how many of us, just send our kids to the local school

[southeastastra]

am feeling this is getting more rare now!

Mine are HE just now but my DS1 is going to school next year and is going to the nearest one. Chosen because it takes 2 minutes to walk to and his friends are there.

By local do you mean the good school near your house that you bought specifically and quite recently in order to get into the cachment area or do you mean the local private school?

Just askin.

DS isn't of school age yet but when he is he will be going to the nearest school. It's a satisfactory school, we didn't move here for the school and we aren't middle class

my ds goes to the little school at the end of my road.

Sent him there as its so convenient and its attached to the playschool that he went to, therefore he knew most of the kids who he started school with.

Didnt go on any results or ofsteds, just gut feeling when i went to look round, and the convenience of the location.

Simple.

I dont get this. What does it matter what school someone chooses. Why does it have to be local? I don't see that people are noble or better for choosing a school based on location? I just dont get it

I got the impression that most would LOVE to send their kids to the local school, but due to the crappy admissions system, religous rules, shrinking catchment areas etc, they just can't......

Not rare in Scotland

we did

we live in a village and it didnt occur to me to send him anywhere else

we did(as does everyone else here) and it was the worst,laziest decision we ever made for ds1.just because its nearest doesnt mean it suits your child.or that its much good!

Ours do and will. Feel happy about this for primary but am more concerned about secondary so we'll probably end up doing something different then.

it's pretty normal in scotland.

and where we live we really value being close to work and school, we bought a flat deliberately in walking distance of both dh and my work so we could live a life we wanted to (we have a car but don't want to use it daily). we make big compromises to do this (flat is small and expensive) but our 'local' knowing people walking everywhere lifestyle means a lot to us.

Not rare where I am in Wales but we are very lucky.. my best friend was telling me about England and I was shocked and scared.

I thought that op was asking "why" people send kids to local schools...

Its unusual in my circle of friends for them to send thier children to local schools, they all appeared to be competing and appealing for schools that they wanted, which were not local to them.

I wasnt sure if i was missing something so kind of shut up when it came up in convo. One friend sold her house, moved into a catchment area. it tripled her mortgage payments and was much smaller than her old house. She had to borrow from both their parents for the deposit. This was to ensure they got the school that they wanted.
Each to thier own.

DS will be starting nursery at our nearest school in Jan. Was the first one I looked at because it is nearest but I also just really liked it.

If you don't drive it's pretty impractical to pick a school which is too far away.

Yes primary and secondary.

Local here

Easiest logistically and with friendships. If it was dire i would look elsewhere, but otherwise i think local is best

I think most people do send their kids to the local school.

I would love to have sent DD to our local school. She missed out by about 2 houses. Instead we have a 20 minute walk that I'm not yet strong enough to do (following cancer treatment this year- I'm not such a lazy cow), so instead I end up having to drive her. Not what I'd planned to do at all :( And of course all her new friends live the other side of the dual carriageway.

Work is 1/2 a mile away in one direction and school is allegedly 0.6 miles away in another, yet the daily trip from home to school to work and back again is 11 miles according to my car's tripometer.

I do. We bought our house without thinking of schools (pre kids) and just happened to be in the catchment of quite a good one. Many of my friends are Catholic and so their children go to the RC primary, other than that everyone goes to the local school.

Mine go to the local school. It would be very unusual here not to send your dcs to the local school. We live in Scotland though and from the comments upthread that seems to make a difference.

I did

Both the local state school and the local private school are rubbish. The local state school was very good when I moved here but that was years before I ever thought about having children. By the time I was looking for ds it was in special measures.

I'm hoping to - I live 400 yards from one school and 600 from another, both perfectly good schools according to locals, but unless at least one of them has a bulge class ds may end up in Sept 2013 going to whichever school in the borough does.

I did actually have a real mother tell me that they've been attending church fortnightly for the last 2 years in order to get their child into the 400-yards-from-me school, despite not being Christian - given the oversubscription of all local schools I really can't blame her - impressed by the level of organisation, in fact!

Mine do. Although dd3 wont go to the nearest infants as it's a church one.

yes for secondary - for primary there were no particular 'catchment' schools and no issue with places, so I looked at three closest then ranked them in order of preference, and got the one I liked the most - although the others would have been fine too - then at secondary it's a bit different and you do need to live nearest.

Certainly didn't buy a house for catchment - just the area we could afford a 3 bed house, so that's where we moved to from 2 bed terrace, and still are.