Chichester secondary options

[lloupey]

Can any shed any light for me on the secondary situation in Chichester, it is somewhere we are considering moving to with 2 girls in primary at the minute. We're not religious so assuming Bishop Luffa is out, when I look at the comparison performance tables the Free School and High school look dreadful way below national average but I see the High School has been OFSTED outstanding for a few years, can anyone give me any advice?

Don't know the schools personally but did some checking around the figures for you. Don't assume that Bishop Luffa is completely out - the Foundation places are offered to those living within the Catchment area under different categories. Category F is "Children of a parent or parents who wish them to have a Christian education." but they don't actually have to produce any proof of this. Last year 72 children were admitted under this category. Admmitedly if you're strong atheists you might not like the idea anyway but if you're not bothered by a chuch school in itself then you do have a reasonable chance of getting in provided you live in the right place.

The Chichester Free School has a better Progress 8 than the High School but neither look stunning. I wonder if there's a nearby grammar school that does some creaming off?

Maybe you should look further in West Sussex? p 18 onwards of this document www.westsussex.gov.uk/media/11914/info_for_parents_secondary_school_sept2019.pdf

shows the other schools in WS and the numbers applying and getting in. Have a look at those schools where almost all apllicants were offered places then see if any of them look good and are reachable from Chichester. Have a good look at the Progress 8 for different ability groups (which can be found under "Prior Attainment" on the Performance Tables - you'll need to choose the 2017 figures to do this as the 2018 figures only show the overall Progress 8).
Hope this doesn't seem too confusing but often there are "hidden gems" around the place which don't have great headline figures but do well by particular groups. A school in my town which serves quite a deprived area and has an average reputation overall actually has a really good Progress 8 for High Achievers ( a pupil there got 10 Grade 9s in GCSE this year) - you wouldn't know about this unless you really dug down in the stats.

Thanks so much for taking the time to reply, I will have another look using your tips! It's such a minefield wish I had moved before I had schools to think about too!

Hello. We have two daughters at Chi High in years 7 and 9. We crawled all over schools in our area for two years before going with the High School for our eldest daughter. Both our girls are happy and settled and love school. They are (can’t be arsed to be modest as it’s late) very bright and the school is doing them and us proud.
Dig deep below the stats is the only advice I would offer and do visit schools before dismissing them out of hand. So far we’ve been impressed by the teaching, leadership and culture at Chi High. It has a more mixed intake than Luffa and other schools in the area so the comparative stats aren’t much of a guide unless you dig. Every year there seem to be kids with a host of A* GCSEs and they send kids to Oxbridge and Russell Group universities if that’s important to you.
Don’t know whether that’s helpful but we wouldn’t risk our girls’ education in any old place and I wanted to share our experience of, and speak up for, their great school.

Thanks so much for your reply that's really good to know, I will have more of a look, it does look like it has a lot going for it on other levels from their website but hard to know more without looking at the results from a distance. Trying to decide between moving to Chichester ( I would prefer to be closer to the sea) or Petersfield which looks like it has better secondary options , do kids travel far from Chichester to other state schools?