Mid year secondary school transfer - Y10

[OhHoneyNo]

Hi all,

For a variety of reasons my daughter hasn't gotten on very well at her secondary school. I've made an application for a mid year transfer to one that's closer to us (bizarrely, her catchment secondary was oversubscribed originally, but we have two secondary schools just outside of catchment, one of which she goes to)

I'd like to move her to the other secondary school that isn't our catchment. Does anyone know how much hope I should hold out or has anyone had a similar experience?

The school I've applied to have replied to say a decision will reach me in five days and that she's number 18 on the waiting list. I'm thinking it's unlikely they will let her in if there are already 17 kids in year ten waiting for a place?

I've no experience on moving schools at this age group so any advice is welcomed. My daughter is currently very unhappy but not doing badly academically.

Thanks x

We had to move house due to ill health in the family so dc had to move in year 10. It wasn't ideal but was able to on appeal.
The school had a policy of not accepting dc after Easter of year 10 (not sure if that would have been overturned at appeal).
Issues we found were -different exam boards being used, content taught in different order (I had to agree I'd teach dc certain texts), differenttexts being taught in English, one subject was full and had to start a whole new gcse.
Overall dc did really well and got better than predicted before moving schools.

You would be very very lucky if all her option subjects were available for her, and that they are the same exam boards and options within those specifications too. Meaning that in at least some subjects, she will have to start the course having missed a big chunk of the work. It’s a huge ask to catch up.

I say this as a teacher who has had students do this. But also as someone whose parents moved me halfway through year 10 and the effects of it have stayed with me all these years later - academically and socially.

My daughter moved schools about now in Y10. As she hadn't been attending school the change in courses didn't really matter and it enabled her to start over and pass 8 GCSEs. If I hadn't moved her, she would have none.

All I wanted from the move was her to get maths and English so she could access things later if she wanted to but it worked out better than I could ever have imagined.

We did have the advantage that her current school wanted rid of her, so helped organise a managed move to another nearby school in the same trust - not sure we'd have found it easy to get a place otherwise.

There might be a place and seventeen other parents might not want it. Some schools allow you to stay on the list so children may have been on it since year seven.

It's not the best time to move because of the course content but it is what it is. You will have to work around that at home.