Would you send your dc to school in a rough area

[crazedupmom]

Hi

Would you choose a school for your dc that was in a not so desirable area.

My ds is due to start juniors this september and the school I have put dowm as first choice is within walking distance which is ideal for us.

This school has had overall decent ofsted reports but it is in a bit of a rough area.

Would this bother you when choosing a school.

I am aware of a couple of moms that live in my street that send their children there and they are in no means rough.

Yes I probably will. More interested in the right school for DS's needs than the middleclassness of the area.

Yes. It depends on the children that actually go to the school, not the children that live nearby - not always the same thing. You need to visit and ask other parents.

hmm.. tough one, i think it depends very much on the school and also on the individual child. i wouldn't be very happy to send my ds to the 'rough' school in the next town, mainly because i would worry he wouldn't find many like-minded children to be friends with. however i don't really want to send him to the 'excellent' school in the very middle-class area where we live, partly for the same reason, and also because they have a reputation for being very pushy. it's very difficult, and i've found the individual school environment and ethos can be very different to the ofsted report/reputation. you will know whether he is happy there/making friends etc, and if he's not you can always do something about it then

The catchment area of our school is very mixed. Half middle-class and half pretty rough - very high deprivation indicators and so on.

The school is a superb one, ds1 is just coming to the end of 6 yrs there, and I don't regret a minute of it. Our neighbours have just started sending their children to a primary in a more exclusive end of town. It has a slightly worse Ofsted, and worse CVA.

There are advantages too in a mixed school - the school doesn't make great demands of dosh from parents, because that would split the populace - and they work hard to not allow the split to be apparent in school. For the same reasons we aren't expected to create complicated fancy dress at a moment's notice, or other frivolities that go on elsewhere

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i wouldn't want my dc to go to a school that's entire catchment area is 'not so desirable'. i'm happy for them to go to school that has a very mixed catchment...

having said that, in my town, the school in the least desirable area has an excellent reputation whereas the most affluent on got such a bad inspection report that the council had to get involved.

as a parent though i am looking at the peer group - who my dc will be friends with... but you can never predict what the class atmosphere will be like; it only take one child to ruin it ime (as a primary teacher) and you can get the child in any area...

Looking at the schools ofsted report it is stated as serving a deprived area which put the jitters up me.

I am not trying to look down on anyone who lives in these sort of areas.

I don't really know that much about the school, what the people are like that go there etc.

I wouldn't worry about my ds's safety while there.

I sent mine to the school across the road and would have to be very worried about it to send them anywhere else TBH. The benefits of being home by 3:05pm outweigh any advantages from travelling across town IMO.

The school has lots of council estate children, free meals etc and we are in a minority in a detached house with 2 parents. However, 4 yrs into school life, my boys couldn't be happier, are progressing well and the few bullying type problems I have heard of have been dealt with quickly and effectively by the school. They truly love going to school.

In contrast, I have a number of friends who have moved house or even lied about their address to get their DC's into "good" schools. They have all been disappointed to some extent, perhaps because they had higher expectations, but they have had bullying the school wouldn't acknowledge, competitive mums to the point of nastiness, made to feel they were bringing the school down, when a child's special needs became evident and more than anything "average" children have been made to feel that they're not good enough.

So, I am glad I sent my DC's to school in a rough area. My one concern is perhaps the peer group , as crazed says, but from my job I know that a lot of middle class people, whilst outwardly respectable, have no ethics whatsoever. My boys do mix with more upwardly mobile types at tennis, beavers etc, but some of the things I hear there don't really convince me that these are "better people". I think you get all sorts in all areas TBH. A crook is just as likely to live in a posh house as on a council estate and lots of the "rougher" people, whilst not speaking so nicely, are truly decent people.

I would go in and have a look at the school. Impossible to judge it if you haven't seen it. And speak to people whose children currently attend it. No point in getting information from people who have gone to a lot of trouble or expense to send their children elsewhere: they are going to want to justify their choice by running the school down. (have experienced this myself)

My own dc's school is in an area that the Offsted report describes as 'broadly average'. Which means, according to my own observation, mainly working class/skilled working class/lower middleclass, a sprinkling of professionals and the inhabitants of a couple of council estates. Nobody very well heeled, I don't think. This has been a very good social mix for my dc's and there is a good learning atmosphere at the school. So I find it difficult to get very involved in my academic colleagues' struggle to get their children into 'good' schools.

I went to primary and middle school in a working class area of Leeds, and then to a secondary school in a better area but with a catchment area which included my middle school. Interestingly, when being put in to subject sets on ability, my middle school was on a par with most of the C of E middle schools and well ahead of some of the middle schools in "better" areas. There were a lot of kids from single parent families, or whose parents didn't have much money but some were quite well educated and generally they were interested in helping their children do well at school but wouldn't have felt comfortable about selection/private education and I think in the 70s and early 80s the divisions may have been a bit muted. Policies of school "choice" for some and crazy house price inflation both came well after I'd started secondary school, too.

I now live in a very racially mixed and supposedly rough area, but am very aware that there are lots of middle class parents here, many of them work in the public sector. Few people could afford to buy even in this bit of London now on even reasonable public sector salaries - I know quite a lot of teachers and council/NHS workers. I hope to move out of London before my ds starts school but it would probably be to an area of Leeds which is similar or worse than here, because that's what we will be in a position to afford.

I'd say stick with sending your child to the nearest primary school within walking distance. If that makes it easier for you to be involved with the school, that might help too.

I think Cory's post makes a lot of sense although my son is only 9 months now so we've a while yet!

Also, you know of a couple of the mums of kids there - perhaps you could approach them and ask them what they think as well as going to have a look at the school as another poster suggested.

My two boys go to school in a deprived/rough area. The school is great and I would recommend it to anyone.

Arrange a visit to the local school. You might be pleasantly surprised.