Does it severely annoy you if a state school in your locality is seen as THE one to get in to, ergo if your dc aren't there then they aren't the lucky ones?

[Mintyy]

It really does me! And my year 8 dd. And my ds who will soon be going through secondary allocation.

It fucks me right off like not many things fuck me off!

Thank goodness I don't live in a grammar area, I think I would be going nuts.

[Mintyy]

Hi Timechild, how are you? No, my dd is very happy at her school and I am really pleased that she is there. She is thriving. But she really wanted to go to the other mixed sex comprehensive and I am sure that was only because it has a reputation as the BEST (and therefore all other local schools are seen as inferior).

Ds does not want to go to an all boys school so I am not sure what we can do about that. Move house probably.

I know what you mean about the unmentionable school!

[Mintyy]

Sorry, and hello Levantine as well!

And everyone else on the thread of course .

[Takver]

I agree, it is really sad. It even happens here where both the local schools are really pretty good. I think it isn't really intentional - parents want to bias their dc towards the preferred (ie best results) school, so they big it up and play down the alternative.

But then you get horrible things like children saying 'only special needs kids go to X school' - well it does have a reputation for being good with SN, but in what world is that a bad thing!

(As it happens, I have friends with dc with SN at the other school too, and they are very pleased with the support & education their dc are getting, so it goes both ways, people may be rejecting the high results comp unfairly too.)

[curlew]

Think yourselves lucky- we live in a small town where there's a grammar school and a "secondary modern". It's all about whether you turn left out of the station or not.....

[ErrolTheDragon]

modern OFSTEDs are all but meaningless, aren't they, though?

I think the new dashboard is actually quite informative. A convenient way of looking at one bit of the jigsaw of 'is this school right for this child'.


(curlew - yes - a handy portmanteau coinage I think?)

[Erebus]

I'm almost yet more depressed that it comes down to a 'dashboard' to be honest!

I looked up my DCs' school and lo! In the comparison of 'other schools' it comes 'highest' in all but one category 'science' where it comes in the second quintile of 'similar schools'.

What does all that tell me? What are 'similar schools'? Yes, I get a list but what does that tell me?

Yes, it's a school that does very well- but only by its most able students? Who actually form, in national terms the majority slab of the DC who are being compared? St Leonards RC VA comp in Durham? Wot?

[Erebus]

Sorry, my bad (were I 14!)..

Thing is, now I see you have a pile of different KPIs (key performance indicators) to look at as you tab along- well...still looking for holes other than FSM, which is a fair enough indicator, but sadly, the 'couldn't care less' parents on low/non-existent incomes are lumped in together with the other-worldly, deliberately 'disengaged with the modern world's' mad professors here, aren't they? AND the 'care deeply but don't have the wherewithal to effect change for my own DC' people.

[bunnybing]

Yes! - there are 2 state infant schools near us - the way some parents talk about one of them you'd think it was a top public school set in rolling hills and the other a depressing sink school. No, they are 2 state infant schools with v similar outcomes.

[lljkk]

yes any snootiness annoys me, though, not just limited to school choices.
One woman who battles thru 25 minutes of city traffic each way to take her kids to a school where her FIL is HT ("It's rated outstanding!" she exclaimed as a full summary of its merits, like I should be impressed ). She cringed while turning her nose up about local schools, one of which has acquired Outstanding since. I wonder what shock she gets when her kids hit secondary age & she can't rely on FIL's influence to get them into whatever secondary deemed superior.