Below average secondary school - what lengths would you go to in order to do better for your kids?

[Curlewwoohoo]

What would you do if the local state secondary was below average? And there are no other local choices as its the only secondary school in our market town. By below average I mean, the school has a poor reputation with local parents, Ofsted requires improvement, now being taken over by a big academy, lots of teachers leaving, fairly big school with some bullying reported.

Would you think below average is OK for average kids who will (I hope) work hard and have supportive parents?

Would you hope it picks up?

Would you move house? How far would you go to make that happen, eg significantly impact finances? Work more hours? Move away from friends and family?

Would you try to get child into grammar, even if that would mean tutors etc? And might not be likely.

Would you go private (not really an option for us financially)?

Would you try to go out of 'catchment'? Involving long bus ride or drive?

Would you accept the school and put effort into activities and support outside of school?

Eldest is 9 and in yr4 so got a year to think about this, potentially dyslexic, very hard working at school and good attitude there but won't do much at home. Youngest is 6, several years ahead in reading but slightly behind on writing and maths. If that info would influence your decision!

I think it's naive to think the school will improve in the current climate. The fact that the top 20% go to the grammar is not great news for the other school. It all becomes a cycle - families who are interested in their child's education don't choose the school, it goes further downhill, etc.
I would seriously consider private, most have bursaries and scholarships on offer that make it a little easier.
Failing that, I would move.

When I was in this situation, I spoke to the in coming head to see if I thought they had a viable improvement plan. I thought it was worth a punt and when dd joined the school, I joined their governing body to both see if I could help ( I had lots of experience in school governance) but also to sort of keep an eye on what was happening. The school has improved out of all recognition over the past 9 years and is now most definitely a good school. My DC's both did exceptionally well academically there and recently the broader school offer has flourished. Schools with big issues take time to sort themselves out and need strong leadership.

In our case it’s working our way through a 5 year plan to move house for last and final move into dream house/location. Should occur when eldest is finishing year 4, so lots of buffer time. All being well. All going well so far.

Are the other commutable schools closer/further from the grammar? Or is it an all grammar type area?

IME, in somewhere like Devon or Gloucestershire where there are just a few grammar schools and very much not commutable for everyone in the county, then there is a difference between schools with a grammar nearby and without IMO.

I think there's a noticeable difference between schools that are losing say 10% of their intake to the grammar, and schools who are just losing 2-3% of their intake (all other things being equal).

It sounds like the students with committed and involved parents are maybe going elsewhere, which also isn't great for a school.

I think when the time comes, there will certainly be no harm in looking at other local schools. You may even be able to have a nose around open evenings next year (some schools will let you if your child is in Y5) and this gives you time to think about moving/grammar/etc as well.

It sounds like you have options other than private if that's going to be a major financial stretch (and personally I would budget for 10%+ fee increases each year based on the last few years).

The environment in education 9 years ago was drastically different to the environment today, though. 9 years ago it was much, much easier to recruit experienced teachers, for example.

The thing is that ‘good’ schools can also become poor very quickly. Or slowly, in the case of outstanding schools that haven’t been inspected for a long time.

@Curlewwoohoo If the schools SEN and reading provision has been flagged as key to the RI rating, and there’s new leadership in place, you can guarantee that SEN and reading are going to be a huge priority for the school.

Does the school teach in mixed ability groups for all subjects across all year groups? I’d be surprised by that. Most secondaries will have mixed ability groups in KS3 for some subjects eg drama, music, DT, PE.

My DD’s school aggressively streamed from Y7 and for a while it seemed to be working as they had great Progress 8 data. My ds’s school split the year group into two streams - a higher and lower - and all academic subjects were taught in those streams. I wasn’t mad for this system at all, but they’ve just had their first set of gcse results (new school) and they’ve smashed it. Most importantly for me re streaming, was that when I got the chance to ask the head about how they set in KS3, he explained the rationale behind it in a way that made me appreciate the schools perspective.

For what it’s worth, new leadership will review setting quite quickly anyway.

@Postapocalypticcowgirl Gloucestershire actually! There is a bus that does the rounds of the grammars but not everyone would consider the bus journey as it's 30-60mins depending which school. I don't believe Dd would get in, she's best at writing but dyslexic spelling, a bit ahead on reading comprehension but a really reluctant reader at home, adequate at maths with some working towards in the past, and behind on spelling I think, 88. Ds is only 6 so hard to say. He's really ahead on reading, loves science things, but not great at writing, average at maths. Both kids are very enthusiastic about knowledge and school.

OP, is the school being taken over by a single academy or a multi-academy trust? What is the performance of that school/trust like?

Academisation could be a positive move for the school in the long term because it will bolster the finances. Also, multi-academy trusts are able to share expertise across their schools.

Losing staff isn't always a bad thing - it depends on the quality of the staff. But in the current climate, the trust will need to work hard to replace 37 in one year.