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What schooling choice should we make for my 9 year old son's high school?

Our beautiful boy has two years of his school left until he has to start at "high school". We have a number of options for him. Some of his friends are attending our nearby local high school which is a public school, but the school has below average results, and low acceptance into university. The main advantage to this school is less travel time - less than 10 minutes away by bus. This school is his preference, but we haven't introduced him to the other schools yet. Our other options will be expensive and exclusive private schools, which our family will be able to afford most likely with support from grandparents. I also attended one of these schools. Students from these schools have about double the rate of entrance to university level of our local school, and higher performance of students in the national testing. Travel time to these schools is over an hour via public transport, or 25 minutes drive. Our son is increasingly frustrated with his current school because he feels its not meeting his needs for education, he complains that the studies are not challenging. He has received very high results in his testing, around the national top 15% in all tests which was amazing. However, he is often moody and quiet, and his teachers report that he often produces low quality work even though he is clearly highly intelligent. He loves music, maths and learning about history. He also grasps concepts of science very easily. He has a lot of difficulty in completing routine tasks compared with other children. We suspect he does have learning difficulties, perhaps since he was a premature child. He is very shy. How can we best choose a school for our child so that he will thrive and be happy and get the best out of his education? Let me know any other information I should add, or questions we should ask.

Public Comments

1. think well be4 u do it
2. Why don't you take your son round to open days at some of these schools and see which he responds well to? To be honest, though, top 15% is far from "amazing" - 1 in 7 kids do this well or better, so he's what, the 4th or 5th cleverest child in his class? I also absolutely would _not_ throw money at sending a child who struggles with routine tasks in an ordinary school to an academically exclusive one. If your son considers his work "not challenging", why doesn't someone challenge him not to produce such low quality? Believe me, a private school with a good record of academic success will not respond at all well to his attitude. If he gets in at all, he'll suddenly find himself in a situation where he can't handle the routine tasks and is no longer near the top in the non-routine ones to make up for it.
3. I would go with the private school. Even though it is expensive, it would be the best decision to go with. Your son sounds like a very bright boy. He is probably moody and shows low quality in work because he doesn't want to put effort into something he can easily do! He sounds very smart, and that school sounds awful for him. He could go so far! Take him to the private school, it's what's best for his education, his life now, and his future!