Is It Worth the Distance for a More Academic School?

[dddddiva]

Hello,

• Are parents who send their child to a more academic school, even though it is farther away, satisfied?

Which school would you choose:

• Academic School:
• %95 A*-A GSCE grade + 55 minutes door to door commute (via tube/train/school bus) + 9k more annually fee.
• Less academic/selective school:
• %75 A*-A GCSE grade + 10 minutes drive (5 stops by bus) + academic scholarship and annual school fees are lower about 9k per year.

Thank you 🙏🏻

I’d place the onus on the actual vibe of the school- whether you get a good feeling from the pupils and staff. My friends son went to one of the best school and she took him out second year because of bullying. The more she talked to people the more she found out about others who’d left for the same reason. Also this is awful to say but it depends on the child- I’ve friends who went to amazing schools but still didn’t study or work, they were in a school people paid to go to grinds in but were never going to want to go the academic route. They should have gone to a good school to try to motivate them, yes, but their parents paying thousands because they thought they’d want to be doctors someday was madness!!

It depends on the particular academic school and how academic your child is.

You need to look at what each school could offer your child, and what they could do with that other approx 1.5hrs a day.

For example... you child is a keen linguist, further away school offers a wide range of languages
Vs Your child is interested in Science, but also an excellent musician and there is an opportunity for private music lessons after school locally.

I assume your child is pretty academic if they’ve been offered a scholarship albeit at the less academic school.

Do you think your child will do better at a school where they are top of the tree or one where they are average? This really varies from child to child, some will be boosted by being top and would find being average quite difficult (especially if they’ve been top at primary). However some would coast or be frustrated if the rest of the class is working a bit slowly for them.

Local cohort vs a cohort spread far and wide also makes a big difference friendships wise.

Only you know how important the financial differences are to you.

Less academic until GCSEs, the other one for Sixth Form if child wants it post 16.

Unless there is something specifically brilliant about Option 1 I would go for Option 2. A bright motivated student will do well in either and the extra time/money would enable them to do excellent extra curricular activities, summer schools etc.

Also 75% at Grades 7-9 at GCSE is selective, and quite so at national standards! It is pretty good.

The other one is off the scale. And clearly your own DC will still get very good GCSE grades regardless.

The one you have described as the academic one, is super super selective,
the one you described as less academic is selective.

If you want to know, go compare it to the grades at state grammar schools.

Having a higher pass rate at option 1 doesn't necessarily make it a better school. They just have a brighter cohort.

Is option 1 worth the extra travel time?

What are the sports facilities like at both? Is your child sporty? For the further school would this mean a long way to travel for fixtures at the weekend? Can you easily afford both schools or would the more expensive one be a struggle/affect your QOL? Do you have other children?

The benefits of an extra hour at home either end of the day needs to be very seriously weighed into the balance.

I would always go for a very local school as my dc have very wide interests and need the time they would waste on travel to use more wisely.

I send my dc to our local comp though and don't believe in selective or marketised education. (My dc have/will get all 7-9s regardless. You don't need everyone else to get good grades, you just need it to be possible for yours to).

Bear in mind that your could always travel a little further and find something a little better....you just need to draw your own lines.

How large are the schools and do they set for any subjects other than math? If they each have at least 3 forms and they set for most subjects, I'd expect for there to be a lot of overlap between the types of students in the classrooms at each school.

Check the GCSEs subjects offer and the number taken. Some schools only do 8/9 GCSEs others do 10/11. Also, only top set maths doing further Maths or those that can get 7/8/9 give it a try. The type of music on offer (only scholars or options for other levels), the sports on offer. The league tables doesn’t give enough data and the stats can be massage. I know a school that is always top league tables and most pupils come from bilingual households so they do 2 or 3 MFL and get 9s. Another school of DC not getting on track of 9 in further maths asked to drop so league tables doesn’t not impacted by a 7 or 6 grades.

Yes what HawaiiWake says is absolutely true, the league table figures can be gamed and the difference between 75% and 95% could be explained by the sort of policies described. I have even heard of kids at certain schools being asked to take certain GCSEs privately ie not under the school’s name if their mark is expected to be below par.

Not all schools do this of course. But for this reason and many others the league tables really wouldn’t be the deciding factor for me, especially with such a small difference.

We are very happy with our current school (less selective all through school) but I’m unsure what would be better for my child in the long run: staying where always one of the top students and feeling motivated by that, or moving to a more academic school and being surrounded by children who are at a similar academic level .

Being recognised as an academic scholar there has made feel very proud. I honestly believe would be happy at either school, as my child is extremely social — even made friends on the assessment day.

We are able to afford both schools, but when we take the commute into account, we do question whether the move would truly be worth it.

If we stay at the current school, I know will be happy because it is familiar and close by. However, the academic school is an unknown, and that naturally feels like a question mark, as has never attended a purely academic environment before.

The local school

Ah ok so school 2 also has the benefits “she is there already, has friends, and we know we like the school”

In that case tbh it’s an easer decision. Stick with current school which you know you like. There could be all sorts of unknown irritations about the other school, on top of the higher fees and much longer journey.

Think again if she gets bored in future, but I expect school 2 will be well able to stretch her to keep her engaged. Ask about their scholar programme.

The commute for school 1 is intense. I wouldn’t do that unless the comparison was much more stark. School 2 is clearly a very good school results wise and if your child is happy I wouldn’t move. £9k difference is also massive. That would be the thing that would swing it for many.

I went to a selective selective school. If you weren't going to get an B-A* you were removed from the exam. It was a horrible hot house environment.

We've had a similar choice for our DC. We went for option two. DC plays 4 instruments, as well as being academic, and the 10 hours extra a week is useful practice time.

The extra £9k a year is also a lovely little nest egg for postgraduate study, travel abroad, super curricular or a house deposit.

My husband got a full run of 11 x A* and his schools general stats were 33% A-C (state). Bright and engaged kids will do well anywhere.

Does your dc have any thoughts on this? I would discuss pros and cons with dc and make an informed decision together. We were in a similar position. Ds had a sports scholarship at a less academic school, which was 20 minutes to get to. We ended up selecting the more expensive and academic school, which takes an hour to get to. He is thriving there and doing very well. Our only wish is that the school was closer, but would not change our decision. We made the right one.

What will the commute actually look like? If it is 55 minutes on a tube when you know you're very likely to get a seat then its not too bad as they can get work done. If its a 10 minute walk, a 20 minute tube journey, a 10 minute bus then its just a lot of stressful chopping a changing and will make a very tough day.

There’s only one difference I know about GCSE options: in academic schools, students are required to choose at least one language and one humanities subject. In our school, however, students are free to choose whatever options they want — they can focus entirely on humanities, languages, or even creative subjects if they prefer. I’m not sure which option is more advantageous.

The first one sounds like they kick kids out who won’t meet their grade standards… likely before they sit GCSEs. Otherwise I don’t see how they could get those results

Do you think the top 20 schools do kick kids out if the academic not up to standard?