Secondary Considerations

[Pippedydeadeye]

With all her extracurricular stuff, Squeak knows loads of people outside her primary school so she’ll definitely be fine. I find the vertical mentor group thing slightly weird, because it’s so different to my school experience but it’s a good way to make sure there aren’t divisions between year groups.

[Pippedydeadeye]

Anyone visiting schools still should ask about the libraries; https://archive.cilip.org.uk/sites/defa ... Hi-res.pdf

[Dáire]

We've just had a look, T's year 5, as I wouldn't have time to choose in Year 6 if I had to look at them in late September and submit the form by early October, I think the deadline is. Not sure. Besides, we're not in catchment for either of our heavily-oversubscribed options so we need to move. The rest of his class went too.

One was small, a bit shabby, but consistent exam results (no up and down every time the rules change) and the other has a reputation as a grade-chaser, obsessed with the league table, was bigger, cleaner and looked very well-maintained, but I'm finding it hard to get enthusiastic at all after the GCSE changes (no more coursework, government meddling) and the fact we currently won't get a place.

[Pippedydeadeye]

The deadline is the end of October and pretty much everyone is in the same position.

[Elya]

That's great, Santa.

I am very proud of H, she is ace and I love her individuality.

Some of her friends dissed her decision today and she just quoted what the Head said 'your reputation is who people think you are, your character is who you are'. :))

I must be hormonal or something because that has just made me cry. You must be super proud of her.

[Luce]

Pip will NOT be swayed that year 5s should go to open days :lol:

Edith, that's interesting, I wonder if they group them? F definitely won't have that because no one else in his class is going but still. Luckily he knows lots of other kids from other schools from football.

[Ruby]

I am very proud of H, she is ace and I love her individuality.

Some of her friends dissed her decision today and she just quoted what the Head said 'your reputation is who people think you are, your character is who you are'. :))

I think she's absolutely made the right decision, Ism.

The SAM goes to the same secondary school as all his friends from primary BUT within about 6 months he wasn't really speaking to them anyway. Now he's in Year 8, all his friends are 'new' friends. They all talk about Pokémon and manga and have long hair - let's just say it will be a long time before any of them have a girlfriend.

[Pippedydeadeye]

Pip will NOT be swayed that year 5s should go to open days :lol:

You will NEVER convince me. :lol:

[Luce]

There were loads of year 5s at our open day! I thought of you :))

[Loralei]

I've seen three schools and am glad my preferred choice is still my favourite. The other two were always lower down the list based on distance, but actually I didn't see anything that set them above No1 anyway. I didn't get to see the last two on my list as their open evenings were on the same night and I was too ill to see one, never mind dash between the two, so it's lucky I didn't wait until next year .

It's lovely that F is going to your old school, Claude. I would happily have sent my lot to mine but when I mentioned it to my sister she recoiled in horror. Another example of siblings having completely different experiences.

Lovely H, Ismee. You must be so proud .

[Hamm]

Kids do change friends and it’s more about interests than the fact they’ve known each other for years.

We do none of this. Villages get attached to a secondary, all the schools feed in to that CSN, holidays are the same etc and the children technically move in may, they’ll start bussing the P7 over for half days etc before the start of the school year. To change your CSN would either be a house move or huge battle.

We didn’t do the open thing. L went there and it was daytime so T couldn’t go so we couldn’t see the point of touring a building we know in a system we know.

[Ruby]

We didn't go to the open evening for N either, Han. We had intended to but it clashes with his birthday and FiL's funeral. Plus, we have minimal choice - it's a small town and all the primaries feed into the secondary - and the SAM already goes there.

[Dáire]

To be fair I wanted to see the place too and have a year to think about it. I can keep an eye on social media and the local gossip, plus it dictates where we move to. I've been stalking the schools for years to build up a picture of their illicit league-table-skewing ways, like early-GCSE-entering, expelling SEN kids and off-rolling (one school doesn't, one school does), but they both changed heads last year so that's unhelpful. More stalking needed now.

It's a town where you have a very high chance of not getting your first choice - we have little chance of getting first and second due to distance and there frankly isn't a third as so many are blocked by religion - and we already went through it with primary school, as the number of kids was far higher than available places, schools ran out of places 300m from the door and our 'nearest' place was 3 towns away. Thankfully, one of our choices opened up 11 extra places, and we got in, but it was a nightmare at the time. It will certainly happen again if we don't move.

[Little My]

R got to have a sneaky tour of a high school this week, because they got dropped off there after going to the theatre. It's the only arts-focussed high school in town, so a lot of the kids from R's elementary go there. If she continues down that path, then she will almost certainly apply there. But I know it's tough to get in.

Moving schools halfway through elementary has plunged her into an entirely new group of friends (She regularly keeps up with just a couple of kids from her old school now.) and she hasn't missed a beat. They're so adaptable really.

[Cerise]

So, here I am! Can’t quite believe J is going to high school in September. We had the first induction meeting on Monday where we were told how lucky we are to have a place there (in fairness, it *is* a great school). The Yr6s all went off to do a workshop (J chose Technology). He cried before bed though about how big it was and that he was worried. I don’t think he’d taken in that there will be a whole day there for him in July. I think he thought Monday night was it until September!

[Pippedydeadeye]

Why did I think J is s year behind Squeak?

[Cerise]

Because he’s right at the end of the school year and quite small?

[Pippedydeadeye]

Aw! Poor J. I’m sorry.

Squeak seems completely unconcerned so far.

[Cerise]

J was has been really excited especially as they’ve made a big thing about the technology equipment and science experiments. On our two previous visits, it’s been busy and full but on Monday the school was empty and I think it probably made it seem a bit vast and quiet.

[Ruby]

The SAM was super excited about high school for all of those reasons, Cerise, but when he came back from the first induction day he hated it and it sort of built from there. He's fine with school now - it got better after Christmas of Year 7 - but it was difficult.