Which school would you pick?

[redbluechristmas]

I'm driving myself slightly mad with this decision.

We are moving to a new area and need to decide on a primary school for DS, who is in year 2. Our options are:

School A - local village school. 10 minute walk. Fairly good reputation, has been a bit mixed in the past but still a relatively popular school. Results very slightly better than average.

School B - school on edge of nearest town. 12 minute journey by car (I have timed it at school run peak!) Excellent reputation. Very good results, well above average.

Both schools feed into the same secondary and are a similar size. I WFH so although it's not ideal logistically to drive to school, I could do it and still be home in time to start work just after 9am.

DS does well at school, quite enthusiastic about learning. Above average but not top of the class. He is fairly resilient but I don't want to get this wrong and have to move him again!

What would you do?

School A - YABU
School B - YANBU

@barnanabas you've summed up the situation better than I have in my OP

I focused on results in my OP to keep things short but what I was trying to say is I do prefer school B in every way and if they were next to each other it would be absolutely no contest, I'd go for school B.

But is it worth going for school A, for proximity and making friends closer to home, as long as it's 'good enough' - which I think it probably is.

I've viewed both schools and prefer school B. The results aren't slightly better at school B, they're significantly better.

I'd choose B, particularly as he is showing aptitude. If it's a better school, it will encourage him to stay thirsty for knowledge. He will make friends there too - it's not that faraway. There are more important things than sleepovers and playdates!

In my experience reputation doesn't mean a thing when it comes to choosing a school as it doesn't reflect heart of the school. I sent my DD to a school that was the best in the area by a long shot and it was a massive mistake. We ended up moving her to an average school after years of unhappiness.

So if I were you I'd go and visit both schools. Meet the headteacher as they set the tone of the school. Go with whichever one feels right. You'll know which one is a better fit for your child. Go with your instincts, not by what others say.

School B every time it's a no brainer. I always find NM always go with the opposite of logic. As if the majority of people wouldn't send their children to the better school. They'll tell you one thing and do the other.

School B, hands down. We live in a village and first few years we sent the kids to the village school. It was like it was being run by the local knitting club. So we moved them to a better school in the nearest town. They have friends in the village and some of them go to the village school and some are in their school in town.

A. Primary is much more important for making friends. As school A sounds fairly good I'd go for that over B.

Have you visited the schools? I'd also do that and go with your feeling on where your kids will be happiest.

School A. Teachers and those with knowledge of schools dont tend to give too much importance to Ofsted. And Sats are a strange assessment of limited subjects. Really better a child leaves loving learning and having had a broad curriculum than spending all of year 6 (if not ks2) drilling for sats.

Knowing both these things influence a teachers choice strongly. "Results" at secondary is a very different ball game to that at primary.

My area has 2 schools school A good school outstanding ofsted reports but in 2018 2019 only a handful of children passed there Sat's in year 6. school b an OK school rated good by ofsted had alot more children pass Sat's in year 6. It really does depend on the child an how much they want to learn I choose school b as it is closer but my child is doing great.

@redbluechristmas Thanks

I think the other thing to say in terms of sleepovers/playdates etc is that it isn't your son who is going to be inconvenienced by his friends living further away in primary school - it's you. And if you're able and willing to put in the effort to ferry him around, you can essentially eliminate any difficulty with living further away at that age (not saying you should, just saying that you could!).
I agree with the posters who have said look beyond Ofsted and results. The primary my kids went to was good when they started, outstanding for a bit, and towards the end of their time their was given 'requires improvement'. It was a lovely school all the way through. But the more you post, the more it sounds as if the 'better results' stuff is a bit of a red herring, and you actually like school B better. So if you're happy to take on the commute that sounds like the best choice for you.

@Lykia

School B every time it's a no brainer. I always find NM always go with the opposite of logic. As if the majority of people wouldn't send their children to the better school. They'll tell you one thing and do the other.

My parents sent me to the further-away-perceived-better school. As a result of this, my DC go to the local school.

Not having local friends is a miserable lonely existence through weekends and holidays and badly affected my self esteem and self confidence. It is massively easier to support with academics than it is with things like this. If OP is prepared to do a lot of running around it might be possible to mitigate that, but even then it will mean her children will miss out on the spontaneous playing out which you can do with local children. If OP's DC is sociable she may be able to build local friends through clubs etc. but this is harder - once DC get to the "playing out" age they do play more with school friends. I ran a Brownie pack for many years and I can tell you that there were very few instances of DC making good friends with anyone outside of their school. And I don't think there were any, where the friendship continued outside of Brownies.

And you shouldn't underestimate the physical toll of travelling. OP says it is 12 minutes at peak time, but you then have to factor in actually getting everyone into the car, finding somewhere to park and then walking to school at the other end.

As you will be new to the village, definitely school A. It will be one of the easiest ways for your child & maybe yourself to make friends in the village. I was always able to walk my children to and from primary school. For the older years in primary school, they walked with their friends
While your child can also make friends in activities outside of school, there is no guarantee they will want to stay doing the activities you put them in.
My children did have friends with the children who had 10mins or more driving to school but the ones the played with most, were their school friends who lived nearby.

Village school.

Children’s main determinant of academic success in primary is their parents education levels... the school generally makes fuck all difference to most children’s attainment at primary level.

Pick the village school for an easy life and for local friends and a quick in to the local community.

My yr 6 child loves walking home with his friends. There's a big gang of them and I'm so happy he can do this.

He transferred from a "good" school to an "outstanding" school and I have to say, there were definitely elements of the "good" school I preferred. But we moved.

What results are you talking about at primary? SATS?

I honestly wish I had never mentioned results! But I'm talking about SATS results.

For the record, we chose DS' current school over another school with better SATS results because we thought it suited him better. I am not making my decision based purely on SATS.

We have viewed both schools. We loved school B and think it would really suit DS. It also has lower turnover, better ofsted, more outside space etc etc. Also better local reputation e.g. when I ask around people have said "oh that's a LOVELY school". School A seemed ok but didn't stand out to us. When I ask around, people say "oh yes, that school is fine. I knew someone whose kids went there and they seemed happy". A couple of people on social media have said they moved their kids out of the school but that can obviously happened anywhere and they're not leaving in droves.

On that basis, is it worth picking school A because it's closer. That should have been my question I guess. My fault for writing a rubbish OP.

I think its sometimes hard when they're young thinking about what will suit them when they're at the older end of primary.

Certainly walking to school is a rite of passage here. As well as walking home with friends to play. It also facilitates friendships in our case as we made friends with those we walked with or at least were more familiar with them.

There's also ease for popping in forgotten pe kit and turning up for assemblies and all the other 101.

Being part of your local community is such an amazing thing I hadn't appreciated pre kids but I now love that I know many TAs from other local things, they went to local.clubs and knew half the people, they took part in local pantomime with friends in other school years but its a same shared experience etc.

Go with your gut. We walk past an outstanding primary school with better facilities to get to our school (both are walkable but ours is twice the distance). The school we are at just won my heart when we visited. The nearer school would have probably been great but I have not regretted the decision. Ever. In fact I think it's one of the best decisions we ever made. Academic results were similar and didn't factor in really.

It sounds like you think B would be a better school for your DS but A is more convenient. In which case I'd go for B.

@fatcatthincat exactly! That is probably how I should have phrased my OP.

I'm leaning towards B too now.

Like others I would always (and have!) gone for the local school unless there was something about it I really didn’t like (so not just that other school gets better results). This is for the following reasons:

• having to drive every day is a faff (car problems, roadworks, finding parking). It’s also an unnecessary journey twice a day which isn’t great for the environment.
• when they get a bit older child can walk home alone or with friends
• easier to get to local school to pick them up if poorly/drop off forgotten lunch etc.
• friends living nearby so not having to drive child around after school and at weekends
• no guarantee school with better results will stay that way. All it takes is a change of headteacher and a good school can go downhill (and vice versa).

My next door neighbour moved to a different area because the school there was top of the primary school league tables. By the time her second child was about to start school, our local school was above the one she had moved to be near. What a waste of time.

School B every time. You prefer the school and are happy to make a couple of short car journeys every day to ensure your kids get the best start. 12 minutes is nothing and it will be easy enough to drop them at friends when necessary. It’s a no brainier in my opinion.

I voted A, but in reality when it came down to it for us, I elected the better school at the inconvenient distance. But I did that because my ds needed a lot of intervention and I knew he would get it at the better school. In fact, I have done this each time: for infants (45 min bus ride), for juniors (walking distance but leaving infant school friends) and secondary (out of catchment but excellent in terms of support for ASD).

Without that kind of additional headache guiding your actions, your ds will probably thrive and do well at school A, with the benefits of being close to friends and school activities. But I wouldn't blame you for choosing school B, because sometimes it just feels right for your child!

We are driving at the moment due to moving, and not being able to get a space here yet. My drive is further than yours, but I so miss being able to walk to school, and the kids are most definitely missing out on playdates. I also don't feel part of the community here yet. My car wouldn't start last week, £20 in a taxi to get them to school 🤦 We will be moving them from an 'excellent' school to a 'good' school. I can't wait 😂