I’m absolutely devastated about our school placement

Walking distance is a huge pro - especially at 8.30 am!

My DC's primary school didn't have school library as such, but they had shelves of age and curriculum appropriate books in each class room with free choice to hottie them. They also went on occasional trips to the public library.

Green space is great, but it's too wet, muddy or frozen to play out in half the time.

Multicultural is fantastic. It's so valuable to kids perception of the world, of what is normal. I miss it - I went to 2 massive schools in central London with many, many, nations represented. My dc went to a very white country village primary school in Yorkshire, and it's much harder worker normalising other cultures.

The classrooms looked messy - great!! People are expressing themselves!

I'm an atheist and I love that my kids went to a CoE school. I can't hide religion from them, they need to know that it exists, but if they can do that at school, that's brilliant. We can compartmentalise it there in a "our family is not religious. We don't do religion at home" way. Even if it wasn't a faith school, I think you'd be surprised how much Christianity is on rte national curriculum anyway, as well as faith based assemblies. DS had a short phase of trying to be a good Christian when he was 7 or 8, but quickly realised that this is just basically being a nice person. DD poo pooed the whole idea, and only ever entered the school Easter colouring competition to win chocolate. At 13 and 16 I can assure you that they are as atheist as me.

Cheer up! It's a good school! It gets great results! Your child's education is also not only about school. You can still take him out, show him what's important to you, sit and read with him, play with him.... it's all fine.

Your pros sound good keep focusing on that. Ask to visit again.
Lots of schools have events in summer term maybe see if you can see dates of sports day or fayre on website or sm and go and see.

I always say , with outstanding schools they are desperate to maintain that status . I’m sure not all schools are the same , but in my experience it’s not at the benefit of the child - think crackdown on attendance , lots of homework , keeping children in certain brackets - that could actually get higher with support but they would rather keep them lower ( say , expected or working towards ) so if they don’t make a higher bracket it isn’t seen as a fail on the school . Those who are rated ‘good’ are happy with that , and keep at that nice level.

Even the worst schools have teachers that care . They have standards they have to maintain .

Again - another school I loved working at , that had happy pupils and such a lovely feeling there - was rated as “ satisfactory” .

My own child’s school was a lovely little village school , such a happy place , it was rated inadequate and put into special measures so forced to become an academy. Now its outstanding - but , sadly it’s not the same.

Oh dear! Well that's a silver lining that you didn't get allocated that one!

Good luck with it Op. I think you'll come round to the idea of the one you've been allocated and you may find being close by is a real bonus compared to the other schools that were further away as can walk to school etc.

@Itsallaboutme2021 just saw your comment on my old post.

I just wanted to say I understand the disappointment you are feeling. It took me days to calm down and I did then start to feel a lot better about the situation.

We took our chance with waiting lists and was offered a spot at our first preference.

Good luck with whatever you choose to do.

If you forget about the two schools that were out of catchment. Were there any other better schools closer and in catchment than your 3rd choice that you didn't put on your list? Is it worth getting on waiting list for those? Especially if they are non religious

Cons- no green area on site ( they use a local public park)
Neither does mine and it's an amazing school. They use the park really well with the added advantage that there's wildlife such as ducks, swans and squirrels at the park which you don't get in a playground. Plus more plantlife. They collect fircones and do leaf rubbings.
It’s religious…. I’m not.
Neither am I but my children attend C of E. The vicar lives next door in the vicarage. No issues whatsoever with it. The vicar is absolutely lovely and all the school plays are in the church so there's plenty of space and gives a lovely atmosphere to the nativities. Think 6 year olds signing silent night solos and it echoing around a beautiful church. Even the dads cry.
The library was pitch black when we visited and looks like it hadn’t been used in months.
This is just your perception. It doesn't mean it hadn't been.
The classrooms looked messy and chaotic like they had been used and enjoyed by young children
I didn’t pay much attention to anything else as I knew it was not the school I wanted for our child.
Well, putting it down as a third choice was a little silly then.

Pros-
It does some nice charity work.
So it's caring and will install good values in your children
It’s above the national average for maths, English & writing.
Very rare and would swing it for me.
Its probably the only multicultural school in the area.
So it's hard to see how the religious aspect bothers you, since it's likely to have children of all faiths there
It’s walking distance.
A godsend. Great exercise for your children, extra exposure to fresh air and vitamin D, and friends will be local. Lovely after school park meet-ups on the horizon!

I lived walking distance from a school that I didn't like for the same reasons. Library wasn't used, being snobby it was a but rough around the edges. So I drove my child to the next nearest school in a very affluent area. Someone that lived a stones throw from me did the same. Half of that class came from around our side of town.
The school my child ended up at was snobby beyond belief. The local parents with very few exceptions were arseholes on a whole other level. Literally divided the class. I'm talking Birthday parties only for children that lived local to the school not from 5 minutes down the road
Mums drinks for the same. Nasty nasty mean girls.
We actually relocated and the school were are now at is much better academically although in a poorer area, increased Pupil premium ect.
The other child that loved close to us originally had a lot of issues in the first school and as a result her mum and dad moved her to the school that we had not previously not wanted andactively avoided... shes thrived... happier, more supported, more rounded and having a great time.

The other thing is if you dislike certain points of the school... get involved... pta/governor effect change. The school we are at now have movie nights, quizzes, bingo, discos every term. Selection boxes at xmas, easter eggs at easter for all the kids. Fund the year 6 leavers gifts and goodies and contribute to school wish list. It makes the school experience of the children really lovely.

Good luck

But how many on those actually chose a 1st or 2nd actually in their catchment? You chose a 1st and 2nd out of catchment which is a little unrealistic

If you really like your area - are you sure there is so much wrong with the school?

Your neighbourhood children are mostly going to be in the local primary - this is your community. To me that is the benefit of state primary schools - they provide an incredible sense of place and community.

I have made friends for live at the two primaries we have been part of. Neither school was perfect - but remember it's only really the sum total of local parents - you personally could be an active member of that community.

I think the. problem with a school library may be lack of resources - ie. adults - to staff it. You could always offer to volunteer getting it back on track or set up a group of concerned parents to spport =- also a way to make local friends.

There is a big difference between "souless with dark library" and "unsafe area".

However, if I understand correctly, it is the area you have chosen to live in, so it probably isn't that bad?

It doesn't work like that, places are allocated based on a specific criteria and all applications are ranked based on admissions criteria. Even moving into catchment and then appealing won't guarantee you'll get a place, infant class sizes are limited at 30 per class, if there were only 28 children allocated places then the OP would have been offered a place even if out of catchment.

In my experience the best way to judge a potential school is by the pupils who attend. Do they appear happy? Are they confident?
When we were shown round my children's school we met a lad in the corridor who happily introduced himself, held the door open for us and had had a lovely chat with the head teacher, who obviously had a very warm relationship with him. That was a huge plus (and probably more important than results to us).
You are trusting your baby to the school, honestly their happiness is much more dependent on the nurturing environment than a patch of muddy grass.

So..firstly you can appeal the place if you really hate it.

But also...possibly give it a chance. My kids started at an 'outstanding' school with an excellent reputation in an expensive area, and every day at pick up I heard the teachers shouting at the kids like prison wardens...we weren't ever allowed in the building, had to wait outside by the motorway, very disorganised school always making errors with dates, sending my kids on the wrong school trips sometimes (!). Very rough area immediately surrounding (although the area in general was 'nice') with lots of fights and violence witnessed firsthand. Lots of issues with other kids in class bullying/being violent and just not nice.

I moved them to a school with not as good a rating, more rough seeming families, not as nice an area. But the teachers and staff were so much nicer and more welcoming, the families were much nicer and the community was more welcoming. The quality of teaching was great - more relaxed, but that matched the ethos of the school, and you could do as much/little as you wanted (ie homework was given but it wasn't mandatory). Not ONE issue with bullying or bad behaviour, all the kids gave each other hugs and high fives at the end of the day.

Ultimately reputation and rating don't necessarily mean much. Everyone still talks about how amazing School #1 is, but that was not our experience at all.

In which case, you may have just missed out and could get a place from the waiting list at your preferred school then.

I’m surprised a school in North Somerset has no space for a playground/school field. I would accept place but appeal for first choice. If allocated school is much nearer your home then I guess that might be reason it was allocated. How far away is first preference? Can you afford to move house to be nearer?

I know so OTT

Okay, having looked at the stats for North Somerset, you are in a very small minority, but that probably means most people put their catchment school as first choice. When you applied did you look at how likely you would have been to have got a place in previous years? There's a difference if most years you would get in and this year you missed out by a place or two, rather than having no chance in any year and you put an unrealistic choice.