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?

Distance to your home. A 10 minute walk is way better than getting in the car.

As someone who works in education I’d urge you to ask about their behaviour policies. A good school will ensure that poor behaviour means consequences, a poor one won’t.

Word of mouth was the deciding factor for me. Can you ask around at any preschool groups or playgroups you take your dc to, or the park? Neighbours?

Depends on your child - too small is stifling (12-15 children means potentially less than 5 other boys for him to be friends with, and it is really hard to differentiate work with so few kids).

DS is quiet and sensitive/anxious, and he is perfectly happy in his two form entry school (50-56 kids in his year at various points). Enough children to run plenty of different after school activities, and to make breakfast club/ASC financially viable. Enough children to make a specialist Spanish teacher and music teacher viable (shared across three linked primaries). Enough children to run sports teams and clubs. Enough children to have separate phonics and maths groups at different levels of ability. But still small enough that the head teacher knows everyone by name, and that DS knows everyone in his year, and the year above and below, and is confident playing with them when we see them in the park.

I would go for the larger class size

With a class size of 12 I would be concerned about the viability of the school - a total student body of 70 or 80 is not really sustainable and you may find that it will be closed/ merged with another school in a few years time given continued falls in birthrates.

The value of a bigger school is the increased funding received which means that they can invest in better facilities, have more teachers and more TAs and extra support servces etc and so the educational experience is better. As others have said also in a bigger class there is more chance of your child finding someone to be friends with/ a group of people that get on. The quality of the teachers maybe better as they will have more scope for professional development in a bigger school.

We moved five years ago to a new area and went from a single form entry (approx 25-30 in each year) to a dual form entry (around 55 children in each year) in the new area and I was surprised about how much better the new school feels - it feels like there are many more options and opportunities.

I've taught in the same state primary for over a decade.
And oh my, how that school has changed. We still all work hard to provide the same 'good' education for children, but like all state schools we've really suffered from the Tory cuts to public services.
The point I'm making is that I wouldn't place too much importance on 'background knowledge of schools that you usually build up from living in the same place' as due to the way funding of state schools has changed of late, and recent changes to teaching methods unless someone has a child attending a school right now any previous knowledge is obsolete. And even current parents get it wrong- one parent has written a FB post praising my school for doing XYZ, when XYZ was phased out when the woman's oldest child (now a few years into secondary) left!

I would kill for a class of 25! That's 8 less than I've ever had in my current job!

This has all been so so useful, thanks everyone