Which do we choose?

[mishgs]

Please help!
We need to choose a high school for my DS aged 11. He's at a lovely, small Catholic primary school and has been there since he was 3. He loves it and academically is working at the expected level.
We are at the stage of choosing a high school. DS has been to 3 taster days with his close friends at the local Catholic high school and really enjoyed it. It has a great transition programme. It is an Ofsted rated 'good' school but is not in a particularly good area and suffers locally from a dated poor reputation compared to other local schools (based on an opinion from 20-30 years ago).
Here is our problem - the other choice is a large 'Outstanding' high school with a very good reputation - DS's friends from football & cricket will be going there.
My DH is VERY keen that he goes there but I think he would be happier in the other smaller school with his close friends. The GCSE results from both schools last year very similar so both did well.
DS said that he wants to go to the local smaller school with his 'best friends' but I just know how gutted my DH will be and will use every opportunity to say 'I told you so' when something goes wrong. I can't sleep with the worry & actually cried at the last open day as I'm so confused. I just want the best for him. Thanks for reading.

A school with an intake of 200 is normal. Usually it’s 210 (7 x 30). If it’s 200 they expect below 30 in each class. With 6th form, you will have around 1300? This is not small.

Did you really mean 800? 5x800 is 4,000 without a 6th form. This cannot be right! Did I read that correctly?

Wow an intake of 800! That is an enormous school! So a school of 4,000 students excluding sixth form. That's twice the size of the biggest school in my East Mids county/city.

That might give me pause, unless I could see what they did to mitigate against possible issues with so many students.

Also as others say, how old is the outstanding rating - the nearby outstanding school to us was last inspected 10 years ago. A recent good is supposed to be a similar level to an old outstanding as Ofsted have got tougher. Allegedly. Your DH's reasons sound more to do with him and less your son tbh.

Yes I meant to say that 200-240 intake is standard, most secondaries my way have about 1000-1200 students. 600 I would call a small school, ie 100-120 a year.

As a teacher Ofsted reports are so flawed do not believe them. In fact one local to me regularly off roles pupils who will not get the grades in order to get the grades it wants! Is this what you want?
Go with what you feel is best!

Thanks again everyone for your help. I've been researching this afternoon & am going to let it sink in over the next week or so. We've got about 4 weeks before the application is made and will try and arrange a day time tour of the bigger school in the meantime.

op I am over invested in your thread clearly, but I am keen to know if that figure is right! Are there really 800 students in a year?!

Sorry it should have said 600 (I was it typing on a very sunny football pitch & I couldn't see the screen very well). It's spilt over 2 sites - lower & upper school.

Gosh that's still huge. Must be just about the biggest secondary in the country. That would certainly give me pause, how can the head know every student? I was a year 11 tutor last year and I reckon I knew all the year by name; I'd have struggled with 600. If your Ds has been at a small primary, a secondary with 3,000 pupils might well be overwhelming.

That's what I thought too! As part of the open day PowerPoint they showed us how the numbers are broken down and how staff are allocated etc.
There is a 4 form entry primary who go and the vast majority of other local primaries are 2 form entries - and then there's little ole us! I suppose if you're from a bigger primary you can cope a bit better but who knows?
Thanks.

600 PER YEAR?! That's 20 classes of 30.
No wonder they win everything sportswise, they must have half the county to choose from.

The "smaller" school definitely! (200 is not small... !)

I'd be very wary of the larger school. For example computer science, how many get to do it at GCSE? How do they "select"?
DofE - again how many actually get to do it.

I'd be very worried about lack of opportunity at a school of 600/year.

From my shortlist i let my dcs choose. Obviously only from those i was already happy with. In all 3 cases it has been the right choice for them.

Hi montenuit - glad it worked out for your dc's. Hopefully in a year or so I can join one of these threads saying we made the right decision too!
Did they all choose to go to the same school?

no the eldest is at one school then dd went to another, and dd2 followed her which surprised us but it has been equally good for her.

Glad it's worked out for them . I think we all just want them to be happy, work hard & achieve their potential....

The intake of the larger school is 800? 😮 TBH I just couldn't send my DC to a school that big.

I was going to say probably the larger has more options but then saw how big it is.
That would put me off.

When you said small I thought you meant the whole school would be 500-600.

It's a nice position to be in to have 2 good schools to choose from. With the smaller one that's been turned around, I would have a look closely at the behaviour policy and how it's implemented. In my experience schools with long histories of poor behaviour and outcomes tend to end up getting some more rigid/draconian policies (i hate that phrase but you know what I mean). Check you'd be happy signing up to whatever they do, especially if it has since become under a MAT.

If Catholicism was important at primary why is it less so at secondary? I would have thought this was the deal breaker.

I agree but I think that some people are happy with the 3 sacraments that they receive before the age of 11 and then go with the better academic option when choosing high schools.

OP - there are friends, and then there are CLOSE friends. You’ll know which type applies to your son’s friends that are going to the Catholic school. Although it is true that most kids leave with different friends than they started secondary with, it’s not true for all. It depends on quality, and where really close friendship is there, there’s research that show maybe it really matters. My father is about to jointly celebrate his 80th with 3 of his close friends from primary school (touch wood).

Best friends forever; How friendship boosts pupils' grades www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-45652599

As others have said, the results your DS gets matter more than the difference between 2 good schools (and they’re both that, which is why choosing is both so hard and such a luxury). FWIW, my DS is also super sociable, has already made new friends 3 weeks into Y7, but that’s not stopped him taking being at a different school than his bestie since Reception hard. It’s hard to watch.

Thank you China - I definitely think we're on the same wavelength! My DS loves being with his friends that's he's known since Nursery (the Mums are friends too which may be swaying my decision...) and I think it would break both our hearts if they were to go their separate ways.
I'm trying to think with my head over my heart but I'll read that article with interest!
Can I ask why your child went to a different school to their friends?

China - and I love the story about your dad's 80th!I hope they all have a great time