School A - intake 300, ofsted outstanding ( from 8 yrs ago) consistently produces excellent GCSE results , has sixth form again excellent results, good sporting reputation and pastoral care. Half hour on bus from our village, school takes from wide area. On visiting School at open evening we liked it but it also felt cramped and bit shabby. School recently became academy , supposed to be building new classrooms but no info on when that will start , typical class size of 30. Church school. Well balanced demographic. Set for maths 1 to 6 English set for 1 and 2 the rest are mixed ability.
School B - intake around 150 ofsted requires improvements from 18 months ago . Same curriculum as School A. Similar gcse results. Also has 6 th form . 20 minutes car journey, will need dropping off and picking up by me, smaller class size. Sets for maths and English 1 to 5/6 . Very skewed demographic in that our child would be in the minority. School has a reputation for kids not mixing very well despite staff interventions. Good sporting provision.
Dc is sporty average academic ability and needs to be watched as h has tendency to keep his head down and not always push himself. Might feel overawed at school A initially because of size of School . His 2 closest friends are going to school B . He won't know anyone at school A .