Choosing primary schools

[lemonyfox]

Hello! Posting in Chat for a bit more traffic.

My son starts primary school next year and I'm stuck on applications. We're lucky that we have a few great primaries round here, but with being relatively new to the area I don't have any background knowledge of schools that you usually build up from living in the same place.

I'm stuck between two schools. There's no difference in Ofsted ratings or SAT results. I've seen both in person on Open Days.

In other people's opinions, what's the important deciding factor on where you sent your child to Primary?

Childcare options. I chose a school that had wraparound care (breakfast and after-school club) some schools I looked at had no clubs or childminders that did before and afterschool care.

I think gut reaction is really important. Having gone through choosing nursery/preschool, primary school (twice, we moved house) and secondary school, the most important deciding factor was just the instinctive feel of the place. I think probably a lot of that comes from staff engagement and sense of community.

Second would be practicalities. How easy is it to get to? Is there school transport if you need it? Is there wraparound care if you need it? It’s useful to consider these even if you don’t ‘need’ them now, because things can change a lot over 7 years.

Can you park nearby? Honestly this can be such a big thing when it comes to schools! How easy is it to get to.
If there's nothing else in it, then put your choice down to convenience.

All this, absolutely. And I would say that these considerations are far more important than OFSTED reports and SATs results. I turned down the feeder junior school (where my dc's friends were going) in favour of another junior school with a much better, friendlier feel. Didn't regret it for a moment

Completely agree about gut feeling.

Also proximity - being able to walk to school in under ten minutes has been an absolute boon. Far less stressful than driving and parking, means I can get there easily for assembly or a sick child and means their friends are mostly very local and walkable too.

In your situation if there’s two you like and nothing else between them I’d go with whichever is most local to you and convenient to get to. You’ll be making a lot of trips there for a lot of years!

Make sure when you put down your choices you are including at least one “banker” school you are nigh on certain to get into - for most people this is probably their catchment school but check the criteria and what’s happened in previous years. At least that way if you don’t get into other schools you really want you at least get a local school as opposed to one several miles away that’s allocated to you.

Travel, if there's one in walking distance pick that one because driving to school drop offs and pick ups is a nightmare with parking.

Also wrap around care availability and cost if you need that.

Would size of primary affect anybody's decision? The two I'm thinking of are both single form entry, but one usually has the full 25 ish pupils and the other only 12-15.

This is useful thank you, as I have been thinking about things like "pick the closer one because that means their friends will be closer". Which felt a bit silly to be considering something so trivial.

Our area the schools are fairly under populated and 2020 apparently was a low birth year, so we're guaranteed a space in wherever we put down.

I'm a qualified primary school teacher with years of experience. If there is nothing between them, then I would choose the one that had the cutest school uniform and a girl's summer dress on.

Gut feeling is really important. When we chose for DC1 we couldn't visit (thanks, Covid) and that was very difficult.

Ofsted - surely they are not identical. How recent were the inspections? What do the reports actually say? The rating itself is pretty meaningless without those details.

Location is important - how far are you from each school? Can you walk or cycle to one/both of them? It's great to be as close as possible and to be able to travel by foot or bike if possible.

School size - bear in mind that schools get funding per child so the school with 25ish pupils in a class will have more money to spend on staff, resources etc than the school with 12-15.

My priorities now (DC1 in Y3, also applying for DC2 to start next year) are:

• pastoral care, how much do they value and support the children as rounded individuals - social and emotional development as well as academics
• SEND, I think it's important the school has experience and knowledge of supporting SEND children, but also that they're not overwhelmed with a high number of high needs children (my oldest was recently diagnosed with autism but no thanks to the school, we very much got the impression he was low on their priority list)
• wraparound care, holiday clubs and extra curriculars. We need after school club so that's a deal breaker. DC1's primary doesn't have holiday clubs at the school itself while others do - in hindsight, given that holiday clubs are a struggle, one at their school is an easy win. Also I didn't care much about extra curricular clubs to begin with but am beginning to realise what a benefit it is to have lots of options, especially if you have a shy/anxious child - less scary for them to try an activity in the familiar environment of school than going to a club elsewhere. Might be less of a concern if you have more confident children and happy to take them to various clubs.

You're a qualified primary teacher with years of experience and you really believe that there could be no difference at all between schools? Are you joking?!

I agree with gut feeling being important. When you went to the open days did you child go with you? Did he seem more settled in one over the other?

what are they like on the pastoral side of things? Do they have a caring nature.

After school clubs free.

Honestly for us it was location. We had a v good CofE primary literally across the road from our house but being atheist, I wasn't overly happy with the religious aspect. The closest non denom school was a 20 min walk.
We chose the 3 min walk, it was a good decision and turned out to ve a great school that loads of families were fighting to get into.

I would pick a school with 25 children per year, so one class per year group, over 15 children per year and therefore mixed classes.

For me I chose school with best SEN provision, happened to be walking distance away which is a game changer!

which can you walk to?
driving to schools (and parking) is a right mare round here. Also REALLY helpful to have friends living within walking distance

extra curricular activities/after school clubs and availability thereof (I’ve heard of after school clubs with 2 year waiting lists)

Surely better still if you can walk and don’t have to get the car out

When we chose a primary, I did walk around tours. I chose the local state because I watched staff interactions, with each other & students, as we went around. I asked about support for learning & flexibility. It was also close by. Parking is terrible, tbough.

Facilities & fanciness were not on my list. Also this school was pro active & had/has fund raised for crucial infrastructure instead of waiting for the government (they'd still be waiting, DS is in year 6....). They managed finances well & put it into students, not marketing.

It's been a great school. DS is finishing this year & DD loves it. It has issues like everywhere, and I'm not liking the new principal very much, but it's been good.

The friends living within walking distance has been amazing for us. We bump into friends pretty much daily, walk with friends on the way to school, attend local after school clubs at the church where his school friends also attend, always bump into people in the playground. It's a lovely community. I would miss it dearly if I had to move

@NameChange30 this is useful thank you, I didn't know about the funding per child.

@Sirzy he came with me to both. One was during the day while school was on so he was a bit bored. The second one was in the evening and they'd set the classrooms up with little bits and bobs to look at/play with. So being the typical 3/nearly 4 year old he is he said he liked the second one better!

Both schools have good after school clubs and activities too, so there doesn't seem to be much difference between them either.

One is a 2 min drive. The other an 8 min drive.

@TickingAlongNicely I don't believe the smaller one has mixed classes, both are single form single class entry. But I veer between "oh smaller will be better it'll be more a family feel" and the next day worry that the small group will be a bad thing! I don't feel like I'm thinking about either of them without some irrational emotions attached 😂

If it's a 2 minute drive you shouldn't be driving. How far/long is it to walk?

FWIW, I think 12-15 per class/year is too small. It's better for them to have a larger pool of children to interact with. Not to mention the fact that if it's a state school they will have to make significant budget cuts elsewhere for that kind of teacher:child ratio.

DC1 is in a single form entry school but it's mostly full - so there are 30 children in a class, 1 class per year group. It still has a small, caring feel about it, small enough that people know each other. That's ideal especially when they're starting in reception.

Later on though, when they're in KS2 and getting to the point when they'll be going to secondary, I think it's better to have 2 classes per year group, more chance they will move up to secondary with a group of friends (and know at least a few people in their form/class) and slightly less of a shock to the system when secondary is so huge.

@NameChange30 not entirely helpful of you really, but it goes without saying working a full time job and being the primary pick up/drop off parent means a 2-3 min drive is much easier to fit in around work commitments than a 20 min walk there and 20 mins back twice a day.