To ask how many of you use your local/nearest school?

[monkeymamma]

When we moved to our current house I was pregnant with dc1. I noticed there was a newish, nice looking school here and thought 'ah good, that's where the baby will go to school when the time comes.' Ds is now 3 and all anyone seems to talk about is the school question. Many people seem keen to avoid the local school (it Required Improvement at last offsted, has a new head, and a large intake from both social housing and local traveller community). Everyone wants to send their dc to an alternative school but the others round here are 'good'/'requires improvement' apart from one small village school (v.v small, middle class intake, not what I have in mind for my dc - I feel like they'll learn more about life in a more diverse environment) which is outstanding. No one ever gets their child in there anyway from where we live (ie nowhere near said village).
Anyway sorry to go off on detailed tangent - my thought ws that it seems the 'normal' thing to do to try to shop around rather than using the school nearest to you. Is that your experience also? Or did anyone find this whole business more straightforward?

We don't.
DS got offered a place in an undesirable school, I didn't want him growing up with the children of drug dealers and criminals (I know this for fact, not just judging).
I kicked off and we were told there was only one other school in the area with places, never heard of it, it had just moved to a new bigger building, hence the places available.
Loved it.
We've now moved area and there's a good school at the end of our road, tbh there's a lot of snobbery from the neighbours about whether children go to their 'oh so wonderful school' and they all seem astounded that I've not attempted to move DS to it.
I don't think I could be bothered with the snobbiness of the place, I often look like I've been dragged through a hedge backwards on the school run, I'm not sure we'd be too welcome

Yep, mine go to closest school. It's been great for DS1, not so great for DS2. You can only do the whole shopping around for the best fit for your child for the first really, can't you? Subsequent kids just go to the school their siblings are at. It was important to me we could walk to school.

DS does as we bought a house within the catchment area as we liked the vibe of the school. Being local meant it was easy for play dates, party invites etc.

No, we don't use our local school because it's dreadful. Both DC go to a school over the other side of the city (about 15 minutes drive). The majority of children travel a distance to the school, some coming from outside the city. It doesn't present any issues with playing outside school hours, it's just a bit more effort.

Surely most kids would prefer homely/caring to sink or swim? I can't imagine anyone saying Yeah, I love a sink or swim, brutal environment... So is 'meeting my child's needs' really code for 'choosing the best school'?

Not really normal no. My first DD always ran out to play in play park from as soon as she could walk, had no trouble asking DC to play, always found a friend, is popular now. She had advanced social skills even at toddler groups and would want to share and play along side children. Long before she was supposed too. She rarely clung to my legs or got shy.

My second child is totally different and very shy, very wary of new people and does not run into the room looking for a friend, we have to ease her in gradually.

My first child is not at the best school, by a long shot, the best schools round here are top in league tables nationwide. Her school isn't on the league table. We have chosen the best school for her.

It seems you need to start looking at how your son responds in different situations and go and visit schools and start to get a feel for them. Good luck. Its daunting but once you start you can make up your own mind.

When DC1 was ready to start school, we lived almost in the middle between two schools. We chose the slightly further away because it was single form entry (other was small with mixed classes) and the smaller school had a very new, inexperienced Head (they've had 3 more Heads in the 6 years since). When we moved to the other side of town, we kept the DC where they were, as they were happy and settled.

"surely most additional needs are picked up after children start school?"

Nope. ds' was diagnosed with ASD before his 3rd birthday - it was apparent for at least 6 months before that that he had difficulties & by the time he was diagnosed we were aware that there weren't any schools that would meet his needs satisfactorily near to us. He's home educated.

I suppose it depends what you value in an "education", gobbo

Exactly and we will all be different in what we value due to our own experiences. Its that balance of trying to put our own experience aside to an extent and to think of our child as well.

Gobbolino exactly. That's what we did. Our DDs are like yours in reverse. The eldest is shy...the younger so confident and popular that she helps her older sister.

If we'd had DD2 first, we'd just have sent her locally...as it was it was good that it never happened like that because the quiet one could not have coped.

We're moving soon...because DD1 won't do so well in the local high school...it's enormous with some issues. DD2...fine...she'd have been good there...but no...we need to be close to a much smaller secondary.

"surely most additional needs are picked up after children start school?"

Gosh no! We are getting far better in picking up AN now, but its all in process and still working on it. I have had issues with my second child, who is just 2, and she has had some screening for various things.

For instance walking into a room that is grey, children look lost and quiet at tables, teachers seem grumpy to show people round. Compared to a bright and sunny room, with lots of busy little children all chattering away, smiling, music in background, very happy teachers showing people round. Would I choose the former just because it might get better? The children look miserable.

I couldn't agree more.
The school which I declined looked OK on paper, the head showed me round and said all the right things. But I just didn't get a good feel for him or the school.
The children were all sat nicely and classes were calm, but not fun, nobody smiled!
When I went to see DS's school (there were a few visits, dropping forms off etc), the place always seemed so happy, the kids were happy and polite and I remember thinking 'if I was a kid I'd like to come here'.
The ofsted report wasn't great but I discussed it with the teacher who was showing me round, she used to work for the LEA and chose to send her children there and totally put any concerns to rest.

I definitely made the right decision, the school now has a new head and has made loads of improvements whilst still keeping it an incredibly fun and positively place to learn.

No we don't. We have good schools locally except my catchment school was in special measures when dd was due to start and have been in and out if them ever since. factors such as high staff turn over and poor attendance and high number of pupils with English as an additional language meant we declined. ( in itself that's not a huge issue except the children are all from. The same back ground so you don't have diversity and no inclination to speak English in the playground.

Dd now attends a school a few miles away.

Our local secondary school is crap too so hopefully won't be using that. less than 40 % gcse a - rates. up from.less than 30 %

a-c

I send mine to a church school as if offers a choice of secondary schools. I drive. 3 miles past three schools to get them there.

Yes, we do (primary), it is about 5 mins walk from the house, which we bought long before DCs, schools didn't cross our minds when buying it.

There are 4 other primaries within half hour walk / 5 mins drive, all are pretty good schools. We felt that there would have to be a very good reason not to choose the one on our doorstep, we looked at the other two nearest and liked our closest one best (the others were much smaller, very little outdoor space, very small year groups). DS does have SNs, but we had no real grasp of the implications of that at the time, fortunately he has been supported well there and it has turned out to be a very good choice all round for both DCs, they are in Years 4 and 6 now. It is hugely beneficial to the DCs that they walk to and from school amongst all their friends, DS (11) is really confident about walking places on his own as a result, their friends all live very close to us and it has made organising their social lives over the years so much easier too. It's also made it easy for me to be involved as a parent, helping out in class, PTA etc and when one of them is doing an after school club it's easy to pop backwards and forwards twice (no need now as DS goes on his own, but when they were younger).

I can only speak from experience of the school that I work at which is 'outstanding' and the school my eldest goes to and is also 'outstanding'
Both operate very differently, where I work is Primary, school my children go to is Infant only. I wouldn't say either are 'complacent' with the outstanding rating and constantly work hard to improve their teaching methods and children's learning. I would also recommend going to the open days, asking to look round, take child with you and get a feel for the place and the teachers.
You should ask what their admission criteria is, whether they are regularly oversubscribed, ask about applications in previous years and you will get a good idea how popular it is - and if you are likely to get a place. There is always option of a waiting list, and you can decline a place and apply for the next school year (they can start at age 5 not 4 if you feel that is best)

Oh and we gave the Ofsted report a cursory glance but it was 3 years old and the HT had changed. We did know that many of our neighbours with older DCs had been happy with the school though.

Our kids all went to our village primarey school.It has had a very high turnover of kids and a couple of changes of head in the years they have been there.(Oldest just started secondary and still have a year 4 and year 3 at the school) We only could afford one car which DH needed to get to work so we had little choice. Fortunately none of my kids struggled with the work or their friendships. Kids who moved on were either special needs (not being met) or friendship issues. Not sure the size of your local school but ours only has 80 kids and it means that the year groups are small and in some cohorts there may only be 2 or 3 girls or boys. Basically,your kids just have to learn to try and be friends with or at least tolerate all their classmates. This can teach them useful skills but can be very tough on for example a very shy kid who might prefer to have one best mate but can't find someone similar. Small cohorts also allow the domineering personalities to be very strong and undiluted which can lead to issues. There are issues in all schools though and for us,logistics were equally important. My kids all get to school independently now as it is so close and it made life so much easier to get to school without a car needed. Good for everyones health too.

My DS goes to the nearest school at the end of the road (this happens to be private). One of the reasons (amongst others) we chose this is our house is in one district, next door is in another in a highly sought after school area - we moved when my son was 4

DS goes to our catchment school, which is a 10-minute walk away. It's an outstanding school and I'm glad he's there. When we had to choose options, that was our first choice with our two next options being slightly further away than the next closest school, which has a poor reputation and a very high level of children with EAL. So we did choose to not send him there, sort of, but in the end it didn't make a difference as he got a place at our first choice catchment school.

We sent ours to nearest primary school as it is a really good school and within walking distance.

Ds goes to the second nearest secondary. We did go to see nearest one but I didn't really think it would be right for him and he preferred the other one. Actually I went to the nearest one (100 years ago!) but wasn't impressed when we visited.

Going to a large local primary is amazing. Friends on door step. See friends in park etc loads of afterschool stuff that's local. No need to drive. Great to be part of community. Please look round your local schools before you choose. MN seems full of people who drive up to an hour to schools. In RL everyone I know uses a local school within 0.5 -1 mile of their house

We were really lucky because there are 3 primaries or infant/junior schools within a 20 min walk of our house and they are all good or above schools.

We went for the small through primary because the head was welcoming and relaxed and we were shown round by the older children who clearly loved their school. It also meant DS who doesn't like change, could stay there for 7 years rather than going to the much bigger infant and then junior schools.

Don't just go on gossip. I've overhead other parents listing reasons why they didn't choose the school I did. Funnily they were pretty much the reasons I did choose it for! Visit the schools and get your own feel for them. And don't just go for an Ofsted outstanding school because it is outstanding. Ratings can change suddenly and IME outstanding schools can sit on their past successes and can some times be quite staid and good at teaching to tests rather than innovating and being more child focused.

Yes. The school has been good throughout. Ofsted, however have had it between satisfactory then new head teacher took it to good with outstanding features then straight into special measures, now improving rapidly again. Ofsted is a bonkers way of looking at how good a school is but the reports help perpetuate social selection.

Yes. There are 3 within walking distance. All 3 of are good.