School admissions - check out Mumsnet local

[RebeccaMumsnet]

Hi all,

It's the time of year when those of us with DC due to start primary, junior or secondary next September have to make the tricky decision on which school to send them to.

We've teamed up with Schoolguide.co.uk to provide listings on Mumsnet Local for all the schools in your area - complete with links to Ofsted reports, maps and pupil/teacher ratios.

To take a look at the schools near you, go to your local site, click on Childcare & Education in the green navbar and select the sort of school you're looking for - alternatively, enter the name of the school you're interested in into the quick search on your Local homepage.

Please do go and have a look, and pay it forward by adding reviews of your DCs' schools to help others with the mind-boggling decision.

I wish this had been up and running when I was choosing primaries 7 years ago! Hopefully lots of people will add reviews. If they could do secondaries asap, that would be fab

Some of the local sites have school open days listed too, in 'Things To Do / What's On / School Open Days'.

Nottingham has 20 forthcoming open days listed, covering about half the secondaries in the area that have yet to run theirs - hoping to add the rest tonight (some have already happened too of course).

Yes to reviews please! And do feel very free to chat about schools on your local Talk board.

MNHQ- can you please make the reviews anonymous. I have added one, and if I add another it will totally out me! Trying to be helpful but I'm not happy about this at all.

Yes, at the risk of being pedantic, it is only where schools are undersubscribed that one makes the "tricky decision on which school to send [dc] to". For most of us, it's a case of making the tricky decision about how to express our preferences (not choices) and calculating as best we can our chances of fulfilling the school's oversubscription criteria.

This is weird. There are 98 schools listed in my local area, but neither of the ones my children go to.

There are nearer schools and more distant ones, but clearly my kids' schools don't really exist.

I would be more willing too if done under a NC

The rating and link of our local primary school is wrong in this information, it is not the most up to date grading nor link to the most up to date report.

Yep our primary school (with the wrong info) is not under the primary school list, I only found it by searching the local site.

The information is woefully out of date about the school I have just removed DC's from

Only one out of the six secondaries we are considering for DD are on the site.
Bit of a waste of effort?

Hi Mumsnetters

For those of you who have spotted inaccuracies in the listings on your Mumsnet Local site, perhaps it would be worth getting in touch with the relevant Local Editor (there's a purple 'contact' LE button on the right-hand side of the 'home' page above the ASDA MPU advert) and pointing out any issues?

Are perceived shortcomings in listings possibly because some schools you might be considering for your DCs, fall outside your borough/city/county borders? Worth checking out neighbouring Mumsnet Local sites and hopefully you will find the relevant information!

Thanks!

Nope, they're definitely in the right county unless there's been an Independence vote I've missed. And they're schools. Unlike (say) the Childhood First Aid course on there, or the French revision classes.

Will do as you suggest.

Everyone should have a different MN local name, shouldn't they?

No, I know what county I am in and the school!

My kid's school is on there but the search doesn't pick it up (although it does pick up others of the same name think St x). I could find it via the map search, and the name has been entered correctly so it is strange the search din't pick it up.

The listing links to the most recent OFSTED report but the blurb on the page is taken from a much earlier report, which is very out of date and misleading.

I wouldn't leave a review if it goes under my name, whether that is my mnet name or mnet local, I don't want people to be able to link my posts as a mum that attends x school.

I think people shouldn't rely on these local pages for listings of schools. Look at your official council site. My 3 closest schools aren't included at all on the mumsnet pages.

Hi all,
Just to say, we are taking note of your comments, and will report back.
Thanks.

None of the schools in my catchment area (Cardiff) are on there, is it because there is no way on earth they would have made it into the good schools guide?

Good morning all,

Many thanks for your feedback.

The Schools Guide auto populates the schools info that we have, we have been in touch with them this morning and will iron out some of the specific issues with your help.

We will keep you updated when we know more.

Thanks again.

There doesn't seem to be a local site that covers the Wirral?

Where is the information supposed to be? I can't see any school listings on my local site