Can you help me choose a primary school? In year transfer

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We are moving to a new area. It is popular and some schools are oversubscribed. There is a high quality secondary in the town.In a conversation with admissions it seems there are a couple of options:

School 1 - small school in next village. Traditionally undersubscribed, 15-20 in each class, one form entry. Nice country school, chickens, guinea pigs etc. 5-10 mins by car but apparently they run a bus there. Not a feeder school for the secondary but our address should easily suffice. RI, edging to good.

School 2 - two from entry, popular school within the town we live in. 10 min drive or 40 mins walk. We have quite a few children of friends who go there. RI. Feeder school. We've not visited yet so don't know much more.

School one can accommodate call 3 children, school 2 can do 2 but the y5 has a waiting list of 2.

Which would you choose, or what more information do you need to make a decision?

What would your plan be if only two of your dc can go to school 2? I’d have thought that a waiting list for year 5 is less likely to shift than it would do for younger ones. Perhaps your yr5 would be happier at the small school, but can you even do both drop offs?

What do you mean by feeder school? Official link on criteria above distance requirements, or just the school people usually attend?

Will your child's position on WL be affected by siblings attending?

I guess the y5 would go to small school and we hope for a place to come up. Two school runs just about possible, relying on after school clubs.

Yes official feeder in the admissions over subscription criteria. Sibling attendance is high than that for the secondary.

The primary with no y5 place has sibling above catchment too, so she would likely go to top of list there.

Siblings are younger if that is relevant.

School one. It sounds lovely, you already have secondary covered by getting in on distance. I presume option 1 may open up an option to a different secondary in case anything changes in future and you don’t want secondary closest.

Does the feeder school affect priority into secondary? Actually, scrap that. The Y5 can't get a place at the feeder, so it's irrelevant.
I was all school 2 school 2 school2, until the bit about Y5 being full. School 1 for all of them.

School 2- single form entry doesn’t appeal to me and I like the fact there’s already kids you know there. Sounds like the year 5 spot may open up given the siblings if you could handle a short time at two schools.

15-20 in each class, one form entry. Nice country school, chickens, guinea pigs etc.

15-20 in a year group would be quite limiting for friendships, especially in older year groups. The point about chickens and guinea pigs is nice, but what about the teaching, clubs, classroom environment and resources?

It's hard to comment about school 2 as you haven't visited yet, but having local friends could help with settling in.

Definitely school 2. Small country schools sound good but as has previously been said can be tough friendship wise. We gave our rather shy 8yo the option of a school that sounded very much like school 1 when we moved, he chose the bush three class entry school and loved it. Once the others start your Y5 should have priority for the next available space, just be aware you may not be too popular at school if local families have been waiting ages.

It depends on what your transport situation is. Assuming that's not too much of a barrier, I would go with school 1 to avoid moving your Y5 twice. It can take a while to settle at that age.

Yes smaller schools are a bit more of a gamble but I think it's one worth taking, with DC being a bit older, and against the alternative of moving your Y5 twice.

Definitely ask your elder child's views on the possibility of moving twice.

You could also appeal for a place at Town school. No guarantees, but with no legal class size limit sometimes Appeal Boards are sympathetic.

Thanks for all comments. I'm not too worried about friendship groups; the DC are friendly with everyone and don't buy into drama etc. They will also have plenty of local friends outside school so it won't be the be all and end all. They went to a small nursery and go to a small holiday club.

Quite mixed views, I guess there is never a right answer, school one seems simpler in lots of ways and I do like simple...

School 1. The class sizes are fine so long as the kids also are allowed to socialise outside their own year (mine know everyone because they go to the wrap around care). Having them all together is important and makes your life easier.

Both are RI so that doesnt matter too much.

Have you looked at their websites and any newsletters they publish?