FAITH school advice please?

[iHAVEtogetoutofhere]

I am wanting to move to England (from Scotland, where the school system is entirely different).

I have found a Middle School which I am keen on.
It is a CofE Faith School.

The area is moving to the Primary and Secondary system, over time.

I have been told that this Faith School can 'choose' if it changes or not as it is 'not up to the LEA but the Governors' - can this be right?

Also, if there is an issue that the HT wasn't able to resolve, how would it be handled?

Is it just down to Governors?
Then what, if you were still unhappy?

(not to be negative, but as moving away from system which is broken where we are I don't want to move to another one).

Yes, it's right if the school is VA.

All VA schools have always had such freedom, right from 1940s onwards. They do normally act together with LEAs (the original switch to junior/middle/senior was probably in step with the council policy) and there's no reason to expect them to refuse to join in if there are other admissions changes. But it is correct to say they cannot be forced in to it.

I suspect it's the same for Academies too.

Ah. They have said they will fight it, so it sounds as though they might have a least a bit more time as a Middle then?

Do you know about complaints procedures in such schools, please?

School should have complaints procedure and anti bullying policy and u should get a copy with their school info pack. Yes HT then gov then LEA

You also need to think about what would happen at the end of the Middle school, unless they children from the Middle school are guaranteed places in the next school. If all of the other schools locally are changing, would it put any such guarantees in jeopardy?

Yy, Merlot - the middle school is geographically placed between two senior schools, one 'good' one not so good.
Currently, parents can choose (it's a rural area with low numbers) as long as they provide transportation.
Clearly that could change by the time we need it (around 3 years).

If all the schools around move from the three tier system to a two, then all the other children will start secondary school at age 11. Unless space is reserved in a local secondary school for the children from the remaining middle school to go to in year 9 you could be left fighting over odd remaining spaces in secondary schools for miles around, and these spaces are likely to be in unpopular schools as the better ones will fill up in year 7.