To not know how to choose a school for DC when you can’t visit

[Felldownabackdonhole]

I am applying for a primary school post for my DC. In my area no schools are doing visits or open days.

I am luck to have a choice between two schools with good reputations within walking distance. My catchment school has a good ofsted report and my friends DC are there and doing well.

The other school is a Catholic school so even though I live very nearby my DC will have less chance of getting in as we are not practicing catholics. It is Ofsted rated outstanding and I know a mum whose DC go there and she raves about it (she is not Catholic either).

How do I choose? If I could visit and get a feel for what the school is like then I could see how my DC would fit.

What would you do?

Are they doing any online tours ? IMO it's the head teacher who has the biggest influence..can you arrange to meet them for a chat maybe just outside or via zoom?

Firstly, it’s only primary. My friends and I agreed after that we worried too much about this- reception/yr1 is all about the playing while learning so if you think it’s not for you after a while, you can always look for other schools. Secondly have a wander at pick up time nearby- see any issues, traffic etc
Third, you have less choice than you probably think as far as schools go- what you want and what you get aren’t always the same, depending on area/population/distance/religion etc.

One is doing a video tour of EYFS only. The other is doing a virtual chat with the head teacher and head of reception, which would be a bit more useful.

I'd favour the catchment school with good Ofsted report bc your DCs aren't practising catholics and likely that school will have pupils coming from a wider geographical area, meaning that some of school friends DC makes might not live close

But also look at both schools' website and see if school has virtual tour videos available to help you choose.

I moved into local catchment of a CofE primary school deliberately. It had a lovely ethos and definitely had religious slant. Although they also welcomed other faiths but if out of catchment area, you needed letter from vicar or to meet one of other criteria to be given a place when places were short.

it is very difficult as you don't get a sense of the atmosphere of school without visiting. But both sound great so I doubt you'll go far wrong. Sometimes you can have too much choice!

As well as the good advice above; you could ask for recommendations from local parents? Our town has a parents Facebook page and this is a question asked regularly at this time of year. It’s good to get feedback from parents whose children attend/attended.
Good luck!

I absolutely wouldn’t apply to a Catholic school as a non-Catholic either. Church of England is one thing; in most cases they will be used to catering for non-Anglicans and depending on your area, maybe even non-Christians too, if they're the only school in the village - but in Catholic schools, religious dogma really does permeate everything they do. I think it would be hard to be a non-Catholic in a Catholic school. In my local one, all the First Holy Communion stuff is done in class time - so you'd very much be the odd one out if you weren't having one.

The family I know whose kids go to the Catholic school are Sikh and there are a lot of non Catholics at the school so they wouldn’t be the odd one out. However I do worry about what messages they would put out about homosexuality and sex education.

Nearest to you that isn't a religious school of any sort. so that the child can develop independence by getting themself there or build up to that if primary.

The school I’m most keen on is not doing tours but we have a zoom meeting with the Head. Must admit it puts me off them a bit. The ones that are doing visits they are during school hours in term time which means DH can’t go as he’s a teacher. It’s all a bit annoying! DD is going to be going to a school where at least one of us has never been inside.

I am Catholic and went to catholic schools. There's a nice ethos but to be honest I don't think I would opt for it if I want catholic (I'm very much a lapsed catholic and the views are quite strong - my own dc question them and they are very young !!)

If I wasn't

I don’t recognise most of the concerns about Catholic school - I went to one - but there is a lot of variation. We definitely didn’t do FHC in class time and there were children of various different faiths and none. I don’t know what they did about sex ed in primary school, I don’t really remember any but that may have been the norm for KS2 in the 90s anyway.

First Holy Communion takes over much of the curriculum time in the school I am in robin but it would certainly vary

@RobinPenguins

The school I’m most keen on is not doing tours but we have a zoom meeting with the Head. Must admit it puts me off them a bit. The ones that are doing visits they are during school hours in term time which means DH can’t go as he’s a teacher. It’s all a bit annoying! DD is going to be going to a school where at least one of us has never been inside.

There is no option for zoom meetings with the head or any chance to hear from any member of staff at the catchment school. I know the head doesn’t have time to do zoom meetings with parents but something other than a video of the class rooms would be nice.

@Felldownabackdonhole absolutely agree, I don’t know how you can tell anything about the place from a video. I’m putting more emphasis than I normally would on views of parents I know with DC at the various schools, so it’s good you’ve got friends who you can get an honest view from.

I didn’t visit any primary schools before sending DC. Honestly, I didn’t know it was a thing people did. The first time I went into the school was their first day and the first time I met the head personally was about two years in. I’ve still yet to have an actual conversation with the head other than watching her direct plays/assemblies and general nodding in passing and I’ve had DC at the school for thirteen years now.

We went to that school because it was the school we were in catchment for and closest to our house.

We did visit secondaries but even then, geographical location, and speaking with other parents and friends with children at the school had more bearing on the choice than the visits.

I wouldn’t choose a faith school though.

My DC went to faith primary and secondary schools simply because they were the best performing schools in the area by a mile.
We are non-practising too. Never an issue. They just switched off from the religious dogma. Exam results were what mattered and both have done brilliantly.

I'm really shocked there are areas that still aren't doing tours! All our local ones are doing tours, and we're going back for a 2nd visit for one this week.