My ds is due to start secondary in 2016. He is averagely bright but definitely not super bright. We have a local Grammar school which he is going to sit for. This has just added a catchment area for his Year 7 entry which we are not in and will therefore make it even harder for him to get into (I assume, see other thread).
We have one local comp which is currently within special measures. All other state funded schools are 25 minutes away. We have very limited public transport here and although there are buses that go directly to and from these schools, they are only at start and end of school (i.e no extra curricular transport available).
We have a number of independent schools within decent travelling distance. One of which I have viewed and loved. The transport links to this school are good. I think we could afford for ds to go there. However, we have 4 dc. I think we could scrape and afford 2 to go at any one time and if I went back to work possibly 3 (would only ever pay for 3 at any one time, currently a SAHP). This would mean a huge sacrifice on our day to day life though. To complicate matters my dd who would start when ds is in YR10 is very academically bright. I think she would have a much better chance of getting into the local Grammar. Would it be unfair to send ds fee paying and dd to the grammar if she got in?
I have an appointment to go round the local comp next week. I might love it but from what I know of it at the moment I have real concerns.
Can anyone share any experiences of making these decisions and if you were happy long term or if you changed your mind etc?
TIA