How do you pick a secondary school?

[user88899]

What are your criteria for picking a secondary school? How and where do you research? Growing up there was only one choice, you just went to the nearest school. We are in a new area with 6+ schools we could consider. Our nearest school is OFSTED outstanding but is a selective school (not based on high achieving, it's to get an even spread) and irritatingly they take 50% of children from a neighbouring town, so it's highly unlikely we will get that school despite being just 0.2 miles down the road.

So I'm trying to work out my second and third choices, I'm looking at attendance data, ofsted, school size, and I've tried asking locally but don't get many clear cut opinions! Just wondering how everyone else narrows down their choices?!

When you say it's selective Op, in what way? 11plus? or a fair banging test?

If distance from the school is category six, what are the other categories? Our nearest school goes LAC, catchment with sibling, catchment no sibling, non catchment with sibling, which is more common. That's an academy too btw, only one secondary in our city is not an academy.

How do they select? I’m in Bucks so we are fully grammar and selective. Northants isn’t though is it? So are these schools changing the nature of comprehensive education by the back door? It’s also a dysfunctional LA: Northants. Life is a lot easier here in terms of transparency.

😂😂😂 fair banding tweet I mean!!

But yes, put a banker in third, or you risk a crappy school a long way away.

oh fgs! tweet? not sure why that's there!

I would personally always include at least one school you can be reasonably sure you will gain a place at, even there are others that you would prefer but are more of a 'gamble' to include. You can always apply to be put onto the waiting list of these schools after allocations day if you get your banker school, but at least then you have a place at a school that would be ok (if not the best) and not the one you're trying to avoid!

Not grammar, this particular academy trust does non verbal reasoning tests and picks from a variety of results to ensure balance apparently.

I've just re-checked the groupings it's not 6th sorry but 4th

1. looked after
2. children of staff
3. sibling
4. live in X town or X town, with a list of villages and stating 50% of pupils will be from each area.
5. then lists distance to school, we are 0.3 miles but it is densely populated (garden town territory so lots of new builds!)

@ChildOfFriday thank you, noted.

That sounds promising op. tbh there will be tiny numbers in the first two categories, literally a handful, so you are in a good place. What is the annual intake?

Ideally I would check the distance admitted in previous years, that info must be available via the school surely? Maybe don't call this week tho!

That test is just a fair banding test btw, so not selective, quite the opposite really - all abilities just as likely to get a place.

Yes. Just had a look at some random
Northants schools. It’s fair banding. No academic selection tests.

Their composite prospectus does contain the sentence that the LA web site will contain publish details of how all places were allocated. I cannot find it. The Bucks one lists all schools. For each it says how many were successful, on which criteria (Looked after, siblings, catchment etc) and up to a distance of x miles. So if you live 4 miles away and the school routinely takes up to 2 miles, you really know you won’t get in. Some schools take all who apply and never look at their published criteria.

I cannot see any breakdown of the type they say they provide in their prospectus. They do have a centralised system but I would ask them how places were allocated for the schools you are interested in. Each criteria and distance.

Forgot to attach it.

Thanks both, that's reassuring (although most parents I ask around here haven't managed to get their child in the school?!) When it's calmed down I will ask them if they have their information on distance allocated as I can't find it online.

No. I cannot find it either but the snapshot of the prospectus above says they do provide info on school allocations. In Bucks this includes distance. With the Northants system, this is not truly applicable and makes decision making far more difficult!

With ballots, a child living further away can get a place over a child living much closer. They fit the “band” where the school needs to recruit from. So they get preference over a nearer child that doesn’t fit the band. Northants should explain who gets places on the ballot system and where they live. Sounds like a minefield to me!

I think you need more info from local families re where their dc go. Are they happy with the schools they can get into.

@PresentingPercy yes I've been polling Facebook ha, thing is everyone always raves about their school, there's a bit of a competitive nature against the school that's hard to get into so I think people over compensate a bit ha! When schools aren't as over run with admissions and restarting I will contact them and see if I can see admissions data if I can't find online.

Really appreciate all the replies thank you!

I’m never sure if a lottery is better than known catchment areas. It’s true that the best secondary moderns tend to be in areas where house prices are higher but in an area like Buckingham, there’s no alternative really. So you cannot juggle admissions via a ballot and testing. (Other than the 11 plus of course). Nothing seems to work to everyone’s satisfaction!

Actually, everyone saying their schools are good is way better than everyone saying they are crap! At least that is positive. Good luck with finding out more info.

Agree that everyone saying their schools is good is really positive. Normally local Facebook brings out people who absolutely loathe a particular school (sometimes with no good reason).

Yes true, I haven't braved the big scary town Facebook group yet, only the local neighbourhood group, I will brave that when it's live again after being banned for a few days 😬😂

(The group, not me ha!)

Not sure if this has been raised already but fill all your preferred school options in, don't leave any blanks and be prepared to go to one of them.

If there are three spaces and your heart is set on one so you just put that down you risk being allocated anywhere the LEA has free - not necessarily your nearest but the schools that need higher pupil numbers to make them more economically viable. For us this would have been 3 buses away.

You can appeal against not getting into that one choice - very unlikely to succeed and if it does your child likely to have to start school somewhere else and transfer when a space is available. You cannot appeal against going to the LEA allocated school, you can only appeal against schools you applied for and were refused.

If push does come to shove and you are facing somewhere you are really unhappy to go then call any of the schools directly that you would prefer, ask them to request the place from the LEA. Our LEA was sending kids quite far from home to their new, enormous comp completely bypassing the old comp that much nearer to the primary we attended in order to balance the books. The old comp had a lot of places free.