Birmingham 2021 Marks & Preference of school.

[Hope 21]

Thank you.
Is Aston better than handsworth? Both are easy to commute. Which one should I put first.
Thanks in advance.

[JustOutside]

Is Aston better than handsworth? Both are easy to commute. Which one should I put first.

I don't believe there's a definitive answer to that question. According to comments on this forum, both are very good schools. If the commute is equally easy between the schools, what else differentiates them?

When we were comparing three grammar schools for our DD over the past few months, we did look at results / league tables, but only at a glance, to reassure ourselves that there wasn't any significance in that regard. We also compared the curriculum offerings. What foreign languages do they offer? Textiles vs business studies, etc. What are the facilities like? Trips? Clubs? In the absence of real visits, we also watched the online video content carefully, and considered what impressions we got about the 'feel' of each school. Was the Head inspiring, kind? We read the policies and website information, raised our eyebrows a things like a 'reading for pleasure' policy, tried to imagine the reasons behind some of the things!

Perhaps most usefully, we managed to find a 'friend of a friend' with a child at each of the schools, and I had a chat to a parent of a child at each. Of course, it was only one impression, but this was really helpful in getting an insight into the culture of the place, the way the management team deal with issues such as bullying, the pastoral support, lockdown provision, pressure on the children etc.

For us, the commute was a factor, so we initially drove to each school and looked at bus stops, bus times vs school start/end, the walk between home and bus, bus and school. Once DD had got her results, we travelled by bus to and from her preferred school, at the time in the morning that she'd need to leave the house to get to school. It wasn't a perfect test as it was during half term so traffic was lighter, but it meant DD really understands what it's going to be like.

I hope nobody will tell you which school is 'better'. It is really hard to decide, without being able to visit, but only you know what factors are most important to you and your DS.

[double_aces]

@hope21

I'm not sure if you've visted any of the school. We had the opportunity to visit both handsworth and Aston last week. My thoughts are captured below.

Handsworth:
- Soho Road was really busy, left to arrive at 9:15.
- Open day was very disorganised. Headmaster introduced parents, and left students to show parents round. Really chaotic.
- Students appeared to have been hand selected to too promote school. Not a genuine discussion.
- Limited (practically non-existent) playing area for children, especially younger ones.
- Facilities seems good, great library.
- teaching staff seemed enthusiastic.

Aston:
- New headmaster, showed us round personally. Seems liked he had a vision for where he wanted to take school.
- seemed to be an emphasis of developing softer skills.
- Some facilities seemed new( canteen, gym).
- Large (ish) playing / socialising area for children
- Parking seemed to be relatively easier, but OD was at 11am.
- Honest conversation with students about pros/cons of school.

We've placed Aston higher on list than HWB.

[hermanmunster]

^ that's v interesting and it does make a difference at open days as to what the Head is like and how they interact with people. I remember looking for a private primary for DD - one head struck me as a social climber (turned out he was well known for it!) and then another was fab, spent lots of time with us and DD and reminded us of a relative who was a crackingly good head teacher -we went for the second and it was just right.

Good Luck with the applications - certainly helps that you have managed to get to both open days