. But I do not want one for the "nice but dim" (I think thats the phrase I see here often) either. The size of a schools SEN dept tells you much.
There are many things to consider when looking at schools, and strangely, the OP hit on one I am finding elusive - "sparkle" ( or polish or panache or style or whatever it is, I know it, but cannot name it).
I want that ease, effortless confidence for my DC which is so lacking in state schools (and some private). I want DC who are similar in aspiration and who have a work ethic too. Again lacking in state schools often.
I would also prefer that school to be local rather than me driving miles in traffic daily or a good bus or train ride away.
A decent school with middle ranking nice well mannered kids and a good discipline. A school which does not adhere to the latesteducastion speak , does not change with the next ministers politcal directive and one which will target getting my DC good GCSE and A level grades regardless of whther they are in the cream stream or the curds and whey stream. A school which is classy rather than brassy and one where the teachers have professional style rather than swagger and brashness. I can find swagger by the bucket full in the state sector. It seems to be asking a lot anywhere in South Devon. I have seen a number up country.
I do not want or need a Harrods of education. But neither doI want Lidl or Aldi or even Tesco. John Lewis would be nice.