Which school would you pick

[Indecisivelurcher]

There are good points about both and I don't know whether school 2 is worth the extra effort or not. For dyslexic DD who loves school.

School 1. In our town, short walk or cycle on dedicated cycle track. 1700 pupils, 6-8 classes in a year so plenty of people to make friends with, who will be local, has a 6th form. Recently improved from RI to good. Offers a wide range of GCSEs. Includes single science, only 1 language. Decent range of after school clubs. Improving reputation. Previous issues were reading progression, sen support, rumours of bullying.

School 2. 30 minutes on the bus. Small, 700 pupils. No 6th form. High teacher retention. MAT partnership with excellent school. Better GCSE results when they shared them (I can't find this year's?), offers lower range of GCSEs, double science, but actually 2 languages. Good reputation for Sen that's meant an influx of kids with sen needs. Head recently left and deputy took over. Runs clubs over a longer lunch break instead of after school because many kids bus in. Good reputation with people from my town, but actually kids from it's town do travel out to a higher achieving school that's further away again.

How much does her dyslexia affect her? Does she need the smaller environment and highly rated SEN department? Or is she like my dyslexic child who needs understanding his spelling is pants, not to be asked to read out aloud, and printouts of lessons help?

If she needs the SEN support school 2. Otherwise, school 1.

School 1.
Better options, its improving, being more local allows independence and more study time.

More like yours! More about understanding in the classroom than a good sen department per se. So I value your opinion, thank you.

Have you visited both schools? Spoken to the Sendco about provisions for dyslexia? For me, once I was happy with two schools I let my DS choose between them as they are the ones who have to go there 5 days a week.

Not enough info on gcse results and ‘value added’ but based on the info you’ve shared would choose the more local school with single science as an option and sixth form.

Double science only makes doing A level sciences much harder.

School 1 progress 8 was -0.07, attainment 8 was 42.5.
School 2 progress 8 was -0.01, attainment 8 was 47.7
And actually school 2 is only 500 pupils...
@dozer

Do you know if your DD is a High middle or low achiever currently, then look at the scores for that demographic.

Where does she want to go? Will most of her friends go to the one in your town?

I would go and view both and leave the final decision up to your DD

I would stay local, this makes a big difference to friends/ journey etc. Also sixth form will be here before you know it and having had to move my DC as no sixth form would not want to do it again. Really tricky in our city.

500 is pretty small for a secondary and has impact on everything from friendships to funding. I'd stick with the local one which sounds on the up and it makes a difference being walkable. Agree that sixth form is a good thing too.

I would say there isn’t sufficient difference between the schools to justify the journey to school 2 or lack of local friends.

What does single science and double science mean - do you mean triple and combined?

but honestly some of the stats are they relevant to the best school for your DD which is the best fit for her

Re science yes that is what I meant, perhaps I'm using the old names!

DD wants to go to the smaller school that requires the bus. I'm not sure if it's worth it. But don't know whether I would be right to over rule her opinion. We will go to see both schools again.