Secondary options

[Snowman49]

Looking for some opinions. Currently living in a region that has grammar schools but have found a house in a nearby place (not in the same region) that is in a better area and which would offer us great opportunities but the secondary schools are all very large (1500+ students) comprehensives. What would you do? Move or stay where we are?

How likely is your dc to get a place at a grammar school? If they don’t, what are the options where you are now?

I would think they would get in but it's a few years off at the moment. There are a few good secondary school options around in the area we currently live.

1500 students is not the biggest school tho I agree it's not small. IME as a teacher and parent, 1200+ is fairly typical for a comp in a city.

The numbers of students is not a factor that would put me off tbh (if that is your concern). A very big school (there's one near me with 2000 student) has many more options – for example a friend's DC go to the 2000-student school and they are getting huge amount of input relating to a specific uni course they are interested in – there are basically advice groups for those who want to be vets/medics/law/Oxford, which is certs not the case in some schools (bc not enough YP interested). That's just one example, obvs more sports teams, more range of school trips, more possibilities for GCSE options.

What are the comps like in the area you might move to? Just bc they are comps, again, is not necessarily a bad thing. I went to a grammar school as did DH (not the same school!) and it wasn't something we wanted for our DC. The majority of DC don't attend one.

And ppl are often in favour until they realise their DC won't get in and they look in dismay at the other options. Are the grammars taking top 10% or top 25%? If the latter then the sec mod will feel very creamed off. Tho obvs it increases the chances of your DC getting in. Is there a lot of tutoring to get places at the grammar? That all sounds so stressful from reading on MN (tho obvs I didn't do it with my DC and ofc no tutoring back in the 1970s).

What kinds of opportunities would the new house offer? Would the benefit the whole family and long term? I might be rather wary of staying somewhere that was otherwise not ideal on the off-chance that my DC would get into the grammar school.

edited for typos

Mine went to a big good comp. 330 in each year. Massive upside is the bigger range of gsce options and more vocational BTECs than smaller schools. Top sets are on a par with grammar kids