Is it very important for children to go to a good primary school?

[LucyJones]

Or will they thrive whereever they go?
We live near a pretty bad school. We want to move to a better one but can't really afford to.
Dh told me last night he is beating himself up over it. He feels he has a duty to get them into the best primary scholl possible as it will have an impact on the rest of their lives. Is he completely overeacting or do we need to bust a gut to get the dcs into a good primary school rather than an average or below average one?

Not at all OP. Going to a shit school is very desireable where i come from.

Xenia - yes, you can set up a private school in France and there is a British School, an American School etc in the Paris suburbs. But no, French parents don't flock there - (a) they love their socialist education system (b) they don't like spending money on education that they've already paid for with taxes

However, on the streaming thing, quite a lot of it goes on in a covert way in early secondary - a teacher friend of mine told me that if they didn't in her school, all the clever children would leave... no-one's allowed to admit to it though.

Anna8888,

I'm right in thinking that the French do streaming in a completely different way. Kids who fail the year are made to repeat. Even if they are as young as six. If a kid repeat the year too many times they are transfered to a special school.

By secondary school level I imagine that French schools don't have the same spread of ablity as English schools. All the thick kids have been transfered to special schools.

no i think primary is not as important as secondry school, obviously do your best but at such a young age alot depends on parental influence and imput

I think that at primary age what really matters most is that your child is happy. I went to a very good state primary school, as did my brothers and sisters. We all went on to selective or private secondary schools, and did well educationally. However with the exception of my middle sister we all struggled socially, and it really took me until I reached university to feel confident about making friends. the reason for this is that it was well out of our catchment area and so we had pretty much no out of school contact at all with anyone, and as we didn't attend the same church we were always outsiders, and my eldest sister and I were bullied. My parent were utterly oblivious to this!

With my two, I visited eight schools, and chose the most welcoming where the children seemed happy and relaxed. It wasn't the "best", but on visiting the two academic (and heavily over subscribed) schools I was very unhappy about the atmostphere and welcome. It has worked out fairly well for my son, and not so well for my daughter, but that's mostly about the local demographics, as there aren't enough girls for dd to have a good choice of friends, and she is very sad about this (doing fantastically academically though).

So yes primary school has an impact on the rest of your life - but it's not just the academic parts that matter.

Thanks for all your kind messages. I have emailed this thread to dh to help him destress a bit.
We have decided to have a really good look around at all the schools before we panic about moving.

Just to add, mummytoamonkey, we do have lovely villages around us BUT I don't drive and this makes it trickier to think about going too far. One of my concerns is taking 2 under 5s on a long school run twice a day by foot. I think,cation is vital for such young children as when ds starts school he'll be so tired anyway and having a second child in a pushchair makes buses a difficult option too.

'I think, location' is how it should read

Hmmm....well....es went to a middleground sort of school for his first 4 years, then we moved to NI (dh is in the army) which was meant to be a good school, and his self esteem and achievement went even more down, then we moved to an area, where he went to a litle very highly valued Villageschool...but still he didn't thrive, he liekd it but it wasn't great....well, then we bought our house, and because we needed a 4 bedroom house, as first time buyers we hadn't had a choice of brill areas...we moved here 2 years ago, and my es has picked up in every subject, his teacher was fabulous, he was always been praised on his behaviour and stood out positively, which seemed to make the teachers more involved with him and this school dispite not being tyhe best, got the best out of him...they were truely amazing and with my experirence with teh precious schools, it was one of the better ones...even though the ofsted had been mixed, etc....
I truely don't think that the rating etc...counts for anything, it depends on how the individual gets on there...so, it's a wait and see, and aslong as the parent is involved in teh homework etc...the child will thrive and learn in their best of ability....

Reallytired - yes, French children do sometimes have to repeat a year. However, they stay in the mainstream system (albeit being a year or even two years older than their year group) until age 15. No special schools. So classes aren't streamed, they are just mixed age as well as mixed ability...

Although repeating the year is traditional, standard practice it is increasingly controversial and there are moves to reduce the numbers of children repeating, as well as the years of school which can be repeated.

Don't drive your kids to school if you can help it. So much better from a social and environmental point of view to send your children to the nearest school. And they will benefit from being part of a local community.

By the way my local primary is not the best in the area and has had its problems but my daughter will be going there. As long as it provides a healthy and happy atmosphere where she can learn how to work and play with others and enjoy herself I'm happy. I'm sure her dad and I will be able to supplement any supposed academic 'deficiencies' there may be.

Just my opinion

Really tired...in Germany Children sometimes repeat a year, if for whatever reason they have fallen behind or maybe were to young and not ready to start school.
I msut say, I favour the way the system is, or at least was when I was younger...where children of schoolage actually are tested for school readyness...well...not so much tested as such...but they will look at the physical and mental readiness to cope with the demands of school....rather then when they reach a certain age they start....and I think in Britain the Kids would most certainly benefit from such a system, as they are so very young....my ys forinstance will only turn 4 in August next year and he will have to start school that September...so, will be one of the youngest of his year...and I felt my es was a bit young to start school and his birthday is the June...

I think it's very important and it's worrying the hell out of me that I can't find even one here.

Maybe they are here somewhere but I can't find them!

Hi, I'm 26 and went to a school with bad ofsted reports, in a council estate area. All I remember from primary school is helping with the younger chidren and re-doing the various bible stories each year (was a catholic school).

I learned the basics (reading, writing, arithmetic etc) but got good GCSE's and excellent A-Levels. I really think it depends on the child.

If your child is really bright it will do well whatever school you send the child to. If average the choice of school will matter, as to how they stretch the child, teach exam method etc.

There were quite a few people who struggled at A-level maths, chemistry etc at my decent sixth form, when they didn't have the support of extra tutors/extra lessons etc. These were people who had been to the best schools and achieved A* in GCSE's.

What I'm really trying to say is that bright children will do well, and average children who have been excessively coached and pushed, will eventually meet situations where they will be exposed.

The most important thing a child learns is to how to read, write and spell. A child who has not been taught any phonics will have to memorise words. They will have no strageries for working out new words.

A bright child will be good at finding ways of getting by. However there comes a point when a badly taught child has reached saturation point and stragery of whole word recongition falls apart.

This is why many dyslecic children are diagnosed as dyslexic when they start a new phase of their education and the challenged is upped. (Ie. start of secondary school, GCSE, A-level, university) A very bright adult might find difficulties at university when they sailed through school because it just becomes too hard to compenstate for having a poor foundation at primary school level.