Advice please: state secondaries with firm behaviour and excellent dyslexia support

[SecondaryChoicesIncRelocation]

I’ve used AI to help me organise my thoughts but I promise this is a real post.

We’re planning a move from independent to state for both daughters for the start of the next academic year (September): one will enter Year 7, the other Year 10. We simply can’t afford the fees any more.

Like many others, we value education highly and want to make thoughtful choices in the state system.

Both DC are bright and dyslexic. We currently live in a grammar area but we’ve missed the boat for the 11+ I think (???), so we’re looking for strong non-selective comprehensives.

We’re also using this as an opportunity for a wider life reset: we’re happy to relocate (and buy in‑catchment if needed) to find the right school culture and community - ideally with realistic housing, good rail links, and a balanced pace of life.

What we’re after (in priority order):
• Calm, orderly classrooms with consistent behaviour expectations so lessons aren’t disrupted.

• High academic expectations/ambition across the cohort, with a positive attitude to learning.

• Excellent SEND provision for dyslexia (evidence‑based literacy support; proactive SENCo; appropriate access arrangements).

• For DC2 (starting Year 10): a school experienced with the start of KS4, willing to map option blocks/exam boards and support settling in and catch‑up if needed.

Location: we’re flexible and can move to the right area. Ideally commutable to London (first choice), or to another major city (second choice), even going as far afield as Edinburgh or Glasgow.

Practicalities we’re aware of:
• Oversubscription and realistic catchments, including distances and any faith/banding criteria.

• That we may need to buy within a realistic catchment.

• Differences in GCSE option blocks/exam boards at KS4 and the need to align for a September start.

What would really help from MNers:

1. Specific schools and/or areas where you’ve seen excellent behaviour culture + strong dyslexia support in a non‑selective setting.
2. Any “watch‑outs” for starting Year 10 in September (option blocks, exam boards, and timelines for access arrangements).
3. Pointers to local authorities with parent‑friendly processes for secondary admissions and SEND.

Thank you. Genuinely looking for constructive advice and lived experience. Please be gentle!

Many schools will only start GCSE curriculum in y10 anyway, so forget all the matching options blocks and boards, just go for a school that starts most/all in y10.

I'm hoping you made this decision before half term and got on and applied locally for a y7 place. If not then get on and do it. It will be a late application but better than nothing.

Frankly it seems as if you think you can pick what you want. For the y10 it will be about who has spaces, and for the y7 if you haven't already applied you will be behind on time applications.

For the y10 (or current y9) you will have to take up a place with 4 weeks or so (dependent on LA) so you have to either apply soon but be prepared to move if a space comes up, or wait to apply until early June or so.

Remember the best schools will be full!

Do you have any geographic restrictions or preferences?

Honestly, you won’t get a choice, you will be applying late (for year 7 entry) and in year for year 10 so will have to take available places. They will not accept your application until you and crucially the dc are resident in the area you are applying to. I know this sounds harsh as opposed to giving you school ideas but you need to be realistic. The availability will be the schools where they are undersubscribed. Concentrate on where you want to make a home, accept the school may not be your first choice and you may need to consider private support for dyslexia and school more generally if it’s not an ideal school. I’ve done in year admissions and you also may have up to 6 weeks between application and starting so time your move carefully, you do need to applying by beginning of July for entry in September due to the holidays

The Hertfordshire & Essex High School in Bishop’s Stortford might be worth a look. I think it may well tick a lot of your boxes.

I think @gogomomo2 is mistaken in saying they won't accept your application until you are resident. I think you could apply to a Durham school from Cornwall if you wanted to. However you would apply via your own LA and as we both said be ready to take up the space quickly. Also of course if you are 400 miles away you would be lower down any waiting list!

Tbh that schools are very few and you have missed grammars. Even grammars don't fit your list.
Sorry. A lot of the good state schools are full now and service is much higher in private schools.

Look at undersubscribed schools. You can lucky, find a home and apply.

Thank you for your input. I really appreciate it. You can tell I’m pretty clueless about this.

Both my DH and I were made redundant and though we’re hopeful we might get something new soon in the spring, salaries have dropped and we were holding on by our fingernails financially anyway. Hence the openness to moving wherever if that means we can get the DC into a decent school.

What do you mean by good rail links? Are you looking to go into the office 5 days a week? How long a commute are you prepared to put up with? Really you need a decent area with a few schools to maximise your chances with a late application, but it’s hard to know where to suggest without some guidance!

We’re targeting London for jobs. But also Edinburgh/Glasgow as we love Scotland. If London, we’d be happy to do 90 min train journeys twice a week if necessary.

winchester and beaconsfield maybe oxford as well?
from what i've read all three of these areas tend to have good results. maybe someone can help with targeting specific schools.

Thank you. All advice gratefully received. This is such a stressful time at the moment so I really appreciate all of your input.

Are you currently renting or will you have a house to sell?

Scotland has a completely different education system @SecondaryChoicesIncRelocation . They sit Nat5s, Highers and Advanced Highers and I have no idea where Yr10 is in relation to their qualifications. On the plus side, your "catchment" school has to take you I believe (although I'm sure someone Scottish will come and correct me shortly!)

For year 7 in England any application will be treated as late now, so “choices” are likely to be limited and you will be allocated wherever there is a space after the allocations are made. At that point you can go on waiting lists.. Did you make any application for them by the October deadline? Where are you currently living? Likewise your y10 will only be offered a place wherever one is available, which may not be local or at one of your choice.

We have a house to sell and got it valued last week. We live in a very expensive part of the country (London commuter belt) and aim to sell it, pay off our mortgage and buy something outright. We’ll probably rent somewhere before we buy so we can try an area first. Think it’ll allow us to be a bit more nimble too.

I suppose I was hoping that if we moved much more rurally but still with access to a city/transport then the schools wouldn’t be oversubscribed. Is that a fantasy?

I work in In Year admissions and current Year 9s (so September 26 Year 10s) was probably our biggest cohort and this was the same across all the neighbouring LAs as well. I work in a city in the North West. If you had a vague idea of where you were considering moving to then you could look at last year's allocation for Year 7 to get an idea of where had spaces after the initial offer day but as your search seems to be anywhere in England then this going to be easy.
Rural doesn't mean spare places. Schools will either be in a larger town or will have taken pupils from a wide area. In the city I work the most in demand schools have a radius of under a mile at Year 7 application time. After that it's waiting for a place or winning an appeal.

If there are no spacers whatsoever for your older child then they may use the Fair Access Protocol to place her. This can be used where there is no school within a reasonable distance which can offer a place. Year 10 and 11 are my biggest problem for placement and that's due to the exceptionally large year groups. All the LA has to do is offer a place, it doesn't have to be at a school you like or requested if those schools are at PAN or over.

You can apply now if you wanted but you will be bottom of waiting lists most likely. If you're Catholic or other faith you might get a bit higher up the list compared to non faith applicants but as noted above you'd be expected to take up the place within a few weeks of it being offered, I've never seen an offer made more than 6 weeks ij advance.

I think you need to narrow down where you would live and then explore further and look properly at the logistics. Saying any city or commutable to London is basically ruling out Cumbria and anything further west that Bournemouth but leaving the rest of England. And just because a train route exits it doesn't make it easily commutable Leeds can be two hours to London but it's a pain in the arse and doesn't include the slog from home to the station. Commuting in Leeds is absolutely awful. Likewise Manchester and Leeds.

The good ones. Most likely. But you can be lucky.

I would post on the Scots board for advice about Scotland - it is a different system and I think it’s different in terms of cut off for year groups.

Hampshire is probably a good starting point. Winchester, Petersfield, Liphook, Alton, Fleet, Romsey and Chandlers Ford all have good schools (consistently good) and you’d get a space somewhere in a good school. If you rang Hants and they should give you an idea of where there might be places so you know roughly where to start looking. You can then visit and see where might suit. That would also work for places perhaps like Hertfordshire as well.

Berkshire and Surrey have some very good schools and commuter belt to London.
Year 10 gcse boards wouldn’t be an issue as they don’t start GCSE’s til then anyway in most schools.

But for year 7 you’d be classed as a late application and need an address.

I think you might need to bite the bullet and rent in an area with good schools and see what you get.

I think you are going to struggle to find everything you want. Scotland will be difficult due to the different education system and the SEND system is also completely different (eg no EHCPs, SENDCos).

You could try looking in Manchester. There are a few good secondaries in South Manchester such as Didsbury High or others in the Laurus Trust group. You could also look at bigger schools such as Parrs Wood or Chorlton High School. The dyslexia support in a state school is unlikely to be as good as at a private school so you may need to look at tutoring out of school.

What will your budget be for your next house? And what will that need to be like?
What sort of dyslexia support are you looking for? What do your DDs receive at the moment? When were they last assessed by an ed psych? Do they have an EHCP
It might be worth just speaking to a few LEAs and MATs and finding out who actually has space for a Yr10. The type of school you’re looking for is exactly what most of the rest of the population are looking for so the chances of them being a space are low. There simply aren’t any Yr10 spaces in some areas of the SE and so, whilst once you have moved the LEA will be obliged to find you a school place, it might not be at a school you deem suitable or appropriate.

Www.goodschoolsguide.co.uk will help you

Unfortunately you're looking for a needle in a haystack.

You might be better staying where you are now, applying for all the local secondaries and then doing the house move after that. Focus on moving the Y9 child now and then hopefully Y7 child will have sibling priority for waiting lists come September. Get a late application in asap.

Forget dyslexia help in secondary - there's no money or resources without an EHCP and you're basically out of time for that for the older one. Best you can hope for is decent access arrangements. (I have a severely dyslexic child in Y12 and she didn't qualify for any assistance as she was likely to get at least a grade 4 in all subjects... despite having very high CATS (130+) and targets of grade 8).

If you happen to get lucky with a school that offers anything then hooray but better to focus on finding good tutors or private help for that.

One beacon of hope - my child does to a state school and the help for her dyslexic friend is amazing. Her parents looked at a couple of private schools and it wasn’t even comparable. So there are good ones out there!

I wouldn't rule out grammars completely. I know in Kent, if you approach the individual schools they usually have some form of test for in year admissions who haven't taken the Kent test. It may be an option for your daughter in Year 10, and potentially for your younger daughter once the term starts (or potentially earlier, schools in Kent deal with in year admissions directly - I think there might be a date in summer that schools can accept in Year admissions for Year 7- rather than through the usual admissions process.) Obviously, less likely to gain a place at heavly oversubscribed grammars, but there are grammars in Kent who have spare places.