Secondary schools Derbyshire/Sheffield

[Tillybank]

Does anyone have any advice on moving from private school to state school?
My daughter recently moved from the local primary school to the local private school (YR5). The private school only goes to the end of yr8. She is due to start yr6 this week.

Our options are: 1 - Move her at the end of yr6 to the local secondary school OR 2 - move her at the end of yr8 to a private school out of area.

My major concerns are, we have moved around a lot of schools for various reasons. She loves the school she is at the moment and some of them might go on to the out of area private school, but she also has friends from her old school that will go to the local secondary school.

I am worried that sending her to local secondary school she might get bullied for moving schools, she may feel that she has never 'finished' a school because we have always left before the last year, she might hate the new secondary school and old friends may move on.

With regards to sending her to the out of area private school my worries are, that 1, the current school may close within the next year due to financial difficulty - it is a small school and has already closed the college section of the school in the last year so is it best to get out sooner rather than later? 2, will she struggle moving to a private school that is further away from home and friends.

Any advice would be great.

No advice on moving from private to state but as someone who moved part way through secondary please please move her for the start of y7 if moving her to state.

By y9 kids will have made fire friendships and breaking in to those is almost impossible.

I made friends but was always on the peripheral.

I guess a lot depends on whether your local secondary is more like Chaucer or Silverdale.

I'm confused why you think moving to a local secondary after the end of year 6 would result in bullying for moving schools? There would be kids there from several different primaries, so the fact she went to another one for a couple of years seems insignificant.

As a kid I did the whole travelling to private school thing for a few years. TBH the travel gets exhausting, and takes a lot of the time that could otherwise be used to do the significant homework loads private senior schools often give (and that's on top of a school day that often ends later than state schools, too). I couldn't always join the sports teams I wanted to because they were after school and transport was an issue. Meeting up with my friends always had to involve parents and arrangements and sleepovers, and it would've been nice as a teen to have some more flexibility and independence with that.

To be fair Chaucer might have improved since I lived round there; it had a rep for being bad for bullying back then. But I bet Silverdale still has its leafy catchment… the point being, you're thinking about specific schools rather than just "state school" as a monolith.

I'm confused why you think moving to a local secondary after the end of year 6 would result in bullying for moving schools? There would be kids there from several different primaries, so the fact she went to another one for a couple of years seems insignificant.

I'm a bit worried because she only joined the local primary at yr3 (having come from another local primary after being there for 2 years, she didn't fit in well there as it was a very small school where most of the kids and parents had all grown up together) and left at yr5 (after we noticed she was struggling during lockdown. She loved this school). I'm worried she will get picked on for going from state to private back to state by the the other kids. The school I went to was quite bad for this kind of thing for some kids.

I feel like we have totally stuffed things up for her. The idea was that once she started at the private school she is at she would stay there until the end of yr9 and then go on somewhere else for A levels. But a few weeks in to starting the school they decided to close yrs9-11. I'm really cross with the school but there is nothing we can do about it and she has come on loads in just one year but its where do we go from here?

To be fair Chaucer might have improved since I lived round there; it had a rep for being bad for bullying back then. But I bet Silverdale still has its leafy catchment… the point being, you're thinking about specific schools rather than just "state school" as a monolith.

Girls High/Birkdale vs Lady Manners

Oh right, so your local state schools are in Derbyshire rather than Sheffield… I don't know why I assumed other way around! Sorry.

TBH I think starting at senior school at 11, everyone's new, everyone only knows a few people from their own primary, and as long as she had a boring answer ready in case anyone did ask what juniors she was at, it wouldn't be a big deal.

It's so frustrating when things outside your control mess up your plans.

So your local secondary is lady manners??? Hardly a 'state school' is it???

Presumably you must live in catchment for lady manners now. If so birkdale/SGh is a fair distance to travel every day

I mean, it's state. But still

But yeah, at that distance, unless you work nearby, you're either taking an hour driving there and back morning and evening, or she's on school transport or even public transport for at least 1h30m a day, probably more. It's a hefty commute for a teenager, and unless teenagers have changed considerably in the last few decades, you can't get homework done on the bus. Then all the other disadvantages I mentioned like friends you can't easily meet up with without extensive arrangements and parent help, stress about missing the bus if it's a specially put on service (so you can't just get a later one), and difficulty getting involved in school stuff outside the timetabled day (unless a parent dedicates the time to doing pickup).

Plus one thing that I don't think often gets factored in is that senior school kids are old enough to know that their private schooling is very expensive, and it can put a type of pressure on them that isn't there if they go to a state school. But that might just be my hangup.

If you're in the catchment for Lady Manners just send her there in time to start Y7. No one will care what school she went to previously.

Y7 is a natural start point. Everyone will be new.

OP, I'm sorry you're in this position. I know the school your DD is currently attending, and it's lovely.

I can also entirely see your dilemma. Your school commute to SHS/Birkdale would be significant, and you'd have to be very much wedded to the private school idea to go for that. My somewhat extensive experience suggests that children at prep schools are better moving to secondary at Y7, if they're not transferring to a school which has a significant intake at Y9. All the schools you have in mind would have most of their intake into Y7.

I considered Lady Manners when we were moving house, but decided against it for various reasons - one of which, at that point, was that the range of GCSE options was relatively limited.

If you're moving at Y7, I don't think that your DD's current school will be an issue at all. Children will be moving at that point from all kinds of schools to their new schools - private to state and vice versa.

Just to throw another idea into the mix: would you consider the idea of your DD going to boarding school? If I had a child at the school your child is currently attending, it's such a good school that I would want them to stay there until the end of Y8. Good prep schools are fantastic things and children remain children for a couple of crucial additional years. The school she is currently at is a fantastic springboard for boarding schools, and I'd seriously consider Rugby/Repton/Uppingham as a possibility for Y9-13. But I know this isn't everyone's cup of tea.

Thanks. I know LMS is a great school but we are not in catchment for it so would need to plead to get in there too.

Its all just a bit of a mess. So cross with our current school for promising us the world one week and taking it away the next but I guess thats the risk we took going private.

I really do not want her to go to boarding school.

OK will pleading for LMS doesn't sound like a good plan. Which secondary are you in catchment for? My kids go to DHFS which is also good. Am struggling to think of a poor secondary school in the area I assume you're in.

I can't see you getting I LMS if you don't live in catchment. It's highly popular.

What's your catchment school?

@Tillybank LMS is the only state high school in the town with a massive cat hment. If you aren't already in the cat hment then I am afraid it is very unlikely that you will be awarded a place.

My experience of SHS is that unless your dd is exceptional from an academic perspective she may struggle their.

What schools are you in the catchment for?

If you are Matlock based then Highfields is excellent

Chesterfield then Outwood at Newbold has had very good results as has Brookfield this year. Alternatively if you wanted state bytes with a more academic focus are you catholic/religious? If so St Mary's is excellent

Dronfield - both high schools are very good.

Sheffield - I don't have a huge knowledge of unfortunately.

I have a big of knowledge of Sheffield and north east Derbyshire secondary schools - what is your catchment school?

Bit of knowledge!! Not big knowledge 🙈

What’s your catchment school?

Tapton catchment goes out into some parts of the country near Sheffield. Up to Hollow Meadows l think.

Has been one of the top 25 schools outside London. Always excellent results, but there’s a lot of pressure on kids for results. A level is really good too.

My children went to Silverdale and my nephew goes to King Ecgberts. They are both excellent schools, the results attract a lot of the sort of well off families who would choose private if they lived in other areas. They are both very oversubscribed and I imagine virtually impossible to get if you are out of catchment. Hope Valley in Derbyshire is a lovely school ( same trust as Silverdale) because of the rural location it often seems to have places. You have priority for sixth form at Silverdale and it is lovely friendly school which feels a bit like a primary in atmosphere. The GCSE results are still excellent through.

Hope Valley 6th form also go to Tapton.

Why not go to visit the schools on an open day coming up end of September/October time. Or ask for a personal tour (private schools are very happy to do this). Then see how you and your daughter feel. Private schools get new students entering in all year groups and in the middle of a year all the time so it would not be unusual.

@ArseInTheCoOpWindow That information is massively out of date now. I've heard it's gone downhill a lot, and is riding on its previously good reputation. Lots of teachers have left, and poor behaviour of some of the pupils.
@Tillybank If you can afford private school, Sheffield High has the best A level results this year in the North of England. Quite a few students from your daughter's school now attend there after they closed to the upper years.
State school wise, Silverdale is probably the best out all the options.

I don’t think it has. I live in the catchment. No issues, and house prices still super high. Know several people who work there.

It makes no difference whether Silverdale is the best, or Tapton, or Lady Manners because you can't pick and choose. If you are not in the catchment of any of these schools then you won't get in - unless of course the OP's dd is an adopted or looked after child. So the conversation re state school starts with which catchment the OP is in or prepared to move to.

Where will you be living? If you are on the derbyshire/sheffield border there is Meadowhead Sheffield or Eckington.