Would you move your dc to a new school for y10?

[StableGenius]

My dc (one in y9 one in y8) has just had the worst ofsted report I've ever seen (and I worked in education for many years and have seen a lot).

I knew the school was struggling after the last head (who had turned it from a 'bog standard comp' to the shiny super-school of the area) left suddenly in horrible (and identifying, so I won't elaborate) circumstances at the end of 2015, but I'd held on in the hope things would settle.

Clearly, 2.5 years later, they are nowhere near that point and I'm concerned.

There are 4 schools in this town, and not one has a rating above 'Requires Improvement', but in the neighbouring town (9 miles away) there is an Outstanding school with a very long-standing reputation for excellence. As it serves a rural area with declining population, it's likely to have spaces. I've called them this morning and am waiting for a call back.

It would involve a 30-ish min bus trip each way for the dc, but as they will be nearly 15 and 13, that doesn't bother me too much. My main worry is that the school doesn't offer one of dc1's GCSE options.

Dc are both on board with the idea and pretty excited (at the moment).

WWYD?

Seeline, this area has always been an anomaly in the county for having middle schools up to y7 and starting the upper school in y8. It's unusual, but I think the grammar schools in a neighbouring borough did the same thing until recently. This is the last frontier of the 3 tier system locally now.

I suspect they'll have made a tentative start on GCSE courses, but I'm willing to put in some work over the summer hols if catch up is required.

They definitely pick options in mid y9, so they won't have got too far ahead yet, I hope.

Do it, do it now!

If the original school is that shit, then moving even if they’ve already started GCSEs at the new school will probably end up with better results/support than staying put.
Teachers will be quitting the original school too, and they may struggle to recruit replacements.

I taught a student who moved to my school near Christmas of Y10 and even though they had to put in lots of extra work to catch up what they’d missed (the school provided the SoL, I think they may have had tutors as well), and it turned out to be harder than they expected, they were still adamant it was the right choice and got good GCSEs.

Quick update: dc have been offered places at the school and we are talking about moving to the neighbouring town (more expensive property but we could probably cover it).

The new dilemma - dc have studied different MFL at their current school. To get into new school, they have to study the same MFL (school's 'house' type system, siblings have to be in the same house, don't ask me why). They have both decided to ditch their original MFL (dd1 Spanish, dd2 German) and take French.

I'm OK with this (have QTS with French, speak good French, love the language and excited about bringing them up to speed). But am I letting my excitement put them at a disadvantage? Sorry, this is a bit of a specialist question and I might start a separate thread - but does anyone have any thoughts?

I guess it depends if languages are something they care about/want to continue later. If not it may be worth sacrificing one subject (ie switch to French and accept it might be a struggle and lower grades etc) if its worth it to get better school and better teaching in other subjects.

Don't worry about missing start of GCSE teaching - if they are happy in school and if the school is any good they will soon catch up.

When I moved DD part way through year 10 she had to drop one of her subjects and continue another outside school but it was worth it as everything else was so much better

I was going to ask the same question although the school DD is interested in isn't offering places. They did say I could fill in an in year transfer form, though.

Thanks, everyone - the girls are very keen to switch to French (we often go to France, and they love it), so I'm going with it.

Fingers crossed it will all work out. The school is amazing on paper - but so was the old one when they joined...

If they are looking forward to it that’s half the battle

Go for it. Move them next week if you can

Good luck, best thing i ever did with one of my dc

Completely different reasons ( bullying ) but I moved my ds at the end of year 7, he literally started his new school on 29th June so got used to everything before the school went back in September and he started year 8.
If the school will allow them in now I would honestly do it, that few weeks makes such a difference as they are not starting after the summer as "new" and already know their teachers/classmates/building etc.

Best of luck

I would move them. You can catch up anything missed through early starts to GCSE easily. It sounds like you know the school they are in is not performing and within a reasonable commute you have a better option.