which school would YOU choose?

[pooodle]

Hi all. Need advice for secondary, here are the options:

Preference A: School I teach at, c of e, 83% a-c, around 70 inc eng and maths. has 6th form, so around 1600 students. Lovely christian ethos, nice kids. Son wouldnt know any other kids there when he start, well he would, but they are girls he doesnt play with at school. Son not particulary religious. Average intelligence, fairly lazy boy!

Preference B: Local comp, just got outstanding at last ofsted, 45% special needs, (45%!), sons friends are mostly going there, gcse results around 50%, but not including english and maths (more like 30ish i think). School is just round corner from house we have just moved into, he is allowed to play out and has made lots of new friends who go/will be going. School is a "bit" chavvy, I did my first teacher training there and wasnt really impressed, but since then they have had the ofsted result. Around 650 kids. Son has tics sometimes, scrunches eyes, ocd type behaviour, though not too bad. No 6th form. Son wants to go to this school, best friend is going (bit of a scally, very working class (mum swears alot etc!)

If son does get preference A, do you think I would be wise to send him, it is the "best" school academically, but I dont want to make him miserable by moving away from his friends.

What would you do?

Are theses schools on the South Coast of England (west Sussex)? If they are the schools I think they are - school B has a very high percentage of boys - this will affect the atmosphere and friendship groups available.
Are you Christians? If so, he may well be happier with the school ethos that sees this as normal, especially as he goes through adolescence.
Does he have special educational needs? If he does you should look carefully at both schools learning support departments.
If you are going to hate his friends at school B go for school A - things won't get easier as he gets older.

yes aig, how can you find out percentage of boys? i just searched to no avail.

I am a christian, son isnt pariculary. son not special needs, but has tics/ocd and is on register sa+ as having external agency help for the above.

I have a job which means I cometimes visit schools and I recently was in school B. I noticed there were a lot of boys in the classs I was in and was told that this was general throughout the school. I think it relates to pereceptions of nearby single sex secondary schools. However the information should probably be on the schools SEF.

Can you go back and visit school B, yourself? You now have years of teaching experience. You'll be visiting as a potential parent. You may see it in a different light.

Get there early before school starts - look at how the kids arrive, how they go in, what the staff presence is like. It, actually, doesn't matter if there is a big CHAV factor, the school may be very well run, if it has a strong, well focused SMT. Ask for time with one of them - ask how they motivate boys, given the strength of peer pressure and local culture. If you find the school isn't counterbalancing that, go with school A.

Sorry - slight hijack - but did you say your ds has a private tutor twice a week? Do a lot of people do this? I know they do round our way, but we have the 11+. I didn't realize people had tutors in other circumstances!

I forgot to say: my two children (son and daughter) went to what I think is school A - I have no regrets! Both my children are slightly offbeat - both stayed for the 6th form - both have been generally pretty happy.