Does anyone else find choosing a secondary school overwhelming?

[LostInCatchments]

Hi everyone,

I’m starting to think about secondary options for my DC and honestly I’m finding it a lot harder than I expected. Between Ofsted ratings, GCSE results, catchment areas, grammar schools, open days… it feels like there’s so much to weigh up.
Do other parents feel the same? What’s been the hardest part for you when deciding? And how did you eventually narrow it down?
I’d love to hear how others are approaching it — especially from those who’ve already been through the process.

Thanks in advance!

The first thing I’d say is how much choice do you actually have? We live in a grammar area, and if you don’t take the exam/pass you are going to one of two single sex high schools. Only other options are if you are Catholic or failing schools with spare places.

Id start by contacting the local authority to get a good understanding of which schools are realistically viable. Our LA as a web page showing furthest criteria/distance offered a place.

First step... look at the admissions criteria. Work out what schools you have a realistic chance of getting into, which ones you could possibly get into and which ones you realistically don't stand a chance.
Then work put what's important to you. Sports, arts, ranges of subjects, languages, extracurricular, atmosphere...

Most of the time... there may seem to be dozens of schools but actually you are only really choosing between a handful.

Yes, all of it! We live right on the edge of our county area so what are literally the nearest schools (including our favourite) are sending the heads to our school to woo the kids, yet it’s quite likely will turn us down flat for not being in its LA. So why they are bothering I don’t know.

I can’t choose between any of the others in our LA. Four open evenings on the same night in our surrounds as well, which is no good when you really don’t have a clue what your three choices are even going to be!

DP being incredibly unrealistic about the whole thing and dismissing certain schools out of hand which isn’t helping. Primary was a breeze compared to this.

Yeh I agree - what are the actual realistic options?

We live in a small city and if I wanted the DC to avoid two bus journeys to school (quite apart from the fact that the two-bus-journey school would not have offered a place) then there were (counts up) four secondaries that were within walking or one-bus distance. Of those, one has very different holidays from many schools (and I worked in a school so that would have been a pain); one was a religious school not our preference at all; one was a very popular school which is a 25-min walk to the bus stop so not ideal (and also unlikely due to immense popularity as we are out of catchment) and one was our local school, 5 mins away and where most of their friends were going.

I appreciate some may have more options – if you lived in the centre of the city for example, you could add many more to the one-bus-journey list – but even then, realistically the popular ones you might prefer are unlikely to fling their net that wide.

Not saying don't put an optimistic improbable option on your list, but also list your catchment or nearest school for sure.

We are not in a grammar area btw than goodness (I mean on purpose tbh – both DH and I went to grammar schools in very rural areas) so that's not an issue.

I would check the LA detail of distances offered and see which schools are actually likely - that 's a good starting point.

ETA: Can I just say, what I have said before on similar threads, you are not choosing a school. You can choose which coat you buy and what you have for dinner; but for schools, all you can do is state a preference. You could list six unlikely schools and be offered a place at a totally different school. This is unlikely if you follow the "list a banker" advice tho.

yet it’s quite likely will turn us down flat for not being in its LA.

This is not the case. The popular school I mentioned is outside our city but you can still apply. You will get a place or not based on the admission criteria (basically distance) and there certainly are students who go there from my area.

That will depend on the admissions criteria... for example round here its Priority Admissions area over pure distance so the ones the other side the county border are really unlikely to get a place as it usually fills up with the In Catchment children.

This is why its important to check the actual arrangements not just guess.

Also finding it hard OP. Following with interest.

I have been looking for 3 years - ended up registering at 5 schools and now I just feel I have over done it and I still cant decide!!!

Yes agree it's vital to check the admissions criteria. I was just making the point that just bc a school is in another LA, doesn't mean you can't apply.

The school I mentioned is in a relatively rural area, and in fact has a catchment that takes that into account – you could live in village A and be in catchment, while village B, though nearer, is not. So in fact similar to what you describe. But in fact in this case some of the city area is in the catchment (not the bit we live in tho). And when all catchment children have a place, offers are made on distance from the school, which does sometimes include DC from the city, outide the catchment.

Ideal school
next nearest school
catchment school

the end

Weve just done this and actually when it came down to it there wasn’t really a choice. We could have sat for grammar schools but they were so far away it would be impossible to get there and home without parental assistance, so those were out.
It then came down to the 4 closest schools, 3 of which going by the last 3 years of admission criteria we wouldn’t get in to.
Also taking in to account her own personal choice, ie wanting to go where her friends were going.
We we’re left with one choice and ultimately is where she went.
So actually what seemed like a tricky decision ended up not being a decision at all

Well, there isn’t a choice- as in, you choose and that’s what you get. You express preferences, depending on how many preferences you can opt for in your area.

Id look at the admission criteria for a few that are possibilities, go to open evenings and then put down what @Talkinpeace says.

If you’re given more than three, add extra.

Ultimately it’s not a choice I’m afraid, unless you’re planning to go private. You’ll be allocated a school. It’s not always your first choice either.

The state school system allows you to express a preference not a choice.
If you meet the admissions criteria for multiple schools then it’s relevant. If you don’t, it’s not really. All depends on locality and pupil numbers.

We have one outstanding school within walking distance. Other “good” options are a bus ride away. No brainer for me, doesn’t take any head space.

What DID take the headspace was when eldest in year 3/4 and we needed to decide whether to move or stay. That was the time we thought in detail about the options.

if you have a year 6 child now then you basically have about 5 weeks to fill the preference form in. So start by identifying the schools you meet admission criteria for. Then rank them in order of preference. That’s all you have time for right now.

(if you want to explore private in parallel then fine but at this late stage I’d have the state application running in parallel)

Thanks everyone for the replies so far — it’s really helpful to read how others are finding this process.

For context, I live in a grammar school area with two other grammar LAs within about 5 miles. I always assumed my daughter would go down the grammar route, but my sister’s daughter passed the exam in a neighbouring area, put down three grammars as her top choices, and still didn’t get in. That’s made me rethink things.

I’ve been looking more closely at the local comprehensives, but the GCSE results and Progress 8 scores look quite low compared with national averages, and one of the two closest schools has an Ofsted of “Requires Improvement.” I read an article recently about how to judge comprehensives in grammar areas, which did make me think differently (especially about looking at progress rather than raw attainment), but I’m still not feeling confident.

I’ve also registered my daughter for an independent school exam, but realistically it’s a long bus journey each way and the fees would be a stretch for us, especially with two younger children to think about too.

Has anyone else had to make this decision in a grammar area and ended up choosing a comprehensive or an independent? How did you weigh things up in the end?

We have one school we are in catchment for…. It’s just as well it’s a good one.

Not really. There’s only one secondary school where we live (unless you also count the £30k/yr private school).

We have let DS choose - one is a great Grammar school that he could get into and one is a fairly decent one at walkable distance. He choose the one more local one where a lot of his friends are going- it was hard but ultimately he didn’t want massive academic pressure. We just want him to be happy - maybe naive

I came out of the whole choosing a high school very enraged. In reality you haven’t got a choice, it’ll be your local school unless the one you have chosen is under subscribed, there’s no choice involved at all. We fell in love with a school 3miles away but we were out of the catchment area, tried appealing with what I thought was a strong case but we failed to gain a place. The nearest three high schools to us are all ‘required improvement’ one with 17%. GCSE pass rate one with 19% snd the other 34%. It was really Sophie’s choice!

Honestly, embrace the overwhelm. We live in rural Wales and there's no choice. There's nothing we can do when the school falls short.

For those who are basing a decision on current friends, it really doesn't matter long term. The friends they move up with from primary usually aren't still friends by end of first half term.
It didn't even figure in our decision.

Non-grammar schools in grammar areas are not comprehensives - they have the top portion of the ability range skimmed off, so their results are always going to be lower than actual comprehensive schools.
That's the downside of the grammar system that people never mention.

In terms of your dilemma, you just pick your favourite (or 2 grammars) that you are likely to get into and put them top, followed by your top (or 2 ) non grammars?
Sounds like you can't afford independent, so you should probably just rule it out.

You're lucky to have so much choice, like many posters we had the choice of the nearest school or the failing school that was anyway difficult to get to.

I agree not to make a decision based on friends although I do think going up with friends aids early settling in, particularly if you have a shy child.

(And in passing I will mention that my daughter at 19 is still friends with her 2 best friends from infants school).

Non-grammar schools in grammar areas are not comprehensives - they have the top portion of the ability range skimmed off, so their results are always going to be lower than actual comprehensive schools.
That's the downside of the grammar system that people never mention.

Agree with this @redskydelight - people who are enthusiastic about grammar schools would be less keen if they thought their DC would not get in.

@Favouritefruits tbf applying for a secondary school should not be framed as a choice, as I and others have mentioned. My LA correctly talks about “preferences” which is not the same thing as choice, and I imagine others are similar. If parents genuinely could choose, everyone would choose the same schools in a specific area I imagine.

How did it work out?