Advice on choosing secondary schools.

[Lamama15]

Hello everyone,

I'm very new to this forum but reading other threads, just came in with a hope to get solution. We are currently living in the south east of England and me and hubby are both working. Hubby is self employed and I work in a nursery, and we are quite satisfied with our work in our town. But now we have an issue to look at. Our DD is in Year 5 and preparing for grammar school. There is no grammar school in our town and the one nearest to our town is very hard to get into. Its highly oversubscribed with cut throat competition and tiny catchment area too. The problem is we have to be in catchment area before the test. But I'm not sure if DD will be able to clear the test. If not, there is no point of moving to that catchment area.
So we have decided to move to Midlands which have good number of grammar and other secondary schools. My husband's and my work is gonna be affected there as the work options are very limited and not really good. But still, we decided to move in there with hope that we will manage ourselves somehow. We are aiming for sutton grammar school for girls but want to have second option in the mind, in case she couldn't get in the grammar school. I have heard Arthur terry school is good one but very limited catchment area. The second school is Bishop Walsh, but as its a Catholic school, I have doubt about my daughter getting in there ( we are non Catholic). We have looked for a property which is 0.8 miles from Arthur terry but I'm bit skeptical if it's good distance to get into the school. That's the only property we have found with the budget we can afford.
P.S. we are also looking for good primary school at the same time as my DS is in Year 3 and little DD is in Year 1. Any help in the form of discussion, suggestion, advice is much appreciated as we are in the great confusion. This is definitely a very big move for us so I want to get the maximum results for the purpose we are moving.
Thank you.
(Apart from these two school, please tell any other great state secondary school which I don't know).

There are few good schools in sutton for boys too. One is Bishop Vessey with no catchment. So thats not a big problem.

Hi All,

Thank you for your advice, opinions and suggestions. I think i haven't put my scenario in a better way for ur understanding. Our decision to move to Midlands is not solely for schools. Yes its a big factor to consider but not the only reason. It can account for 25% of the decion process but 75% are personal reasons. Just started this thread to ask someone who know the area and schools well to give me a reality based picture. Internet searches doesn't portray the ground realities or actual school experiences. I'm asking my family members and friends about their views, who are currently in Birmingham but just getting mixed reviews. So wanted to clear up my mind about the schools I was actually looking for.
And no it's not for the grammar school only. But as we are moving there, so thought there is no harm in trying for grammar school but always keeping my options open.

Have a nice week ahead 😊

Yes my bad 🤦‍♀️ didn't realise just calling it sutton instead of Sutton Coldfield 😃