How important is local in secondary state choice?

[roses2]

We have been lucky enough to have been given our first choice state school, a really great local school but limited GCSE options (they offer 9 subject and that's it); not great facilities, non existent extra curricular and run down equipment. But it's local where the friendship network will be and we're right in the middle of the catchment area.

DH is having a wobble and wondering if we should call our second choice. This is a similar academic standard but further away and we would be right on the outer border of the catchment. Great extra curricular, modern equipment, wide range of GCSE options.

His primary class are going to all different places - no one place in particular - and he is happy to make friends at whichever new school he starts at.

DS is very sociable. Right now DS loves going to his friends house or they come here after school and week ends.

Are further away schools an issue? Is it better to stay local? Both schools have very similar academic outcomes.

Exactly. It's not really anything to do with Oxbridge tbh. Also GCSE PE and Food Tech is not easy!

I disagree about them catering to the middle bands. Grammars are very very very underfunded. They get less money than most mainstream schools. That'll be why they don't have those options. The boys independent schools as well as the co-ed ones also have those options. I've always found it odd that girls independents are so 'traditional" in their curriculum.

As someone whose child has travelled 6 miles across London to his school since 2017 - clearly I don’t rank being local as that high a priority (that said your options aren’t particularly local either!). Subject choice followed by general ethos (basically if I could abide by their rules) for me ranked a lot higher than exam results

My son was in an admission criteria where I had close to free choice of London schools although I had a door to door travel time cut off of c45 minutes and even then only simple journeys with minimal changes. I ruled out Michaela due to the lack of GCSE options - including single sciences. It is a brilliant school, just not one that fitted my son. Another school that came close was Mossboune Community but although they offer a broad range of subjects, have great facilities and their exam results are excellent - some of their rules were crazy and I found the school really arrogant.

People were surprised by the school I did choose - the exam results were good but not brilliant, they facilities were limited to academic subjects only (no tech or business) but it suited him perfectly and he has done very well there. I can’t say there weren’t issues (no school is perfect) but I am glad with the choice I made.

10 minutes is nothing - if your son will benefit from a broader curriculum get yourself on the waiting list for your second choice school and see what happens.

I see the thread has rather moved on, and I also wouldn't class either 40 or 50 minutes on public transport as "local".

However, my own experience is that my DC's went to a genuinely local school (15 minutes walk) where most of the students lived an easy walk or cycle ride away and they both then made friends with the children who lived several miles away with no obvious way to get there, so we still ended up being a regular taxi service.

But I would generally agree it's a good thing to have friends that the DC can meet under their own stream, although presumably meeting somewhere central would always be an option?

Neither school is ‘local’. A local secondary in London means walking or a short bus or cycle ride.

What are the two schools? I would seek specific advice in the two schools.

The OP has already said that the allocated, original first preference, school is Michaela.

I would focus more on the quality of teaching and ethos of the school. To me those are the priorities. Choice of subjects, extracurriculars, local friends are nice to haves. If kids in school 2 aren’t actually focusing during lessons, I would be concerned about behaviour management and quality of teaching.

School 2 gets rather good results for a non-selective state school. And, as it's undersubscribed, this is not likely to be solely because it has a strong intake.

So, I'd suggest it's doing something right.