We went to see six schools in all and the Minster was our favourite by miles.
In general terms, it is a high achieving school, it has a fantastic new building providing an excellent learning environment and state of the art facilities and it has a good reputation.
In terms of visiting the school, I was very impressed with the teaching staff (the majority of whom were friendly, enthusiastic about their subjects and spoke to DS and not just me) There was a good relationship between pupils and staff - a good balance between approachable and authorititive, I thought. The executive head and senior staff were also milling around and were again approachable, helpful and passionately enthusiastic about their school.
In terms of what it provides personally for DS1, he is academic (G&T Maths) and I was reassured by the Head of Maths that his needs would be met both in class and in terms of extracurricular activites (they apparently have loads of kids attending a maths club!) He plays 2 musical instruments so again his needs will be met in the Minster with it's music specialism. He is also sporty and very out-of-doorsy so I was impressed by the sports provision and the large participation in D of E.
and finally, from my POV, it is a church school, which I prefer and it is not too far from home and he can get a bus....
There have been two seperate negative issues which concern me slightly but are both hearsay. One is that the town has a problem with underage drinking / drugs and the school are not brilliant at dealing with bullying. I asked senior staff about both issues when I went to look round and was happy with their replies and the information that they gave me about their procedures and policies and preventative measures to tackle both problems.....
Having said all that, I still wonder whether I have made the right decision and I still hope that DS1 is happy and settled there - I suppose time will tell....
Hope that helps - good luck with the school search