Are there any great schools where you live then ?

[gagababy]

I recently moved. My DD is only two and a friend asked me this.

This might seem like a really obvious question. But how do you find out if there are great schools where you live ?

I looked on ofsted and found some outstanding primaries and secondaries.

There are also some nice private schools, primary / secondary.

What else should I look out for ?

For secondary I would look at their results etc. What about primaries ?

In my village there are two outstanding rated primaries. I read when you can start applying, can I take this at face value, or do I need to get onto a waiting list beforehand ?

Sorry if this all sounds dumb. But I don't really know where to start. People keep telling me it's already too late and I need to get my DD into a school. But both schools in my village haven't even opened applications yet. She won't be starting until 2024.

Is it always a necessary to send her to the nursery of the school I want to send her to as well ?

Thanks for your help.

OP to be clear I’m recommending against it.

But if you did want to do it you can hire in someone to help you. Primary and nursery are much more difficult to know the ebbs and flows (in my experience). For instance everyone wanted to be at strawberry fields 5-10 years ago now it’s really dropped in prestige.

But getting off this hamster wheel is hard.

And your kids having Uber rich friends is also really hard.

@Username7521

OP to be clear I’m recommending against it.

But if you did want to do it you can hire in someone to help you. Primary and nursery are much more difficult to know the ebbs and flows (in my experience). For instance everyone wanted to be at strawberry fields 5-10 years ago now it’s really dropped in prestige.

But getting off this hamster wheel is hard.

And your kids having Uber rich friends is also really hard.

OK I understand. I personally was a boarder at a private school. But it wasn't one of the very famous ones.

It was a great school, with lots of activities and support. A great place to grow up.

There were some richer and some not so rich. It was a real mix. The richest were probably the Russians/ overseas students.

But we hardly felt it. There were so many kids on bursaries or who's parents were in the armed forces and had special / no fees.

I would like my DD to go to a school like that. I don't need her rolling with billionaires children. We aren't that, but we do OK.

That's why I'm thinking, start her off in an outstanding primary and then perhaps send her to a good private school nearby, similar to the kind I went to.

But I would love to know more about these prestigious ones. Just interested.

I would go to the open days and just see how you feel. I went to lots of primary schools and just knew immediately which one I wanted for my DD when I went round. It was Good Ofsted at the time but became Outstanding during the time she was there. It had a small catchment area so we moved close to it to get in. It was a wonderful school. Trust your instincts.