Questions to help choose primary schools?

[trunumber]

I've just no idea what I should be asking.

4 schools in the area, 3 good, one outstanding. All lead to the local high school.

I don't really want much, I just want a school that's nice. That DS will make friends and be happy at. He's very gentle and finds it hard to stand up to other children (he's learning, but it's not natural for him)

I've thought to ask how they manage bullying and increase confidence but is there anything else I should be asking?

How much time do they spend outside. Some schools have outdoor classrooms/forest schools and they are invaluable. Also PE/sports facilities.

Be weary of smaller schools that boast they have small class sizes - in my experience they just merge year groups and you end up with two different year groups in one class, with the same teacher trying to teach them all.

Be VERY careful on your catchment - a lot of schools are over subscribed and while they might be nearby, you may well be out of catchment and bottom of the pile (I have known a few parents caught out by this)

Thanks so much for your reply. All really useful.

I didn't mention catchment - our catchment area school is the only one rated "requires improvement" - I don't even want to apply there. Do I have to?

I think the bullying question is a good one. I'd also ask:

1. How do they differentiate their learning in a large class with variety of levels of understanding?
2. What provision they have for special needs (you need to know this both if your child has special needs or if - as they will be - they are in a class with special needs children)
3. How many TAs they have (this makes a big difference to the above two - how they can differentiate and how much attention is given to those with special needs).
4. What their settling in process is - what you want to hear is both that they have processes in place for first few weeks but that they recognise that many children take much longer.
5. How they encourage their staff to develop - hopefully they will talk about both in-school training but also eg sharing between local schools and encouraging the staff to make suggestions for changes that can be made.
6. How they balance the national curriculum with following children's interests and ensuring they develop socially and emotionally.
7. How they help children who have difficulties making friends.
8. How they manage behaviour - both rewarding good behaviour and dealing with bad (some schools seem to focus on one but not the other).

Obviously you want a school that will teach your children well but for me the key differentiator that made my DC's primary school outstanding was the way they so clearly cared for my children and treated them as individuals (particularly as they were both children who could easily have been ignored as quiet, bright and well-behaved, but they really cared about them and in particular put huge effort into helping DS with his anxiety and selective mutism).

What supervision do they have in the playground (this is so important IMO especially in the early years and so few schools do it well)

What do they do to help children who have nobody to play with (do they have a friendship bench, buddy system etc).

We got given our closest - check on distances on website ..... stats are important if they are over subscribed or under as if you live too far away it might be pointless visiting or even trying to get in ...
So it didn’t matter what I wanted as I didn’t get in as the distance 390m or something silly.
Also all the school ratings can be done years ago and heads can change - so I wouldn’t worry about a title “need improvement “ “ excellent” as it can be pointless
Good luck

Thank you so much everyone, these are really helpful.

From previous figures I don't THINK other schools have been massively oversubscribed but I'm not certain. I'll ask them when I view but I will also view the nearest school just in case (it was classed as good when we moved here, most recent ofstead report 2018 when it dropped to requires improvement after the start of a new headteacher!)

How do they teach reading & what % pass the y1 phonics screening test.

Any answer of 'variety of techniques' or oh we find some of our better readers fail the screening because they have gone beyond phonics' then run a mile.

I have no idea what that means but I'll ask anyway 😊 Thank you

tru A basic job of a primary school is to teach your children to read. A proper structured phonics program (ie sounding out words) has been shown time and time again to be the best way to get most children reading.

Using mixed methods (eg including whole word recognition, or guessing from pictures) has been shown to be less effective.

At the end of year 1 there is a screening check to check that children can decode properly (using a mix of real and made up words). This was introduced because some teachers/schools were failing to teach their children effectively.

Some children can appear to read well, but actually read by remembering words they have seen before. This is all fine to start with, but it means they can't actually read words they haven't come across before, which means they run into trouble later in primary and in life.

I would be wary of any school that doesn't sound confident that it teaches phonics.

Thank you so much, so essentially I'm looking for any other answer than 'mixed methods'

How many schools can you pay to? (Varies from 3 upto 6 depending on area).
So...
1st... The school you really want
2nd... School you want and good chance of getting into
3rd... Safe local school, that may not be perfect but almost guaranteed a place at, and better than a similar several miles away.

Look at previous admissions distances to assess your probability of getting in.
You mentioned catchment... Is this an area where there is a priority admissions area, or is this the colloquial meaning of catchment of the approximate area pupils are admitted from. If it's the priority area, be careful about not applying for your school... 6 years in my town all schools filled from their priority areas, with many shipped out of town to the surrounding villages.

We also need to apply for DD to start reception sept 21 - no schools seem to be doing viewings etc locally to us due to COVID. Feels really hard to choose without a conversation and a tour 😫

following with interest as will be applying for dd to start next September. She goes to a preschool in the grounds of an amazing primary, but it is not in our catchment/ priority area at all and is very oversubscribed.

There are 2 primaries very close she could get a place in. One is small (one class of 30 per year) and one bigger (2 classes per year). The smaller one has better results but I prefer the idea of a bigger school.

I'm really hoping they will somehow manage some open days, I want to meet teachers and get a feel for the school!

I want to ask about how they manage bullying etc- what sort of answers should I be looking for?

You are looking for 'phonics' or 'synthetic phonics' without any riders or qualifications. (They won't actually say 'mixed methods'.)

Re small v big, in my view big is better if run well. My DC’s school went through a huge expansion (two classes per year YR to Y6 to adding a nursery year and expanding to three classes per year with four in some bulge years) - basically because they were the only school in area with enough space to expand much- and I was worried about the effect. But the heads and deputies continued to know the name of every child, their facilities expanded, they obviously got more teachers so overall gained more skills and attracted more great teachers and more extracurricular opportunities. They went from good to outstanding (despite the criteria getting harder). Even well run small schools can’t have all those benefits and can also be hard if few friendship options. But well run small school better than badly run big school.

You may not have the option and I didn’t even think about it when we applied but getting into a good primary that went through to Y6 was better than going through the whole process of choosing, applying, waiting, making new friends etc if separate infant and junior schools with no automatic through flow.

Teenplus - thank you for explaining to me, I'm very grateful

Aroundtheworld- we get to choose 3 and yes it's a priority admission thing. I'm not sure I would mind so much being shipped off to another school - our nearest one is literally the only 'requires improvement' school in the area

Our local schools are letting you look round after school hours so it might be worth asking for those who are looking this year

Thanks again everyone