Would you move for a better school?

marisco_2

Is there only one high school locally to you? My eldest will be going on to high school in a couple of years. Pupils from his current school go to one of the three possible high schools in our area. I wouldn't base my decision on which one he goes to by which of his current friends will be there too. It would be based purely on which one could offer him the best education and facilities.

How many of us stay in touch with those we are friends with in junior school? Of my friends that I met during my school days only one of them was with me in junior school. I would consider moving if none of the schools in my area were rated highly.

oligeo

The nearest school to us is a single sex school that is a lottery to get into, so I was putting that out the question for now. It has fantastic results but 1) I'm not keen on a single sex school, and 2) if we didn't move, applied there and failed to get in we'd be sent to nearest secondary, which is the not very good one I mentioned in my original post. There is another secondary in the other direction that is a little further away, but its results are about the same, so we'd be no better off.

thegirlintheattic

Schools fortunes can go up and down very quickly, so unless you had very serious concerns I would not move.

A school near us had a historically good reputation, a year or so ago there were rumors that all was not well and now it's taken a hammering results wise. I feel sorry for the parents who paid a premium just to live in catchment.

Rummer

I would put in a placing request first and if that was unsuccessful and I could afford to move then I would. Education is too important.

onlyroz

We live in an area with an excellent primary school and an average secondary school. If we moved half a mile down the road we would be in an area with an average primary school and an excellent secondary school.

Currently my son is in the excellent primary, and we hope to get my daughter into the same school. We then have to decide whether to move the half mile and be in with a chance at the excellent secondary - it's a tough one, having to weigh up the costs of moving, and the kids having to form different friendship groups etc etc. There's a chance that we could get the kids into the better secondary without moving, but it's heavily oversubscribed. Also, even if we did move it's not guaranteed that they'd get in either...

claire16c

oligeo wrote: »

The nearest school to us is a single sex school that is a lottery to get into, so I was putting that out the question for now. It has fantastic results but 1) I'm not keen on a single sex school, and 2) if we didn't move, applied there and failed to get in we'd be sent to nearest secondary, which is the not very good one I mentioned in my original post. There is another secondary in the other direction that is a little further away, but its results are about the same, so we'd be no better off.

You say its a lottery - is that because its massively over subscribed? So there's a chance you could get in?

My parents moved so that I could go to a much better secondary school, sometimes gets better results than the private school half a mile away, ( the one we were in catchment for was about a 5 mile bus journey away and extremely rough with terrible results - even though a very good school was only 1 mile away! I guess some idiot drew the map..), and it was well worth it. Yes only a few of my primary friends moved houses too so only 5 of us went to the new school, but theres only 1 of them now who Im friends with anyway all the rest I made when I was there, or before hand with children who lived near our new house.

My parents considered moving me to a new primary for year 6 but I preferred to stay at my primary with my friends. But we all went off to various schools.

The secondary school I went to was a single sex school, which I wasnt keen on when I was 11. But I loved it, and if I have kids I definitely want them to go to single sex schools.

oligeo

For getting into the single sex school, all applicants take a test, they are all graded and placed in order highest to lowest, they then split that into 5 (or 6 can't remember) equal sized groups and take a proportion from each group.

So we could stay here and try and get in, but even if we wanted him to go there we'd have as much chance as getting in as people in the next county.

oligeo

oh and the single sex is massively oversubscribed

marisco_2

I went to a single sex high school and found it a really positive experience. I was a very sociable child though and attended lots of clubs and activities outside of the school where I mixed with boys and girls. I also have a large family and had many cousins that I mixed with. This probably helped with my social development. I think it depends on the child as to whether single sex schools would work.

JC9297

Person_one wrote: »

Don't underestimate how hard it can be for a child to settle in and perform to their best at a new school where they don't know a soul and everybody else is with their old primary friends. Some will be fine but some will find it very hard and feel isolated for a long time, possibly even becoming a target for bullies.

The new head may well get results a lot quicker than you think too, school's reputations can turn around (either way) within a few short years.

Yes some children might find it hard, but there are many,many children who have no problems at all. My son went to a different secondary to his primary school friends and soon made a wide circle of friends, including some who were at different primaries together, but he also has friends who came from primary school in a different city or even country. My son is quite shy/reserved but has always been popular with his peers and made friends easily.

Regarding choosing secondary school we could have gone for the school his primary friends went to, (we live equidistant from both), but luckily in the catchment for the 'outstanding' school that we chose. We knew that our son could get good results wherever he was, so that wasn't the main reason for looking at the school's results. However if the school has a high % getting good grades then those children must be behaving reasonably well in class to learn, rather than mucking about/being disruptive IYSWIM.

When it comes to choosing don't look just at results, consider the whole 'feel' of the school. What are the children like who currently attend - not just the selected ones there on open evening, but what are they like when coming out at the end of the day, are they polite, well-mannered- are they the sort of teenagers you want yours to be?