I'm becoming increasingly disillusioned with DDs senior school, exacerbated by the very average GCSE Exam results this year.
I'm hearing horror stories of teachers never being in lessons, administrative cock-ups, emails never being returned. The school has a very odd grading system where they measure children against each other for performance but there are no general targets set so as a parent, I don't really know how she compares to her peer group elsewhere. They aren't in any financial trouble, I don't think. It just seems like lethargy has set in.
DD isn't happy either but I'm not really sure how much of that is hormonal or how much is the fact that Year 9 is very different to the relaxed attitude in Year 8.
DDs best friend attends the local Academy and they are 40 to a class, 2 hours homework every night and 4 hours on a weekend (specifically as they aren't able to cover the content during lessons). I don't want that for DD so it's only the smaller class sizes that are keeping me where we are at the moment.
A group of us Year 9 parents are going to approach the school collectively with our concerns in the first instance.
However, I'm wavering very much towards looking at alternative options but am nervous because she's in Year 9 and I'm not so sure whether moving her at this stage would knock her back or not. Help!