DD1 starts school in Sept 2007. Last year we made a move out of a city and into a village. It's not a rural village, it's part of a collection of villages which border another city and a town.
DD1 goes to a lovely Pre-school in the neighbouring village and that feeds into a number of Primary Schools in the villages/town. When I visited the Pre-school, the Principal, who is an ex-teacher and run the Pre-school for 40 years said all the infant schools were good in the area.
Last week we went to visit the Infant School down the road from us. It's within 5 minutes walking distance. It's a 1960s build with nice large green playing fields. The school has 5 classes in the Infant School (instead of the 6 it is allowed), due to falling roles across the whole of the county (South East).
My husband and I were impressed enough by this school, it had a nice atmosphere and it sounded like the children were stretched i.e. the HM stressed that the whole class work to an advanced level and children are taken out for Special Needs classes, rather than the top of the class being taken out for special lessons. It seemed small enough for dd1 to cope with and not feel overwhelmed. The headteacher was friendly and approachable. Everything seemed fine to us. Plus, we really like the fact that we can walk dd1 to this school.
BUT, since parents are given a 'choice', I can't help feeling an inclination to make a 'choice' and to make a choice I'd have to look at other schools.
On the one hand, I have heard people say you should choose a school like a house, you just know it feels right. The school we visited felt right (enough) but how would we know without making a comparison? On the other hand, if we go to see any other schools, are we then going to be torturing ourselves, trying to make a decision?
The other school we'd look at is a smaller traditional village school. It is in the same village where dd1 goes to Pre-school. So, I get the impression that the commonly held view is that the small village school is better than our nearest school. But, I don't know why. The parents are perhaps wealthier (house prices are slightly higher in the other village). I imagine that the idea that the other school is better may just be an 'idea', of course, perpetuated by the people from that village whose children go to that school!
I do want dd1 to go to the local school but want to get over the niggling feeling that the other school is 'better'. How can I tell for sure that our local school is 'good enough'?
The SATS are 40% of children achieving level 3 or above at the end of KS2. Is that good? or average?
Can anyone share their experiences of 'choosing' a State Primary School. Thanks if you got this far :) I realise this post reads like a random collection of my thoughts.
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Would it be unuausal NOT to look at more than one Primary School for dd1?
beatie · 26/04/2006 09:32
Agree gut feeling is the most important thing, followed by walking distance, but you might like to read the Ofsted reports for a bit more detail / professonal opinion than the SATS results (which are indeed a crap measure).
The Ofsted reports also tell you a bit about how the school is funded, governed, organised etc which might make you feel more comfortable and better informed - I always like to get as much information as I can before making a decision on anything, but appreciate I am weird. 
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