To ask how you decide on a school?

[TheRealMrsHannigan]

I will need to apply for a primary school place for DD this year. There are quite a few within a one mile radius of our home, so choice seems quite high (At least 8).

DD is my first, so I've never done this before, and I'm a bit worried about making the wrong decsion. So how did you decide (or list your priorities) for your childrens primary school?

I have so far visited two of the schools, and there are two more holding open mornings int eh next three months, so I can compare on tjose visits at least.

You've answered your own question I think. Go and visit the schools, ask questions, get a feel for the place, read the oftsed too if you like. That's all you can do.

I agree with the PP, visit the school, see what the children are like. If there is a natural progression from one school to another senior school, go to that too and see what the young adults leaving are like.

Choice of at least 8- lucky you

My DC are 12 and nearly 10, so primary choices were a long time ago.
IIRC there were 2 'choices' (3 schools but 1 is a faith school so we wouldn't have been eligible for a place anyway).

The one we picked was on route to DH work, the other (which is nearer is the other direction) At the time DH dropped off and I picked up.
I did wish we'd picked the nearer one because I was doing a 20 minute walk there and 30 min back with the DCs.

But, yes, go along and get a feel for the school. You can ask other parents as well- alot of them will already have DC at the school.

And gird yourself for the horror that is secondary school selection. Just to cheer you up

Oh also check the admissions criteria, and ask for the furthest distance they last admitted from, to judge if you have a chance of getting in.

Yes, good point by PP.
Go to your county council website and find primary out turn report data, will tell you the furthest distance. Schools won't tell you this, but it's available on the website.

Bear in mind, this can change from year to yea, so just because somebody may have been admitted living 1000m last year, doesn't mean it will be the same this year.

School guru website it apparently useful, never used it myself though.

Just chose the local one, that we knew DD and DS1 and DS2 would get in to, that has its faults, but is perfectly okay and that the vast majority of local children go to too. It also feeds in to a perfectly okay local secondary school too. But I'm not in London or a large city with 8 schools in a one mile radius of our home.

Thanks for the advice, I will check the local council's website.

I visited one school last week and got a really good vibe from it, two year six girls showed us around, they were very bright, polite and knowledgable about the school. I also liked the fact that the children have French lessons starting in year one, with optional Spanish lessons too (from what I can gather most primary schools do not teach another language, not sure how true this is?). Class size limited to 28, large school playing field, seperate play ground for reception and Junior classes etc. It came across really well, I just have no experience of 'what good looks like' for a Primary school so thought I'd check on here.

When I was worrying about exactly the same thing for my DD who is currently in reception, I was advised to go on gut feeling.
I was told that if I liked what I saw and felt comfortable there, then my DD would too. She has now been there since September and absolutely loves it.

I went with gut feeling for DD's schools and so far so good. I also asked how each school dealt with bullying and based my judgment on that. If there are open evenings, you can also get an idea of how well the staff interact with your DC.

When I visited, how much I liked the school also seemed to tally with how much I liked the Head.

We had quite a lot of choice for primary schools too. We chose the one that had a nice environment and lots of personal stuff for each child up on the walls. The main reason we chose the school was because it was the only one we looked at where the head didn't seem to look down on us for being younger parents. I was 23 by then, but still felt, and was, much younger than most of the parents and I found the other heads to be quite patronising towards us. I think we made the right descison, because my dc have both done well there.

Its all about gut feeling really imo. nothing really different between the 4 we had to choose from - all had excellent/good ofsteds all had friendly staff etc so we went with what we thought we would like. We also went to see the schools at the end of the day to see what the kids coming out were like. a bit judgy pants but wanted to get it right as we wanted all 3 DC's to go to the same one and had to be triply sure. the thing to remember is though that if you do choose somewhere you really dont like or that your child doesnt fit in to you can change schools. yes it is horrible to have to do but it can be done so it is not the end of the world if you dont get it right first time. hope this helps.

Visit the schools.

Check out the ofsted report, to see what it says, but don't necessarily put too much stock in the grade.

Look at the school websites.

Speak to other parents of the schools.

Decide what is important to you in a school; e.g. sports opportunities, arts/music opportunities, homework policies, bullying policies, etc. and then find out more about them.

DD's primary is fantastic. One of the things that sold it to us is that when you go to the school for any reason, their well mannered, polite and confident pupils will hold the door open for you regardless of whether they have been given that job to do, or not. And when you thank them, they reply "you're welcome". Lovely children who love their school. That speaks volumes!

Not wishing to pour cold water on this, the reality is that you just don't choose your primary school - all you can do is express your PREFERENCE on the application form.

Your LEA will have criteria which, broadly speaking, are usually SEN followed by siblings followed by distance from school/catchment. You may have 8 within a mile (so do i, thinking about it - in practice you have to virtually live on the doorstep to get in) but the reality may be that they are all oversubscribed/have high proportion of siblings, especially if they are all good schools. You will certainly need to put your nearest school somehwere on your form (whether you actually like the school or not) as otherwise you could potentially end up being allocated a not-very-good school some distance away.

So when making your choice/preference list, you do need to be realistic - no point putting your dream school down if you don't stand a chance of getting into it.

Good luck