to think that all this fuss about primary schools is OTT?

[kittycat37]

DD starts school next year.

We have a school near us, not a fantastic ofsted but lovely neighbour's children love it, are very happy etc

Meanwhile, my NCT friends up the road have decided that they will do everything to avoid this school due to its less than stellar ofsted. They are busily looking for flats to rent in the catchment area of 'better' schools (i.e. better according to ofsted).

Personally, I just want my DD to be happy, learn to read and write...but is primary school really worth getting so stewed up about? At mine in the 1970s all we did was country dancing and cooking, it was bliss. I did well academically later on, probably more due to parental input than anything else.

AIBU? Our NCT friends seem to think so (which is COMPLETELY PISSING ME OFF)

Rant over.

YANBU at all. I'm a primary teacher and I second the sentiments of the other teacher on the thread who said she loved you :)
I come from Ireland where OFSTED reports don't exist. The schools do get inspected by the department of education but the focus is more on seeing that the school is running as it should be rather than setting arbitrary targets that the school has to meet. People tend to just send their kids to the school down the road - very few people go through the agony and handwringing that some parents seem to in the UK. The attitude in Ireland is very much that primary is for learning the basics of reading writing and maths and beyond that plenty of fun should be had. Therefore in the curriculum there is a lot of emphasis on drama, music, PE, art and other "non core" subjects. The standard of primary education in Ireland is considered one of the highest in the EU.
I have done a lot of supply work here in the UK and I've found that a good school doesn't necessarily correlate with one that's actually good for the kids. The school I teach in at the moment is actually an inch away from special measures but I absolutely love it and would definitely send my children there. The only reason it's in danger of special measures is because a huge percentage of the children are not native English speakers and this impacts hugely on the SATs. OFSTED doesn't take this into account at all, so a lovely, well-run school with dedicated teachers is labelled satisfactory (just). It's nuts in my view.

It's a very individual and not always rational decision.

The people who do spend a lot of time looking into schools and complaining bitterly about all sorts of small irritants, tend to be people who do have a number of choices open to them.

By wrestling with umpteen practical and emotional issues, by drawing up mental lists of pros and cons, by voicing their opinions to friends (even if slightly insulting to friends hem hem), they decide whether they will move, choose one local schol over another or go private.

Until last year I just thought you went to where ever was closest ! That way you'd be able to walk home with your friends

If your children are normal kids...with no social problems...are not shy or very sensitive then YANBU at all...but if your child is not one who is confident or does well in a big or chaotic atmosphere and your loal school is a big and busy one...then YABU.

My DD was painfully shy...really over-sensitive...she would have been lost in our local school...a class of 32 kids, mad atmosphere...roughish kids...nice enough but
could not see DD there and so moved.

Have you vsited the school?

I genuinely think that primary school is more important than secondary. 'Give me a child until he is 7...' etc

It's where they pick up good learning habits. It's where they learn the foundations - without good foundations you really cannot build properly.

I know you want me to say that primary isn't important and that your NCT friends are being precious, but I really do think you need to give this some care and consideration,

i think primary school is in fact more important than secondary too really, in many ways. and they do differ. but i agree with the other posters. ofsted reports can vary widely - our local school went from satisfactory to outstanding - and they are based on politically driven targets which don't always relate to what is best for actual children. go on your gut instinct. we didnt' choose the nearest school - hence being a bit precious i guess - but the one where we thought our chidl would fit best. going on ethos, attitude of headteacher etc (atlhough heads to change of course) and after his first half term he called it the best school in yorkshire!

I second what Quattrocento and Concordia said and also say that differences in schools can be huge.

They all have their strengths and weaknesses but they can really affect your child's perception of themselves as well as their achievement.

If you want parents' real views, ask more targeted questions as they will generally say that their kids' school is "great" until you start some digging!

I think primary is important, but that does absolutely not mean that I would feel the need to uproot my family and go off in search of the best Ofsted if I had a perfectly good school on my doorstep- as you seem to have.

Our infants school was not Outstanding, but I liked everything about it, from the headmistress to the dinner ladies, the look of the classroom, the vibes you got from parents walking down the road at the end of the day. It was the whole experience really.

Otoh dcs' junior school head was totally driven by the need to get an Outstanding Ofsted and did quite a bit of educational damage to dd in the process.

I would echo lots of posters and say visit the school, talk to other parents, talk to the head (if you can) and get your own sense of what the local school is like.

My DD has just started at our local school and i can't stress how lovely it is to feel part of a community. It's a short walk to the school, she meets friends and sees other kids from the school on the way. And this is a big city school I'm talking about, not some little village primary.

Try not to get caught up in the 'schools competition' that some parents enter into. I've just spent a couple of years having my ear bent by a very good friend who is OBSESSED with which school her kids should go to - but she based everything on academic results and very little on actual experience of the school. In the end circumstances meant she had to send her kids to her local school - and guess what? It's all been absolutely great.....

YANBU kittykat....they are.

People round us seem to get het up about schools from the day they are born...i will never forget talking to 2 pregnant mums at a party (with their first) who were shocked to discover I had done nothing to date about where DD1 was going to school (she was 2 at the time) and they were even looking into it for their unborn children....

I am like you I want DD1 to go to our local school, it isn't outstanding accordnig to OFSTED but it seems a lovely school, the little girl across the street goes and loves it and it is on our doorstep. At the end of the day unless you are prepared to move, you have very little control over which school your child goes to around us, you will get into the one that you fit the criteria for provided you have put it as a preference on your form.....

And I completely agree with all the comments about a school that suits one child may not be right for another.

One of our local schools has just had an amazing ofsted result.
Sadly, most of the parents there are about it as in reality, a more depressing place does not exist. Several parents are on the cusp of moving their dc to different schools because, as good as it apparently is, other local schools, with far less glowing reports, churn out children who are happier, far more confident and have a much better grasp of maths and English.

YABU.

primary school is important, if only because the kid may spend most of his/her time for the next 7 years there.

of course the academic side isn't the only thing BUT the general quality of the school cn make a difference between your kids being happy or being miserable there.

I moved my son from an outstanding Welsh equivalent of OFSTED reported primary school to a good one. He has really come along since moving and the school seems nicer and better to me. OFSTED isn't the be all and end all.

Like tethersend, I don't think there are enough parents like you. Even when I was a teacher and was being forced to jump through hoops, I was always of the opinion that a good primary school teaches children to be read, write and do maths, socialise with others, enjoy school, enjoy learning and have fun. The serious stuff can come later. In the 80s my primary education was woeful - all we did was singing, recorders, "Scripture" and Welsh. Oh and lots of PE. I loved it!

agree!!!!! my local school is like yours. get annoyed with people that move, encourages ghettos. i wish council would pull names from hat tbh

OFSTED is crap

My friend is an ofsted inspector and I think his methods of evaluating a school so "tick box" that it's invalid

We have a school at the end of the road which was getting ridiculously low league table results at KS2. I had a look round: everything looked very nice, and I asked in passing what the reason was for the results - the response was "oh we had a bad intake of children that year" . OFSTED's opinion was that the actual reason was that there were very few permanent teachers, and the DCs were almost entirely in the hands of supply teachers. The woman I talked to who presented herself as the head was actually a temp, as the real head had been on sick leave for a year.

Funnily enough I came over all OTT and walked my children a whole ten minutes down the next road to somewhere a bit more ambitious. The local school has now got its act together as far as I can tell, but I wasn't prepared to take a chance on it.

Most primary schools are OK, but that doesn't mean that they all are - and if you want your DCs to pass a selective examination aged 10 you need to be even more paranoid.

No selective examinations at 10 round here ,thank goodness

My DD had just started school nursery which is the only one in our village, 10 minute walk from home. It had a good OFSTED report, but I based the decision on the fact that there is no other school I could get my children to! I don't drive and there have cut off buses into the next village...so not much of a choice.

Luckily it's a fantastic school! It got a good ofsted report but it's the feel of the place that I like. I volunteered there before DD started and knew I'd be more than happy for DD to go there.

I wonder if more people chose their local (nearest) school, whether schools would become a bit more equal? As there would be more of a mix of pupils etc, more pressure from parents wanting the school to perform better. I could be talking rubbish though .

they have cut off buses, sorry.

Ignore them-people get really silly and go by the wrong things. All you need to do is visit on a normal working day and see whether you like it, and most importantly, will your DC fit in?
Mine went to a school that some people 'wouldn't touch with a barge pole' (it had a very mixed catchment area)they really funny thing was those of us who sent our DCs there knew it was good and then it not only got an outstanding Ofsted, but the Head got to meet the Prince of Wales as a school of excellence! Some people who had jumped through hoops to get to the Cof E found that it wasn't that good and changed their school to the catchment area one!
It made up for all the time people looked at me rather pityingly, as if my DCs were getting a second class education.

YANBU.

Your NCT friends are snobs misguided.

But then I speak as someone who had to remove my Dc form a "good" school because it was awful, and sent him to a "satisfactory" (which is now "good" ), which our family loves.

I bet there is someone else who is giving them the same grief about sending their child to a state school rather than private.

I think that the best thing that I did was move to an area and choose the school without knowing the local opinion. Schools get a reputation and it sticks-regardless of the fact that it may have completely changed.

Blimey!!!! I posted, RL took over, came back thinking there might be a reply or two to find all these comments.

Thanks all, very interesting.

I'm sure my own experience colours my feelings about the whole process. For me, primary school was blissful - a very relaxed village school, no academic pressure, lots of drama, art and music. Geography involved our Headmaster telling us about his trips around Africa; science meant walking around the fields looking for leaves; PE, as I said was country dancing. We did a bit of writing every day, some maths but the school would have absolutely failed any ofsted I'm sure, and it was wonderful. That is what I want for my daughter; a happy, enriching experience in which learning is just a natural process.

But times have changed; now I'm a Londoner now and school seems a much more scary place and 'learning' seems to have become much more proscribed and narrow.

I don't think my hit and miss, hippyish primary education did me any harm. I ended up at Cambridge University, but as I said in OP I think parental input had a lot to do with my overall education.

The thing is, what my teachers had was enthusiasm, genuine warmth and understanding. I think there are loads of teachers out there with that still but I doubt somehow it can be captured by ofsted or league tables. It can only be seen in the detail of day to day interactions. That's why this process is difficult and why I think my lovely friends are perhaps misguided. I really think the last government were crazy to disrupt the process by which people went to their local school - schools need communities, not armies of neurotic parents who have rented out flats in the hope of gaining a theoretical advantage.

Hmmm....rant over, once again.

It sounds like my village school, kittycat, blissfully happy and a good education. Unfortunately teachers no longer have that freedom-although things are slowly going around in a circle.