Birmingham Secondary Schools

[HairySandwiches]

Hi all.

I’m on the hunt for advice and recommendations on secondary schools.

Not looking for any super duper amazing ones where you have to live within 150meters of the gates. Just nice, decent schools which may or may not be the best in the area but have good teaching, supportive parents and people who live a little bit further away might have a chance at.

They need to be in reasonable distance of bus or train route from the city centre. I don’t care about the religion of the school (but won’t be applying for a faith place), or ethnic mix (DS one of the 10% white British in primary). DS like rugby, plays an instrument and is part of a scout group (so guess I’m saying he would fit in at most types of schools).

Context:
DS starting secondary September 2021. We apply this year. We have lots of faith schools near us which, between our lack of religious faith, not attending feeder schools and not living within 200m of the school, we have absolutely no hope but will be naming a couple anyways.
We also have three dreadful schools, City, Central and Jewellery Quarter academies, two of which are undergoing a merger (so no idea what’s going to happen there) but we will have to put one down as a banker. DS will be doing 11+ and KES exam. Both are a bit of a stab in the dark and hope for the best but you never know. Plus KES also needs to come with a very very heavily assisted place to be feasible.

Hence, I’m asking if anyone knows/recommends any schools which are a little bit further out (or even a long way out) which would be worth investigating.

Thanks for reading this far, looking forward to your suggestions

KES assisted places are v generous btw, the fees are on a sliding scale according to your income- the current fee schedule will be on their website.

Another school to look at is Waseley Hills High School on the edge of Birmingham (it comes under Worcestershire so it won't be in the lists you're looking at). Accessible on the 63 bus from town - but a long trek.

It's not got a great reputation for academics and it is Ofsted 'requires improvement' but its results are still better than your local options and it's always had a reputation as being a nice school. It's in a lovely location too. And it's generally under subscribed because of the Ofsted and less than stellar results.

@BournvilleGreen I totally agree with you that they aren’t the best schools and the majority of the list shouldn’t be touched with a 10 foot bargepole. I have crossed most of them off for my DC.
I just thought, because I’d already made the list, I’d try and be helpful to save the OP looking for them. Although the OP will have to look for the schools with cut off distances nearer to them I can’t help with that part unfortunately.
Sometimes when your nearest options are so dire, some of the schools on that list might look attractive because they are at least better than your local options.

@crazycrofter I’m another who never thought of Walsall. Might be worth investigating that OP.

There's also Warwickshire grammars, Wolverhampton Grammar, and Adams grammar (I think it's in Shropshire? Not sure)
I do think that the QMWalsall/Wolverhampton scores will increase though, as an effect of the introduction of catchments for KEVI grammars. Your catchment grammar would be KEVI Handsworth, and yes, score this offer day was 213, as was Aston, so depending how able he is that could give you hope?
KES exam is different from KEVI 11+, though the maths is of a similar level. There is more writing at length (lord knows how my son managed his pass, as his writing is illegible even to me!) and there's a NVR paper too.

I'm not sure the Warwickshire grammar schools are travellable from the city centre. Queen Mary's in Walsall is a half hour bus journey on the X51 plus a short walk.

Wolverhampton Grammar is fee paying, but they may do decent bursaries? I've never looked into them. Likewise Bromsgrove School, which is very expensive, but I did know some kids with full bursaries there - it would be accessible on train from New St - again about half an hour.

Ah, thank you crofter, I did not realise WGS was fee-paying, as it was too far for us to consider, and everyone we knew was just doing then all.

I've had a look at the bursaries section on Bromsgrove School's website - the income limits look very similar to KES and the form is exactly the same as what we fill in annually at KEHS. That's definitely worth a look if you think your income would entitle you to a full or substantial bursary as I understand it's less competitive to get into than KES.

@SexIsAProtectedCharacteristic Behaviour, is another reason I’m tying to avoid those schools. I’ll also add King Solomon to the no list.
I’m Wondering what school you work at now? I’ve heard a lot of bad things about cockshut. Is it really that bad?

@Neim That is a brilliant list. Thank you. I think there are definitely some schools on there that will be crossed off immediately but there are some that I’m adding to my investigate further list - bourneville, George Dixon, lordswood, Moseley and small heath being some of them as they have been mentioned a couple of times now. I’ll do a quick website search and bus route search on the whole list though to see what seems ok. Wondering what schools you are considering for our DC? Please do let me know what you find out once you’ve looked. I haven’t physically been and looked at any yet. I’m shortlisting before I do. I don’t want to take DS to see a school we have no hope at and he falls in love with it. I think that’s just cruel.

@crazycrofter Interesting what you say about middle schools although I feel that wouldn’t be a good plan and seems too risky trying to find a place in year 9. I don’t think I could put myself through it.
I’ll look into bromsgrove school as well and see how that would work with fees and travelling. Possibly too far? But haven’t looked into it properly yet. It’s workable with a direct train.
Wasley Hills is 50 minutes and a direct bus so...? I’ll look into it though. Thank you

@BournvilleGreen Yes, those scores are definitely giving me a bit of hope. I think DS could manage that. Just have to hope there aren’t a lot of siblings this year.
QM and Wolverhampton Grammar are over an hour away by public transport (2 busses) and walking from our house. I believe that’s just a little bit too far, I think if they were more like 45/50 minutes it’s dealable with but over an hour is too much. Thank you though. It’s really appreciated. What made you dislike harbourne?

Just going to throw this out there, I might be completely mad thinking it but, with the list that neim posted, it’s making me think that I should just not put any of City, Central or JQ as 6th preference and go for one on that list? I mean they can’t exactly give us any worse than our local schools can they? What’s the worst that can happen, we get one of the local schools, but at least we tried for better.

@Neim that would say
Wondering what schools you are considering for your DC? Not our DC Sorry, I’m not trying to give you my children aha

As an ex cockshut student, I recommend not sending your ds there. Although I see someone has written that it’s improved recently, I think this improvement is from a very low starting point! Also worth saying that the problems at CH have been there for many years. I was there 1991-1998 and behaviour was bad, expectations were really low and lessons were uninspiring. That’s at least 20 years of being terrible to turn around. Wouldn’t touch it with a barge pole!

I agree, two buses and over an hour’s journey is tough. Ds has managed it until recently but in the last few weeks we’ve decided to drop him at the second bus stop in the morning (15 mins drive) so he just has one bus of 45 mins. I’m assuming that wouldn’t be an option for you?

Trains are definitely a quicker and more reliable way to travel so definitely look into Bromsgrove School. I’m not sure how far the walk is from the train station though. I know they have a school bus from the Edgbaston area but maybe not near enough to you.

And you’re right - if those schools are undersubscribed and you can find one that’s slightly less bad than your local schools you might as well put it on the form.

If they are undersubscribed I'd look at John Wilmott. You do get a good mix of children from varying backgrounds attend. It's also improving under the Arthur Terry academy.

If you don't put a local school and don't meet the admission criteria for any of the 6 you put downi can alimony guarantee you'll get Great Barr. Due to its size they are never full.

Interested to see the school I work at listed. We’re 5 miles from city centre but do have kids from the JQ.

Nearer to you - George Dixon, Lordswood, Holte, Kings Heath Boys, Heartlands.

How about some of the KE academies?

What about looking at some of the nearer Sandwell schools too? I'm not sure whether they tend to have spaces but some of them seem quite good - Q3, Bristnall Hall for example.

I've just had a quick look - Shireland Collegiate Academy in Smethwick has an above average progress score, an outstanding Ofsted (although it's 2013) and they admit 25 children based on arts ability, including music. They have a group audition/assessment and there doesn't seem to be a distance criteria.

Not sure how accessible that is to you, but worth a look?

@Citygirl2019 I’ll have a further look at John willmott. And great Barr if that’s where we might end up. Thank you.

@SexIsAProtectedCharacteristic That’s really interesting. This is one of the schools which I will definitely be putting on the list. I went and looked round last year at the open night (without DS, I sneaked away when the DCs were at a club) and I was very impressed by the whole school.
Im a radiographer in the hospital. Is it possible to train as a teacher in 6 months? Could do biology or physics or maths. I’d honestly do it if it helps. In fact, I’ll even clean the toilets if I have to. I’d do anything right now.
I’ll ring St John wall and ask about their cut offs and admissions. For some reason the catholic schools don’t have their distances in the secondary school booklet?

@crazycrofter Thanks for the pointer towards Shireland Collegiate, DS has played an instrument for a couple of years. No idea if hes good enough for what they’re after but definitely worth a look.
I’ve had a look at the Sandwell schools as well and see if they are travel-able to. They seem ok to get to but it’s just cut off distances again. I need to look more into them.
I had a look into travelling to bromsgrove and it’s a train+bus+walking but if they have a bus from edgebaston it’s worth ringing and asking for more information regarding the bus and bursaries.

@caulkheaded A lot of the KE academies have very small catchments. The only one that doesn’t is balaam Wood but others have said it’s a tricky catchment, also, it’s only become KE this year so that might be why? Will be interesting to see whether the change means it’s oversubscribed this year or not.

I’m also getting the impression I’m not going totally mad and it’s worth not putting out locals on the preferences. That makes me slightly happier if I can totally avoid them.

[post edited by MNHQ at poster's request]

Fairfax in Sutton Coldfield also gives 10% of its places to applicants with an aptitute for performing arts (Music, Drama and Dance). Maybe not the best school in the area, but a good ofsted and 50% 5+ in English/Maths GCSE in 2019.
But may be a long trek from your location?
(It was on my list, but we are further up north of city center).

@Soomaa That’s excellent. I hear that’s a good school all round not just results wise.
I’ll look into their music places. Your right maybe too far transport wise but worth looking into. Thank you