A parent's dilemma about switching schools - what would you do?

[Cloudminnow]

If you had a child at a school where staff morale is known to be low, would you transfer the child to another school if a place became available mid way through Year 9? My DS has had a succession of temporary teachers (as well as lessons covered by TAs) for long stretches at a time, and many students have challenging behaviour. A place at another school is likely to become available this year, but are things like staff absence and disruptive behaviour likely to happen anywhere? Would it be better to keep him at his existing school where he has friends and is quite settled, and put up with the concerns mentioned or try somewhere else? He's in the top set for most things, but I'm very unclear as to how he is actually doing academically (just told he's doing fine and nothing to worry about). From a teacher's point of view, what would you do if it was your DC?

Not a teacher, but dd changed school twice in the last two years in years 10 and 11 (once of her own volition and once forced upon her) and both times it worked out very well, even in spite of being unsettling. I guess it's a bit of a personality thing as to how a child reacts to it, but there are some plus sides to a new school as well as the down. Has your ds got any views on the subject? If so, I would listen carefully to them - at that age, if he's violently against the idea then it's a non starter.

Dd has also had a huge number of teachers over the last 2 years - it's not ideal, but can also have some positives - for dd she tended to rely less on teachers to feed her info, but check it all for herself from the books/syllabus which I think will set her up very well for higher level study. Also, your ds's school may attempt to minimise staff turnaround in year 10 and 11 and try to give them the more experienced teachers (often at the expense of the year 9s), so things may improve on that front as your ds enters the exam years.

Hope things work out well for him - whatever you decide if he can begin to take charge of his own learning to an extent it will pay dividends.