Which school should I choose?

[Bromeliads]

I work at an independent school and we get a big discount on fees. DS1 goes to the prep part of our school. He's very happy there, but we're not totally convinced by it - just niggling little things really. It's fine, but I'm not sold on the whole prep school there til five, rugby, pushy parents thing. DS2 will be starting primary school next year. He goes to a preschool in our local village and is happy there. I'd quite like to send him to the village primary school (Ofsted good, good reputation), but I'm not sure if I should send him to the prep school DS1 attends. I think it would be nice for them to go to the same school and at least I would know the staff and how things work. It would be more convenient to only have one school run. It would be a stretch financially, but perfectly doable. Help me make a decision!

Hard to say without understanding the niggles but I would make life easy and have the one school run

Why didn't you send ds1 to the village school? Do you think it might cause resentment in the future if one had a private education and the other didn't. Or are they different personalities such that he's more suited to the state primary than ds1?

We didn’t really think enough about it with DS1. We’d just moved to the area (for the job) and it seemed like such a good deal. He went through the nursery, preschool etc and is now in year 5. But I don’t like the 5pm finish, the pressure, the Saturday fixtures. He’ll even have Saturday school soon. If I had my time again, I would send him to the village school. I do worry though that DS2 wouldn’t see it that way and would think that we just didn’t care enough to pay for his education 😬. I think the one school run is a big factor too.