Sending a child to the best secondary Vs the nearest school

[Losoph]

Having a bit of a dilemma and wonder how many people here put the quality of education first before any other consideration.

I have an opportunity to send my DD to the best school in town - not catchment but I teach there. It is a very strict free school (silent corridors, dedicated reading time, calm atmosphere, disruption dealt with super efficiently). I strongly believe the school is great and serves it's purpose of educating kids well, particularly from a very deprived area (inner city).
My DD would receive great education in a disruption free environment. There are some negatives however

• school day ends late-4pm for all students and I would not let her come back on her own in the first two years. We walk/cycle through a rather rough patch of the city and my DD is tiny. This means she would have to wait for me often till punishing 5pm.
• sports facilities are awful, only a tiny courtyard to use. No real pitches, etc and my DD loves football and other sports
• when she makes new friends, they will all live far- I will end up driving her around
• very academic, so only traditional subjects to choose for GCSE

-i may end up tied to the school for longer than wish for Our catchment school is a large comprehensive, 'good' according to Ofsted but the behaviour is just as in many schools (a lot of isolations, exclusions, etc). The results are fine, not as good as in my school but fine. A part of me really wants to provide my child with a normal teen experiences that I had as a child

• she can walk to and from the school with her friends, half of the estate end up in that school.

-She will make friends who will most likely live locally so they can see each other after school- she is big on being outside.

• they have tones of after school activities and sports to choose from.
• wider GCSE subject choices

In general, my DD and then my son who will go to a secondary a year later are pretty good kids who are obedient, well mannered and do their homework without nagging. I wonder if they really need all these routines that are designed to support the children from unprivileged backgrounds. I hope they can do well anywhere. But some part of me worry that I may make a wrong decision which will impact their life😏

Local school.

I agree

Local school and see how it goes. Picking your school is saying no sport no clubs no independence walking to/from school - that's a lot to rule out.

Thank you! I am really considering it! I want them to be happy as much as I want them to do well..

Local school. When teens become more independent, walking to their friends houses, going to local parties etc. is important to them... before I had a teen I'd underestimated just how much of a key part of their social world it was.

I'd probably opt for the local school unless you have serious concerns. My DC travelled 20 miles to secondary school but we live rurally so it's the norm here. Even so, having friends living quite a long distance away could be a nuisance and it does interfere with spontaneous social activities etc. But at least with my DC more or less all their friends were in the same boat so it wasn't isolating like it could be for a child who is the only pupil from their area going to a different school.
I also think extracurriculars and a good range of subjects to choose from at GCSE/A level are important. Kids spend a lot of time at school and if they not happy that can be damaging even if they do do well academically. I'd say it's probably easier to compensate for some degree of academic weakness by tutoring etc than it is to overcome general unhappiness.
If your local school was terrible and you were worried about your DC's safety or they had well below average results then I'd probably be leaning towards the school where you teach, but it doesn't sound like that's the case. So I think I'd opt for the local school, keep any eye on their progress and intervene early if any problems arise.

Agree with you all. The local comprehensive seems absolutely fine. I will go to the open evening and perhaps book a tour around the school to get the feel for their behaviour management and how the curriculum is delivered. But it really does sound like the teens social life is important and I have to consider it when making the choice! Thank you all

When you say only traditional subjects for GCSE – what do you mean? Does this exclude drama, music and DT and PE? Or do you just mean there is no creative media or animal care Btec?

If it's the creative GCSEs, I do think a creative outlet is a good idea – all my 3 took at least one from my first list.

I agree being close to friends is keen for a teen. Also it's better if they can go home independently at year 7 tbh.

No sports facilities for a DC who loves sports is another big negative.

Go to Open day with your daughter and see her reactions. Peer group is important and you would let her walk on her own into house or social with pals as you come home later. Or she can use the 1 hour to do homework and relax at home. Depends on DC preference?

Unless your kids can get to the free school independently and stay there if you leave, then it'd be a no from me, simply because you will be stuck there and if you are are ever long-term ill it will be doubly stressful for everyone in the family.

Yes - at this stage, if you’ve got a sensible child and 2 alternatives which you’re happy with, then let the child have a say.
fwiw we had 3 options we were happy with; dd opted for the grammar school in the next town requiring being out of the house at 7:30 and similarly home significantly later than if she’d gone to the local school (good ‘leafy comp’). Because it was her choice she adapted to this well and it absolutely suited her.

The question of whether you’d be tied to the school longer than you might otherwise have been is for you to decide first.

Could you move closer to the better school? It would make sense if both your children can go there and you work there.

@RandomUsernameHere won't move closer as we live on the outskirts, village location. My school is in the town centre, run down and rough. We are massively oversubscribed - catchment covers around 800metres.
We are happy where we are.

Id go for your school. You know it’s an excellent school with very effective behaviour management, the other one is a gamble as it’s clearly not got the same approach to behaviour management.

I would go local. My DC have just finished GCSEs at local 'dodgy' school 10 mins walk. The GCSE grade average is 4.7 and loads of exclusions, plus swapping difficult children with the other local comp. My DS got 6 grade 9s and 3 grade 7s, my DD got 7 grade 8s and 2 grade 7s. My point being, if your DC work and are quite bright, they can succeed even in schools which aren't overall great in their grades.

I think the wide subject choices are important as well as the sports and social aspect - an education that is more than just training them to get good grades in Maths, English and sciences. I would definitely go for overall experience and if things are going really badly then maybe you could move them later.

I would go for your school. In a heartbeat.

they only get one shot at education. Many schools are plagued by disruptive behaviour, and children aren’t able to access the teaching because other pupils are sucking away the airtime.

Look at the progress 8 scores. This is the really important thing, not the headline GCSE scores, which often reflect the level of disadvantage in the local area and the performance of primary schools. If your school is a point or more ahead of the local one at GCSE in progress 8 I don’t know why you’d even look at the local one!

I would go for the inner city school. But I would have been fine moving to the city so it would allow easy walking distance too - I don't think a village is great for raising teens in anyway and curbs their independence.

Well if it was me, and going by your post, I think the nearer school sounds better

Very interesting views, and I am slightly torn. Planning on not only doing open evenings, but will book the tour of the local school to see how they manage behaviour, etc
Our progress 8 was excellent last year, no progress 8 this year (COVID kids) though results overall were poorer this year for various reasons.
The other school had lower progress 8 score but still positive.
My kids are bright and well- behaved (though I cannot rule out it may change under peer influence at either school)
From a mother perspective, I absolutely love watching them spending all afternoons playing outside with their mates from the estate and would like this to continue when they are in secondary ...it will be cut short if they end up at my school and have to wait for me😏

Local school, definitely. Never underestimate the amount of stress getting to and from school can cause if you are not nearby. Plus the social aspect!

You also get the benefit at a less academic school of universities taking that into account. If they see your school has a 4.7 average at GCSE and you managed to get so much higher, it will work in your favour. Even if you do sixth form elsewhere.

Local school, unless you have serious concerns about it which it sounds like you don’t

And that is something parents often forget. The happiness of the child. You only get one childhood.

Also she will never bee in a class you are teaching.

In this scenario we went for the better school. Transport is a PITA and we do a fair amount of faciliating friends by driving, but DD is now nailing public transport and that alone has given her life skills she wouldn't have gotten locally. We both work close to school so can help if worst comes to worst.

She loves her school and it was absolutely the right decision. Local comp is awful - inadequate, high staff turnover, no maths teachers etc. It's definitely turning itself around but I wasn't going to sacrifice 3 years of secondary education whilst it got its act together.

That's not how it works.