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.

Kittycat, this is something that gets my goat too. In my circle, there is much talking about which school to send your dc to - in my town there are a fair few outstanding schools, all on the outskirts, a couple of miles from where myself and most of my friends here live.
Most of them would have not considered the local school, which was "good" and went to "satisfactory" at the last inspection in June.
I am a trained primary school teacher and am of the same opinion as many of the other teachers on this thread that school should be to learn the basics and to learn about lots of other "things": art, music, etc. In many high achieving schools, too much emphasis is placed on doing the core subjects at the expense of subjects like history and geography. I am sure those schools do well in SATS and OFSTED however I can't help but think children pushed too much in these may run out of enthusiasm too young. I would much rather at primary school that my daughter had a solid foundation in reading, writing and maths, plus an enthusiasm and experience of the wider curriculum, something our local school has a lot of emphasis in - cross curricular projects, theme afternoons across year groups, etc.
I also think the effect of driving to and from a school (half an hour a day) instead of walking to a local school may negate any difference between schools anyway, though I realise this may be a barking theory!
It is hard when you are doing something different as you feel you need to justify yourself more and I certainly sometimes feel like others judge you for not going for the best school possible, but I would go for the one with the atmosphere you like the best, definately not the OFSTED score.

YANBU, ofsted is only a small part of a school's success. You need to look round the schools and see what feeling you get.

Furthermore I believe that at primary age, in most circumstances parental input is far more important.

Latin. It's all about Latin.

I totally agree, we will just get the school that we can in our area, though I would like it to be as near as possible to facilitate walking to school. I feel very worried about it all because we haven?t moved or gone to church etc. I was at a coffee morning the other day and one other mother implied I was condemning my child to a bleak future. I came home and felt terrible and got DH to remind me of all the reasons why it would all be OK. He actually said ?oh you should have said our DC is very clever indeed so it just won?t matter!? He was joking of course; I just want to foster an enjoyment of learning that?s all. I?m very conflicted as we are both academically successful like you but I went to a pushy hothouse and I don?t want that for my kids.

I?m just trying not to bump into these mums again who all bought their houses on the basis of catchment.

All an Ofsted report says to me really is that a school is good at getting good Ofsted reports. It's good at generating paperwork and policies, and jumping on whatever the educational fad of the week is.

I think you get more from the "feel" of a school than any Ofsted report can tell you (especially one 2-3 years old as schools can rise and fall so quickly). A new head can make a massive difference to a school - that won't be reflected in Ofsted reports for a good few years. A change in the catchment area can do similar - something my old school back when I taught full-time was coming up against - we were repeatedly getting more and more and more children from a very challenging estate as time went on - and it was impacting on behaviour drastically.

I've beeen in schools with outstanding Ofsteds on supply, I've been in schools in special measures - sometimes the outstandings were very good at front show, and the special measures was very unfair.

OP. YABU

I am in total agreement with what Quattro and Oldjolyon have said. I think the foundation years are extremely important to a childs education. That being said, I dont think that the league tables/ OFSTED reports show the true picture. You have to see the school in action and meet with a senior member of the school. See how the children behave and interact with the staff. If you like a school, it does not matter what others think.

IMO trying to get the right primary school is critical. No point in looking back to the 70's/ 80's when we went to school, times have changed. In our area, 1 in 4 children are not even getting a place at one of the boroughs 33 schools. They are being shipped out to neighbouring counties. So walking up the road to your nearest school isnt guaranteed.

I agree with emptyshell-I had to put up with some parents looking at me pityingly as in 'we really care about our DCs education, but they haven't a clue really. I was a supply teacher at all the schools in the area and I knew that my catchment one was the best-despite their attitude. They hadn't even visited for the most part!

YANBU, but you are fishing for praise and also some feel good criticism of your NCT friends. You are a lovely laid back cool person and the NCT people are uptight and pushy Is that the kind of response you had in mind ?

Don't judge the decisions other parents make. Every parent is trying to do their best and every parent is different.