How many parents base their school choice on prejudices?

[huffandpuff]

Of course, I very much doubt anyone will come along and say they do

I write this thread to air my exasperation.... Last week I attended a toddler group and everyone was discussing primary schools. No-one else at this group was going to send their child to the school my dd will be starting at in September. No-one else mentioned it as a consideration.

The schools these mothers favour are either the CofE school or the schools in the area with a one-form entry, which are the old-style village schools. It seemed like none of the parents had done any research of their own. Their opinion of a good school was either small country village school or a CofE school in the middle class area. It bothered me somewhat.

I have read all of the Ofsted reports for the surrounding area and there are pros and cons to all of them but none of them are bad. I have visited DDs future school and there are some things that the school does well that are of value to me and my dd.

It annoys me that this school has been written off by other parents who know nothing about the school and base their opinion on the age of the school building, the size of the school and slightly less middle class in its intake ie.e the house prices are a bit less than the surrounding villages!

Thank you. That's my rant over with

in my area we have 2 red-brick schools (one class each year, built when the town was built). both are a 10min walk from me. i discounted one straight away, mainly because of its repuation as being rough and also because its reports are very poor, well below the local average. the one we chose is very over subscribed as it has a very good reutation (always has done, even when i was at school) and its reports are glowing.

dd1 did attend a larger school, 2 classes per year group and she really didnt get on there. small year groups are better for her, and she is well supported at her current school.

oh and both schools are in a council area. the larger school was i na 'good' area.

could it poss be that they are very religious? was it a church toddler group? just trying to find some justification, i do know what you mean.

have to say i had a slightly similar exp when i first went to a local todd group. ds was v little and i was already sniffing for schools info [sad Brit emoticon]. NOBODY who spoke to me seemed to send their children to the local school and nobody would say anything about why, and it seemed fine. i was so panicked that i barracked my way onto the governing body to find out if it was the twilight zone or something. truth is that the ofsted before the current one was pretty dire and the 'hangover' from some bad years was still there.

things have changed thank goodness and now i think a majority of LOCAL people use the LOCAL school

wrt the religious question, no it wasn't a church toddler group. Some of the mothers are church goers and acted positively smug about the fact they had a golden pathway to the CofE school the others coveted.

One other mother is Catholic and wouldn't consider the Catholic school because it is in a rough area - she'd rather use the CofE school.

how come we have a "choice" all of a sudden

has some major Govt policy changed?

since when did parents have a choice?

i laugh heartily at your wild assumption of choice.

research ofsted all you wnt my pretty

the chances of you getting in anywhere other than your local dumping ground is neglegable.

Huffandpuff, DH and I get exasperated by this also. Where we live, the state primary schools are good but I know people who won't even consider them - only private will do. We are basing our choice on 2 things only - how close the school is to our house and before/afterschool clubs provision.

I have no intention of driving DTS to school - they can walk when they start in under 2 years time. Also, I want to continue working part-time so I need a breakfast and afternoon club because DH is against the boys going to child minders. There are 3 state schools that we have identified that meet our criteria so at least we know what to apply for come November .

lol custardo.

thats actuallty true. if the schools are over subscribed (like our local one), then they wont get a place if they are far from the school, unless they do a dodgey renting a place near the school type thing.

Me, I admit it.

I'm hoping ds will not be going to our nearest local primary as I see plenty of the kids and their parents passing my front window each morning. I didn't think such young kids would know such swear words let alone use them in arguing with their parents.
I've also seen several parents smack their kids, I know the journey to school is probably a fraught time of day but we don't smack and I just don't understand it.

We have applied for another school in a nearby village (I live on the edge of town). I'm just trying to ensure ds is happy and I know which kids he is happiest playing with at nursery and which ones he avoids as "too wild" (the wild ones are incidentally mostly applying for the school I'm trying too avoid as it's actually half-way up the league tables for SATs results) so I'm trying to do what I think is best for him.

The village school did have dire results some years back but under a new head it's come on loads and it felt a bit more homely than the local. With our support he'll do OK accademically anywhere he is allowed to learn, instead of being in a class with kids who don't have the message from home that school is important and who waste the teacher's time on crowd control rather than on teaching.

Call me prejudiced but we can't afford private so I have to try and make the best of what is available in the state sector.

Other parents at nursery are discussing which schools they've put first/second etc and I just keep quiet at present.

Round where I live we suddenly do have choice again. Even the very best school schools, bar one I think, is over subscribed. I know of several people getting their children into non-catchment schools, with very little justification of reasons being given.

Don't worry what other people think. Just be happy in the knowledge that you have done your research - do include some visits as well, not just OFSTED - and chosen the school that best fits the needs of your child and yourself. That is all that matters.

There's a falling role across my county so not all schools are over-subscribed. The parents who aren't in the running or cathcment for the CofE or oversubscribed village school will opt for a further afield small village school or private and won't even look at the red-brick nearby schools.

I too could have opted for one of these further afield village schools.

no I think most of the chattering classes go by 'received wisdom'

but then they pay lip service to reading ofsted and sats results and get befuddled and don't know how to judge them so they go back to 'received wisdom'

which is a shame, because they miss out on gems .. like the school DS is at

unfortunately over time hidden gems start to get into the public mind-set and then they become the school of 'received wisdom'

and so the world turns ...

Stick to your guns and be proud to support your local school. People tie themselves in knots over schooling and really I think that most children do well in most schools, so pick one that is convenient and has a nice atmosphere.

I think the middle classes have a phobia of 'chavs' and therefore will do anything to avoid a school that they think will be full of Vicky Pollards/Jade Goodys. I don't even think academic standards/Ofsted reports are relevant, because they don't really care about that.

I don't think it is right/justified, but from the coded conversations I hear about numbers of free school meals etc that is what I think is going on under the surface.

So you're right, it is prejudice, and it is awful if you don't know which side of the Berlin wall you sit on. Are my kids desirable classmates or not?

"So you're right, it is prejudice, and it is awful if you don't know which side of the Berlin wall you sit on. Are my kids desirable classmates or not?"

Oh goodness - you're right! :D No, really, I'm not that insecure. I like to think I made them have second thoughts once they knew huffandpuff's dd would be attending X school :D If we're going there, it must be a good (enough) school.

LOL huffandpuff. Of course I think my children are going to be desirable classmates, but I wonder if all the other mums do?

It just shows that we are all running away from something, but is it ourselves at the end of the day? Is it just misanthopy in another guise?

I have a strong prejudice against SATs and the National Curriculum, particularly as deployed in my LEA, which is near bottom of the England tables and bottom of London this year. This means their handful of well-performing primaries are being placed under worrying pressure to bump up the rankings, IMO.
Our choice was also influenced by the lack of after-school provision in state schools locally, at the time. There was none.

Ds1's school sounds exactly like the one that Knittingfog is hoping to avoid. It generally doesn't have a great reputation because of the area it's in but really it's an excellent school for ds1.

I agree that the reality is that there's b*gger-all choice for most parents. If I wanted ds1 to go to a school across town I wouldn't have a hope in hell.

The trouble with a lot of the middle classes is that they are just as dysfunctional as the chavs they look down on. However, they know how to be more discreet about their inadequacies, prejudices and paranoia of appearing like failures in their peer group.

My dds go to the type of school that knittingfog is trying to avoid. They both love it and are doing really well.

A couple of months ago dd1 went on an outing with the school, when they were on the bus a friend of mine got on and said she was really surprised at how well behaved and polite the children were, her dcs go to the local C of E village school and she has been on outings with them and said they didn't behave as well.

Yes, me, I'm prejudiced against middle-class ponces.

Dinosaur

LOL speedymama ( about middle classes being better at hiding their inadequacies etc)
Very wise

You think I'm joking