Name changed, because it may be obvious from this who I am to anyone who knows me and reads!
Apologies for long post, but I could really do with some help to get clarity. So, its a while til dd has to choose definitely, but all her class (yr 5) are already figuring out where they're going to go to secondary. She has the choice of two schools; we can assume reasonably confidently that she'll get a place in either (neither selective, neither over-subscribed) and would get school transport to either. There aren't any other schools in the area to muddy the waters.
School A: is a stellar school. Excellent exam results, latest ESTYN report either 'good' or 'excellent' on all counts. Hard to say to what extent this is due to the catchment - it has an extremely low proportion of children receiving free school meals, low % SN etc. In the latest Welsh Assembly ranking of schools from A through to E it was ranked A.
School B: much less stellar. Exam results are average for Wales, latest ESTYN report a mix of 'satisfactory' to 'good'. % of children on FSM also average for Wales, % with SN average or a bit over. Ranked D in the above ratings.
I guess you can tell already from my need to post on here that dd (with our support) is considering choosing School B 
She was mostly influenced by the open days - unsurprisingly School B put in a lot more effort & was much more welcoming. We have (hopefully more considered) reasons for supporting her.
Children from dd's primary will probably split around 50:50; to stereotype horribly (but accurately), those from detached houses in the old bit of town will go to school A, those from the housing association/council bit of town to school B. (We live in a small semi at the edge of the two bits of town, obviously hence our difficulty in choosing . . .)
Why not school A?
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It is Welsh medium. DD is in Welsh med. primary, but she doesn't enjoy working in Welsh, she finds written work difficult anyway and I think working in her second language is an additional layer of difficulty for her. (Being English-first-language wouldn't be an issue in school A per se, I think currently 80% of pupils come from non-Welsh speaking homes.) She would probably go into the Welsh stream in school B which would be a good compromise (around 1/3 subjects taught in Welsh).
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Although there is school transport it is further (12 m vs 7 m) and there is no service bus between the towns. At school B dd would be able to stay for after school activities/hang out with friends and get a service bus home. The catchment for school A is huge (whole county) and it means either very limited social life or a hell of a lot of car driving
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School A has much fewer extra curricular activities - basically rugby & the eisteddfod. School B has loads. DD is, currently, a joiner-in-er, though of course that may change.
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School A feels very traditional - both in terms of gender choices for subjects esp at A level (ie more boys in science, more girls in humanities et al) and in general feel. I've been told - as a positive for the speaker - that many of the teachers are ex-pupils who have been away to college then returned to teach at the school. I don't see that as necessarily such a good thing.
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School B has a really strong reputation for working with children with SN, particularly dyslexia-type SLDs. Whether or not dd has an SLD (still waiting for assessment) she definitely struggles with some aspects of school work. I've spoken to several parents whose children have struggled at primary but really flown after moving to school B.
Why not school B?
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It went through a really rocky patch a few years back. Numbers are still down and possibly falling further. The previous Head was very unpopular (with both staff and parents it seems) and a number of teachers left. She has gone, and the current Acting Head seems popular but there's no knowing what the permanent head will be like
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The Estyn report talks about 'disruption in some classes' (can't remember exact wording but sounds like code for chaos) - the report sadly is from a few years back (under the old head), the new one is due next year but not til after we've had to choose. I suspect from the word on the grapevine that things have improved, but how much is hard to know.
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Low numbers (both used to be around 850 pupils I think, now roughly A is up to 950, B down to 750) presumably limit what can be offered. I know they've dropped to only offering one foreign language. Overall my impression that the school is strong on science (possibly more so than school A) but weaker on the humanities, though of course these things can be dependent on a few teachers.
School B definitely isn't a sink school in any way - its our catchment school, I'd like to choose it, and dd has liked what she has seen of it. I just have this niggling worry that it would be a really crazy decision to make . . . So I'd welcome thoughts, anyone else been in a similar position?? What did you choose? (And did it work out!)