Moving DD after one year of secondary to a VERY different school... too risky to stay, too risky to leave

[castille]

In September, DD1 started at a feeder junior high school (age 11-14) for the high school we want her to attend (both state), but although the school she is at is meeting expectations, budget restrictions and teacher logistics mean that the quality of education she gets from next year could be severely affected and we need to consider alternatives.

The only alternative locally is a very large, private (though subsidised so not too expensive) catholic school with a very good reputation and a bourgeois privileged intake and the wrong side of town for us so logistically a bit of a pain. It is the total opposite to her current school which is small, very multicultural, quite a high number of disadvantaged pupils but great teaching... so far. DD isn't keen to move, she is a bit scared of the private school and its strictness and high standards, despite knowing quite a few children there from her primary school.

We could tough it out and hope that the senior high fills the gaps if her current school fails to deliver. Or move her now and cross fingers that she likes it and meets the challenge of extra pressure.

Which would you do?

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TBH I wouldn't consider moving her if she is doing well, has made friends and the school is fine just now, it surely won't change that much straight away because of a few budget cuts they will have been dealing with all sorts of financial issues for years.

Well for me the major things against would be the fact that she isn't keen to go, the logistical difficulties and the fact that there are no problems with her current school as yet.
So, on balance, I would say the reasons against moving outweigh the reasons for moving. What is her personality like? The culture of the two schools sounds very different. Is she likely to thrive in a strict school with high standards or is it likely to make her unhappy.
Personally I think there is very little in your post that sounds postive about the alternative school. Post again and give some of its advantages!

I think there'd have to be some major other positives about the private school, and more definite negatives about the junior high for me to move an unenthusiastic child, personally.

If the school is fine at the moment, why do you think it's going to go downhill so rapidly? Budget restrictions don't generally affect teaching standards, and I would have thought junior high would have subject teachers so the standard wouldn't be that different from one year to another even if one or two teachers are less good than others.

The problem is that having chosen the school for its bilingual section (she is French-English bilingual), they are now threatening to change or remove significant parts of the bilingual teaching. Apparently there is a battle of this sort every year over some issue or other. And the private school is the only other one locally that offers the same programme, only theirs is bigger and better, being private.

The advantages of the private school would be that the bilingual section is guaranteed, and we wouldn't have to worry about the overall standard of education she would get as it gets excellent results. I do worry a bit that the level in her current school is a bit low TBH. But it will only be a good move if she likes it. She doesn't thrive on change or extreme pressure but a certain level of competition improves her motivation...

Difficult to weigh up as obviously the bilingual aspect is important to you but then if she doesn't like change or pressure it may do her not extra good.

You may have to think about how important the biligual aspect is to her and how it will affect her overall education.

The bilingual aspect is pretty crucial to us - it seems crazy not to make the most of the fact that it's on offer, is designed for children like her, and opens many more doors for higher education.

Argh, will I ever stop worrying about their education?!

Just a thought and it may not be valid but could she maybe stay at her current school and if the bilingual aspect of the school gets removed, could she do extra language classes outside of school? I know it won't be exactly the same but maybe the next best thing. If you live near a city then this is more likely to be an option than if you live in the country I guess. Not sure where you are from but I know of a family I used to work with who were British/Swedish and the boys used to go to classes in London once a fortnight. Also had a friend years ago who moved from Hong kong to England and her and her two sisters used to go to Cantonese classes every saturday morning. This seemed to work well (all girls maintained cantonese language including the youngest who was only about 6 when she moved over here and they all got grade A* GCSE and grade A A level.

This is something we would consider laza, in fact we considered it when we were choosing her school this time last year. The major disadvantage would be that she couldn't take the bilingual exam at the end of junior high school. In this land where qualifications count for everything (France), not passing this exam might jeopardise her chances of getting into the bilingual section of the senior school and then her higher education options would be affected.

But it's not ruled out. In fact my Dad suggested it too - he thinks it's a better option than the catholic school.