High School Choices

[user1466671251]

My daughter is due to start high school in Sep and we didn't get our first choice . The school she's been given a placement in has just received the worst possible Ofsted report and is currently in special measures. Due to this the number one choice of school is receiving lots of appeals, I know of some people being able to see the school from their house but still being denied a place so the chances of my daughter getting a place are nil.
Her father lives 20 miles away and the school in that town is much better and she keeps in contact with her previous school friends who will be going to that school too.
So my question is this: do I let my daughter go live with her dad and attend a better school or shall I make her go to the one in our town which is poor? I really don't know what to do, I feel if I let her live with her dad I'm somehow failing her or giving up on her.

Any advice is much appreciated xx

That depends on your relationship with her dad, her relationship with her dad, and how the two of you communicate to each other. It is also unclear whether her dad would really like to take her at least during the school week.

Furthermore, if that school is better, chances are it will be oversubscribed too so she may not get in now even if she moved back with dad.

One thing about special measure, some schools can turn around in a couple of years, having new inspirational management team put in. It depends on why they failed and what they are doing to address it. So don't despair yet.

Where does your DD actually want to live?

Also, is the desirable school near her DDAd undersubscribed? Because unless it is, you might find she cannot get a place via the waiting list there either.

sometimes the school that is special measures now (as she goes in in year 7) has so much extra support from the LEA that by the time she reaches GCSEs they are the schools that are good/outstanding sometimes to the detriment of schools that were good and have been left to their own devices.

Can you ascertain what plan is in place to help the school?

Is the school an LEA school ?

If it is, sit tight and the LEA bods will sort the special measures stuff

If its an Academy, do all you can to move as they will stick their heads in the sand.

Not always true as some of the failing LEA schools near us were taken over by Academy Trusts and as a result became much better and in some cases good schools. I'd look at the track record of the Academy Trust if it is to see how their other schools are doing.

I'm more interested in how the chains do when Ofsted raise a query.
Nothing I've heard has been good - about any of them, let alone stand alone

Does she want to live with her dad?

I think a stable home life is more important to your DDs furure sucess than the school she attends.

BTW, whether you can see the school or not, has no sway in winning an appeal. It's a case of convincing a panel that the detriment to your DD of not attending, trumps the detriment to the school in taking on an additional child. There are some educational experts here who would be able to offer you advice if you go that route.

Have you also got your DD on to any and all waiting lists for schools you would find acceptable?

I would sit tight. What did it fail on? Management? Teaching and learning? Schools in special measures get a huge amount of additional money and additional support and can improve quickly. Put her on a wait list and just send her to the school. Sending her to live with her dad seems a bit mad to me unless she wants to