New school

[Whatwouldscullydo]

Does anyone have any experience of their kid starting at a brand new school fir Yr 7?

How did it go?

Do you regret it?

I have a child due to start next September and I'm having last minute thought about my order of preference

I have one which is walking distance and where her sibling goes. It's not great school but simultaneously not the worst either. Your average town crap hole.

There's another I feel night be a better fit, bit it's 2 bus journeys away. Short easy bus journeys but I'm reluctant to pick the bus school becuase traffic round here can be unpredictable , one closed road somewhere and it's chaos. I'm.planning on picking up more hours when she goes to secondary so the last thing I want is to have to go pick her up becuase the bus didn't show or she misses it or it had ti take an alternate route due to road issues.

Frankly it's not a great school either ajd the idea of paying to get there doesn't appeal. Its no better or worse than the others locally though.

Or there's the option of a new one. Walking distance. She can't follow her sister around and embarrass her. And believe she is also dyslexic , she does struggle with reading, writing, spelling, handwriting and remembering all her ideas. So a school that does everything on a chrome book might actually be easier fir her as she will have the spell check and she's pretty good with a laptop/ipad/PC. It's the one thing she's quick at.

A couple of things concerned me on the zoom.meeting . One the academy leader said you have ti put it first which I thought was false . The position is only relevant if u qualify fir 2 or more schools. 2 the admissions policy says the LA will share the preferences with the school. Again I thought the school had no idea where u rank them?

He wouldn't be the first or last person ti chat this shit though and I can understand him just wanting to fill the school.

Befire I decide to list it I'm.just after experiences of new schools to help make a decision.

Tia

.

You are correct about the order of preferences- schools don't know where you rank them and you don't get priority for putting a school first, or lose priority for putting it further down. Each school you list is a effectively a separate application, and, as you said, the order only matters if you qualify for more than one school, in which case you get offered the one you listed highest.

I have heard of headteachers at open days saying things like "you have to put us first", and I guess it's correct in the sense that if they are your true first preference you should put them first, or you may instead be offered a place at a school you listed higher. It's so misleading and confusing though, and leads to some interpreting it as "X school fills up with people who put it first" which has not been the case in England for many years, but is still a widely believed misconception!

Anyway, rant over List the schools in your true order of preference OP, though I understand that deciding what your true preference order is is the difficult bit!

Yeah I'm.fortunately aware if the application process . And I'm certainly not playing any strategy games. I'm resigned to my "choices" of lousy schools and am just basing it in locality/ease of access.

My gut right now is telling me to try something new. I dont wanna spend the next six years maiming about the same shit I do now at dd2s school . I have a link to all three of the potential results. 2 are catchment and one I have the sibling link.so I'll definitely get one of the three.

I'm just hoping there aren't too many horror stories abiut new schools hence the post

Dd1s school rather

We had two new schools open near us - Katherine Warrington and Croxley Danes. Both are in the same location as some highly sought after existing comprehensives so parents were initially not all that keen to have them as first choice. They are both now full and parents extremely happy.

The downside with both schools though was that new buildings weren’t ready on time and children were housed in temporary classrooms or squashed into facilities at existing schools.

Neither school has had children sit GCSEs yet so there’s a bit of the unknown, but they both have a great reputation locally after only a few years of opening.

That's good to hear it works out.

They do have a an B fir if building isn't ready. We had another school in antemp building fir a yr it all worked out.

He did also say that 6th firm would be something considered when it arises as they don't k ow the needs of the kids yet

A new school near us started with yr 7 in planned temporary buildings, I think they were mainly on site last year, and they have just opened a 6th form this year as the first cohort enter year 9. I guess that should help ensure they are attractive to a good range of subject specialists as the original students start GCSEs.

I guess the thing I worry about the most is , is it a safe bet in that it won't just close down year later after they cant afford afford keep running it or something.

Most of me is saying give it a chance as there's nothing to lose. But I do also worry people will change their minds, pull their kids and ill have no chance to move dd as the rest of the schools will be over subscribed.

Plus I don't think.aby if the uniform is " transferable " I'd have to buy everything if I I move her.

But then I.also don't want to regret not giving it ago if parebts start raving about it in.2 years time and the catchment shrinks to the point I'd have no hope of ever re applying

My eldest started at a primary school which was fairly new, I think he was in third cohort. It was positive in a lot of ways, e.g. loads of space in terms of playground, classrooms, etc. As parents [this will be less true at secondary] you really get to feel that you're part of something, with an opportunity to shape it.

At my kid's school we seemed to end up with oversupply of certain specialist teaching staff, notably PE and I think music, which was good, it meant the clubs & teams situations etc were way better than average. I suppose this could plausibly go the other way at some schools, they might try to 'wing it' one way or another.

All the IT and stuff was really new and in good condition.

They were sometimes a bit slow at doing stuff for the oldest kids, e.g. having enough books that were suitable for good readers. You can imagine similar things being true at a new secondary [e.g. maybe being deficient somehow at things like setting up work experience].

There IMO were some funnies behaviourally, e.g. most of the kids tended to be eldest siblings, and with no older kids at the school to pick things up from I did sometimes think that they ended up being a school of relative 'innocents' in terms of e.g. bad language & so on. This would be less true at a secondary, presumably.

Hope this helps in some way.

I hadn't actually thought about not picking up.bad habits!

I suppose that's the plus side to another concern i had where basically they would be like.puppies who didn't have older dogs to growl at them.or nip at them to teach them how to behave . Beat them.out the cocky behaviour that comes from being the oldest in the school

No experience but it must be great to go into a new school at year 7 with no older years! The one downside of my year 7 DC starting secondary school was the nastiness of the year 9s to the new kids. The power went to their heads. I think it’s calmed down now but that’s quite a shock to year 7s, some of whom are only just 11. What I heard about on the school buses behaviour of older children) from parents of children in other schools was even worse.

A brand new school opened which is run by the same MAT as my son's secondary school. Brand new purpose built building and the benefit was the year 7s being the first year in and no one older than them. My Ds visited their site as part of some inter-school thing and said the kids really liked going there. It had been running for 2 1/2 years at that point.

As it was part of the MAT they already had a good reputation so for a lot of parents it was a no brainer compared to their local alternative. In your case do you know if this is a complete unknown entity running it?

For me I would probably take the chance on it considering your thoughts on DD1's school.

It’s not unusual for even very well established schools to be woolly (or you know, woefully misinformed) about admissions procedures. So, irritating, but that in and of itself wouldn’t be a deal breaker for me.

Its part of a small.MAT 2 of the schools they own don't ah the best reputation although to be fair u can't access the report for 1 of them as it only recently became an academy and hasn't been re inspected yet.

The other has never been particularly good however between faith schools and grammar schools obviously most the.locals can only access one of 3 schools so those 3 schools probably contain all the children that need support hence the results and all the other factors that light well not be an.issure if spread out amongst all the local schools. So I'm trying to not read too much into that.

I dont see how it can be much worse than the others tbh.

Yeah I figured he's just reciting all the myths everyone else does I'm.not taking that too seriously either

Pros of a brand new school:

• the school grows and moulds around the children
• they grow up with the school, leading the way for younger kids
• no big kid issues
• keen enthusiastic staff and leadership building something shiny and new
• new equipment and facilities

Pros of a brand new school:

• initial lack of facilities as they arent all there at the beginning
• no track record

Yes that worries me about the facilities. But then I think we'll do they even have them at established schools. Schools are very good about showing off their facilities but how often do the kids get ti actually use them or they become so scarce as they break / get destroyed anyway.

My biggest and huge concern I think is having not seen the school at all. Whether there is anything concerning about the lay out/ set up l.

The pitch sounded great until they were asked about the teaching staff. Then it turned out the delay he'd was going to he the senco at first, and the English teacher would take the drama class etc but I am.also aware that that happens everywhere.

And then maybe a school that's definitely hiring all the teachers as opposed to having to fill a spot on the day , might actually be in a better position. There will be no teachers who have lost the will to live and may well be really keen to help build a really good reputation of a brand new school.

Dd is quite an.immature dozy child. A bunch of much older kids having a laugh with her did worry me if I'm.homest. I do wonder If she will be safer without the older kids

Hi @Whatwouldscullydo. I have positive experience of a new school. There was a similar thread recently that I contributed to here: www.mumsnet.com/Talk/secondary/4375831-New-school-being-started

I just put in one school choice on my application risky strategy but it paid off

@Theunamedcat

I just put in one school choice on my application risky strategy but it paid off

You may have got the school you wanted, but if it was under the current equal preference system, it will not be because you only listed one school. You would have got this school even if you had listed other schools further down your list. You gain no advantage to admission whatsoever by only listing one school, and if you don't get it, will get the nearest school with places available after everyone else has been allocated, rather than another school you may have preferred. There is no disadvantage whatsoever in always filling your preferences!

Thank you cat that is indeed a very useful thread.

I have to admit I don't recognise some if these schools others talked about on the thread. School just seems to be a place you try to survive each day. Some classes with teachers who seem to dislike you. Ajd hoping it's not you who has rice thrown over them in the cafeteria . Sure there are the shining stars who represent the school at various activities and fir those parents i can see how one yr In a school with would impact being a part of something bigger and better. But most if us have kids who are the forgotten middle who mean nothing really to the school and this community feel is a completely alien concept. Something I don't have personal experience of with myself on school or dd1

Sounds like a fantasy from the school prospectus tbh. Something parents tell themselves as they feel they worked so hard to get their kids into the school and don't want to admit it was a total waste of time

But then I don't exactly have a choice nor do we have any hope of attending such a school.

And god no way am I pulling any stunts. I know how the admissions work. I list the schools I dont want in order to not risk being sent miles away to a school that's either worse or not remotely worth the hassle.

My non dyslexic child went to a school that uses google classroom and has many chrome books available for children.

My dyslexic child didn’t have that at their school (the first school is single sex so second child couldn’t follow). It would have been so much easier for dyslexic child if they had google classroom or something similar that everyone used. His school had 11 laptops for the whole school!

For that reason alone I would choose the new school especially for a dyslexic child.

His school had 11 laptops for the whole school!

That was something the guy said actually was that the point was to reduce the carbon footprint, the whole design /premises of the school is to be nore environmentally friendly and have actually outside spaces for the kids to use. Unlike dd1 there's somewhere sheltered to eat outside. Space is limited at dd1s school and if she doesn't want to sit in a crowded cafeteria she has ti find somewhere to stand outside and hop its not raining. So thete won't be so many computers to use. Part of me feels its a way to get out of providing resources. Them.being cheap.

But I do think it will be easier fir dd2

Has anyone from here 2021! have been to Sydenham High or Bromley High. Is Sydenham High GDST better than Bromley High GDST? what are the advantages and disadvantages.