Anyone live in grammar school county but not using grammar schools?

[basilflower]

Hello. As the thread title says, is there anyone living in a grammar school county but actively choosing not to use grammar schools?

We're looking to move (ds only 14 months so thinking ahead!) and areas that are suitable are all in grammar school counties. We don't want to send ds to grammar school though. Will all the non grammar schools be terrible? Or is it all dependent on specific schools and areas? Are we thinking too far ahead?

Thank you!

Our county is mixed. Some areas are grammar and secondary moderns. Other areas are comprehensives only. The local secondary modern is dire. Some of the comps in town are good, others are dire. The good ones are very oversubscribed so if you're not close you won't get in.

Dd goes to a very dire one. She did pass her eleven plus but it goes on distance, nearest 120 kids get in and we missed out by 300yards. We put her in the comprehensive in the opposite town. But it's as bad as the secondary modern to be honest from an exam results point of view.

Yes you're thinking too far ahead ;-)
But in my area yes all other options are terrible unless you don't object to a faith school

And in ten years a lot can change with individual schools.

In three years dds scjool has gone from having 56% of kids getting 5 or more GCSEs to now only 37%.

Loads of children don't go to the grammar school, most won't get in. The other school here has mixed reviews we are hoping to send dd2 to a out of catchment school. Dd1 is at grammar.

We live in a grammar school area. Two of the local comprehensives are excellent because they take a lot of the pupils from the outstanding primary schools in the area who didn't get the 11+ score for the grammar school.

It's a medium size town, two grammar schools (although the the eleven plus covers the whole county and about ten grammars) and a long way to the next grammar so a lot of people with middling eleven plus scores choose to stay in the town and send their DC to the comprehensive instead, rather than two hours commute a day for their DC to the next nearest grammar (which has a lower pass mark).

We live in a county with residual grammar schools. Children from all over the area travel to the few grammar schools left. In the towns where there are several grammar schools, the 'other' schools are badly affected, in the rest f the county, not so much.

Both DCs passed for grammar schools but we chose to send them to the local excellent 'nearly comp'. By 'nearly comp' I mean that only a very few children in its catchment choose to go to grammar schools, so it is nearly comprehensive in its intake. However, you do have to live REALLY close and the houses are more expensive.

You really do have to look at very specific schools and areas. And 10 years ago, our local comp was not as excellent as it is now. 10 years earlier than that, it was not at all desirable, rather the reverse... so you are taking rather a gamble if you choose so far ahead.