So how do people...

[Gileswithachainsaw]

Come to terms with knowing your dc will be going to a less than desirable school?

We are tutoring in the hope of passing the 11 plus however I'm still not sure even if my dd did pass a grammar school would be the right fit anyway.

Realistically I don't think she will pass, which means the local academy.

Which by the way was ripped apart by Ofsted for poor teaching, lack of differentiation, uninspiring lessons and the worst gcse results in the area.

By low I mean less than 40 percent of a-c grades.

Has anyone had this and it been ok?

Right now im just feeling like crap that my "choices" are her sitting an exam she has no real hope of passing and possibly struggling in the school if she some how does

Or the worst school around .

A lot of parents try to opt out in some other way, go private, bus their DC out to a better school miles away, find faith, move house.

If they are not options, how many resources do you have at your disposal to top-up the education on offer? Hire tutors? Buy workbooks? Subscribe to learning websites?

Meant to say we will be applying this year for entry next September.

Can a school doing so badly turn around so quick?

None of those are long term financially viable options unfortunately. I plan do go on waiting lists for better school but high birth year means its unlikely.

I could by bokks obviously but I also work part time and have a second child so I don't have unlimited time sadly

Bursary to independent?

Don't think we have anything like that round here. I'm going to take a chance and list a school in another country but I know alot of people are doing the same so I'm not hopeful there either.

Another county? Or country? Can you say roughly where you are? They may be MNers that have children there already.

County

God if I could afford another country I'd be moving house

I do know of a few people who have kids who go there and reports are mixed. I've heard of alot of bullying and reports of attendance issues but it does also state the head is well aware of the issues so that's a positive.

Ultimately it doesn't really make alot of difference if we love or hate it when we see it because the results have been steadily getting worse each year and even if she's happy there it's still a worry that she won't do as well as she could.

Oh and I know the stance on MN is that Ofsted isn't everything and I do fully intend to go view the school with an open mind bit of be lying if I said the results and pupil outcomes didn't worry me.

Raw results look terrible, what is their progress 8 score?

If you look at www.compare-school-performance.service.gov.uk there will be much more detail. How do middle attainers get on? Girls?

The progress 8 thing had it as red which im.assumimg is bad.

53 percent of girls a-c

If the school is officially in special measures then it should have a lot of input from LA, New Head and Senior Leadership Team to turn it around quickly, but I think that you are right to be cautious.

Why op do you feel Grammar school is not the right fit and that your DD will not pass her 11 plus?

If I was in your situation I would go to visit the academy school on a working day and not an open day. Visiting on working day will give you a much better feel for things.

Where in the country roughly are you?

I think she is the potential to pass/do well however what she doesn't have is the maturity and the ability to deal with the pressure and time limits in things. She gets in a bit of a flap and is so worried about the time she doesn't have she wastes the time she does have moaning about how it's not enough time.

I've done alot of work with her and I pay for and take her to or dp take a her to multiple sporting activities (which she loves and is good at) in an attempt to build up her confidence and show if you work hard it pays off however she still gets far to distressed at a time limit and if the local school wasn't so dire I'd not be putting her thru it

Oh we are South buck

A terrible school in a grammar system in a time of severe funding cuts and a dire teacher recruitment and retention crisis is probably going to be very difficult to turn around.
If you think she is clever enough to go to a grammar but flaps at tests, I'd pull out all the stops on that tbh.

Electro

I'm wondering if we are talking about the same school. Knocked down relocated and 're built as an acadamy and still just as bad as it ever was

I am.trying noble really hard but every time we solve one "problem" somehow she manages to invent another. I'm running out of ideas and options

What doesn't help also is the fact that when she does practice papers at school (they get sent home) 99 percent of the questions she got wrong is not because she didn't know it. That I could handle in all honesty. She lost the marks because she didn't read the question properly and in those cases you can be right but still wrong because you didn't mark it correctly.

The good news is that Bucks is a winner on the funding front. They are putting more into schools - from a very low base!

If I have guessed what school this is, (E-Act B) it is a real yoyo school and is in a fairly well to do town/area so does not get all grammar reject children: they go to private schools. This school has never been very good and I worked in this area back in the 1990s. I am always surprised people don't move to get a better school.

As it is an academy it is getting a lot of input from the MAT. The latest very recent inspection report on progress is reasonably positive especially lower down the school. They are also ceasing to have a 6th form. (I hope I do have the correct school!) HMI have found green shoots and you may find the school is getting better teachers and certainly seems to only have a better Head who knows what's what. It is a bit like turning around an ocean liner because so much needs to be done but I also think parents have a role here. There is no standard Governing Body and parents should agitate more. Get active and get vocal.

I'm afraid you don't have the correct school but that is good news on the funding front.

I wish we could afford to move however anywhere we could afford to live to round here we would likely have the same problem anyway as obviously catchment for good schools mean housing is more expensive. Dp had to change jobs and is now in a much lower paid job than before we were in the process of moving then but had to pull out.

I keep veering from "it will be ok because it has to be" to a sudden panic/realisation and and get that all the sacrifices we have made to get her into a good primary school have now been for nothing

Are you close to any other secondaries? Cottesmore maybe if you're in south Bucks. It has a fairly large catchment and while not great it's not as bad as you're describing.

Cottesloe not Cottesmore

We are a fair way outside their catchment it's one I will consider however involves two buses to get to

Chances are extremely slim