Grammar schools and where to move to in UK

[Thegirlisnotright]

Where is a nice area to live with free grammar schools? Quite simply we could move anywhere, but know nothing about most of the UK 😂

sticker
Happy to be of use.
Distance is not really an issue with Symonds.
DS has friends who live in Newbury, New Milton, Andover and Fareham.
On the first day of term the M3 was shut so travel was screwed but as so many come from so far away, college just shrugged their shoulders about it.
I believe Barton did the same.

Ojoj
What are the non catholic non grammar schools like though ?

Don't talk to me about M3 closures today!

LOL
total thread diversion but I hope that Hampshire police get MASSIVELY hauled over the coals for not closing the M3 between the A303 and the M27
the closure was at 4am
there is absolutely no excuse for allowing people onto a motorway they knew was shut

I took a detour via the Hindhead Tunnel, but at least I kept moving.

Thank you everyone for your advic- lots for me to think about, and very eye opening in some cases. Good luck to all those whose kids are applying to secondary schools just now

Come and live near Glasgow :-)

No there are no Grammars but some of the state comps in East Renfrewshire or East Dunbartonshire are the best in the country. Regularly outperform some of the fee paying schools, send kids to Oxbridge and into law/medicine etc.

Set catchment areas so if you buy in catchment, you're guaranteed a place. No stress.

You'd definitely get a lovely house for your £400k budget.

All the big city facilties with Loch Lomond and great countryside on your doorstep. Close to Glasgow airport, regular trains to London and everywhere else.

Interesting that those who believe in selective education also want a 'good comp' as a fallback. If selective is the best system, why does its supporters not want their child to go to a secondary modern for a 'suitable' education?

Very good point Allington.

People who are thinking of moving for Grammars are often looking to hedge their bets, especially if it's a full grammar area like Bucks. If they are seeking a super selective, if it's in an area where there are very few who go to them, they know that as long as the other local schools are good, then they will be okay. However, the big effort of moving for a low level chance of a place may well not be worth it - hence all the out of area applicants who claim they will move if they get an offer.....but then rarely do, becaus the practical implications are just too much.

If I was moving for schools, I would move for a good comp which demonstrated that it served my kind of child well....so for a clever child, one with a high % of high achievers and high results for them - these kids should get a very good experience and do as well as grammar kids.. At least if you are planning to move, you want certainly of getting in.

The problem of moving specifically for selective is that you can't guarantee a place.

Super selective grammars have a wide catchment area which means you could buy a house in a cheaper area and still be in bussing distance. Every property close to a top comprehensive will have a huge premium due to being in the catchment area. £30 for 1.5 hours tutoring once a week was much more affordable.

But what if you don't get into the superselective?
Presumably if you've moved to the cheaper housing area, the Comps are not likely to be so good. Lots of people are not prepared to take the risk when success entering the super selectives is less than 10%.

Does anyone live near the holy grail where there is a superselective, great Comps plus affordable housing?

Every property close to a top comprehensive will have a huge premium due to being in the catchment area.

www.thesun.co.uk/money/4506568/how-house-prices-near-top-state-schools-have-jumped-39-in-the-last-5-years/

Mumtryingherbest, guess you know that all the schools in that article are Grammar schools. The article refers to top state schools but only shows Grammars.

As an example, in Cheltenham, an area which has several Grammars,N including the e trembly highly sought after and successful Pates, there is also a hugely successful Comp, Balcarrass. Many view Balcarrass as a precwxtly good alternative to the grammars and can then avoid the stress of 11+. But guess what ....its in the most expensive area of town with a small catchment area. So once again, people can choose to move for the grammars, but unless they can also afford to live in the expensive areas, a dead cert great school can't be guaranteed.

Can anyone name any areas which have fantastic Comps which deliver great results for high achieving children, which are not in expensive areas to live? Oh, and they can't be Church schools either. Perhaps people want to keep it secret!

No superselective, but the catchment comp is very good (last year 3% went to Oxbridge and around 45% went to a Russell Group university) and the most recently sold house on my street (2 bedrooms, south-facing garden, convertible loft, structurally sound but needing cosmetic work) sold for £120k 18 months ago, which is low by local standards.

ChocolateWombat Yes I know they are all Grammars.

From what I can tell, there will be inflated house prices for any heavily oversubscribed school, be it Grammar, Comp or otherwise. However, time and time again the price premium is being used as a justification for Grammar Schools and underlined as a failing of the a comp. education system i.e. only the rich can get their kids in.

I know Milton Keynes appeals to some who are looking to put a foot in both the Grammar/Good Comp. camps. I don't know the area that well though.

But guess what ....its in the most expensive area of town with a small catchment area.

I don't know the area but would someone living in the catchment for Balcarrass also be interested in the grammars?

Yes, they might well be. However a good number of people also decide not to bother putting their kids through the 11+ because they think Balcarrass is a great option. They might choose it because the nearest grammar is extremely hard to get into and although their kids might get one of the Gloucstershire grammars, that involves a trek, so they might conclude that a great comp on the doorstep is better.

Many in the Balcarrass catchment might give the 11+ a go. The primaries are successful and have decent success rates into the Grammars. The pressure on families and kids is lifted thoug if they have a great comp option. And why is it a great comp - it has great teachers and a good ethos etc etc, but it has an interested and aspirational parent body who support the school. The parent body are largely middle class and educated.

Many in the Balcarrass catchment might give the 11+ a go.

Tuition seems rife in the area (quick search on Google) and none of the primary schools around that school seem to be underperforming so I'm guessing that a lot of families in the catchment for Balcarrass have paid a premium for a sweet spot - Give the Grammar a go and there is a good Comp. to fall back on.

If this is the case, and I'm not saying it is as I don't know the area, the comp. is on to a winner as the families will, in the main, be very focused and supportive when it comes to their DCs educations.

Mumtrying
oversubscribed schools are a sign of market failure

round here we get three spaces on the form
so we do
"ideal"
"insurance"
"catchment"
bearing in mind they are all comps

therefore allowing for "out of catchment"no school has more than around 5 applicants per place
but our county gets 96% of kids into their first or second choice
and the catchments are up to 11 miles across

Skipton (in North Yorkshire)? Easy to get to Leeds or Bradford for work, pretty countryside. Not too far from Manchester Airport. Upper Wharfdale used to be OK as a 'fallback' comprehensive if you didn't get into Ermysteds or SGHS. Although I admit that my knowledge is probably 15 years out of date.

Ta1kinPeece - oversubscribed schools are a sign of market failure

I'm not sure I follow what you mean.

mumtrying
There should be enough school places for all children
all schools should be acceptable to the bulk of parents
therefore no school should be over or under subscribed

anything else implies a failure in the market and an increase in oversight required

There should be enough school places for all children

In my area there are but everyone wants one of the selective schools. The result is the selective schools are heavily oversubscribed but the non-selectives are undersubscribed and used to allocate places to anyone who didn't get any of their preferences.

I've lost count of the number of parents who tell me they want X school or their DC wants X school despite the fact that they have never even set foot in the door of the school (the comments start as early as year 1).

You can pretty much predict the order that many parents will place the schools based on the cut off score needed to get in. I should add that many parents are going on very out of date information that has been fed to them by other parents.

all schools should be acceptable to the bulk of parents

In my area, the bulk of parents are only really interested in the selective schools. Many won't even set foot in the non selectives to see what they are like.

Mumtrying
so the market is failing as significant numbers are not getting the education they want for their kids
abolishing selection - making all of the schools have a top set rather than 1/4 of them - would do the trick

Ta1kinPeece - abolishing selection - making all of the schools have a top set rather than 1/4 of them - would do the trick

The majority of parents will still fight over the schools with the highest GCSE/A Level results or what ever.

Highest performing schools will be over subscribed, lowest performing undersubscribed. Parents will always look for something to suggest they are getting the best for their DC.

If you are saying that all the schools in your area get exactly the same number of applications per place, then I have to ask - How common is that?

I asked my mum what she did about deciding about schools before tables and data existed. She said we sent you to the local school and talked to the Mums at the gates. My mum worked but did hours so she worked early but could occasionally be at the school for pick up. My local school got the thumbs up via the school gates gossip network. I don’t know what would have happened if there wasn’t positive feedback. I also realise that I am a working mum and don’t have access to that network. We only had one local primary and we had secondaries that had elliptical catchments as many were in a similar location so they served different communities. That has changed and schools don’t have catchments in that way now, leaving one location with four secondary schools and others with no identifiable catchment school. This pushes up the desirability of bordering Grammar places to give Parents more choice leaving some areas with situations where children in their ward at secondary are going to 15 or more different secondary schools through a combination of faith, wealth, academic achievement and proximity determinations.