Good school or move to outstanding

[Dystrophin345]

Hi all,

My 3 year old has settled well into a local s school. It's a small village school and the total is around 200 children. I've applied to an outstanding school close to my workplace where we want to relocate. This school has better results (well above average) compared to my child's current school (average results). If he is accepted, I'm not sure if I should move him or keep him in his current school as at the moment he seems really happy.

I'm not sure if the results of the outstanding school are to do with the school itself or the cohort of students that attend that school (mainly really pushy and education minded parents)

Any advice is appreciated

Is he 3yo (so in preschool) or year 3 - big difference ? How far away are the 2 schools from each other, ie if you leave him at current school are you going to be driving him back and forth for hours each day and is it going to make playdates/after school activities and so on difficult (assuming we can at some point resume normal social life!)?

If the schools are reasonably close together and you are otherwise happy with the school he's at, I'd be inclined to leave him where he is. At primary level the 'results' the school achieves in some cases are only really meaningful for league table purposes rather than actually affecting the opportunities/outcomes for the children, and the difference between a good school and an outstanding school can come down to how good the head and staff are at paperwork or how hard they hothouse the children for SATs results (or as you say, the intake of the school to start with), so things that don't really affect the children either way (or in the worst case can actually negatively affect them if the school are so wedded to achieving certain levels that extra curricular activities and pastoral care are sacrificed as a result).

Of course if you feel that the outstanding school really will be better for him or offer him things his current school can't (you say he's happy at the school but if he's only 3yo - to be blunt they aren't really 'taught' a huge amount at that age and so long as the teacher and assistants are nice people most 3yos are happy as larry in their first few terms playing in the sandbox and having story time, that doesn't necessarily tell you if it's a good school or not so it may be too soon to decide if the school is really going to fulfil all his needs) OR you feel the commute back to existing school would be too much then of course move him. Children are pretty resilient and cope well with changes of school (esp between preschool and reception which is a big change anyway so adding a new school may not be as big a deal) so long as they are well prepared and supported. But actually if the benefit to him of the change is marginal and you are confident in the school then why rock the boat?

If he's 3, I would pay close attention to the admittance criteria for reception. It's highly unlikely nursery will have any bearing, so you need to understand your likelihood of getting a place, bearing in mind you may not have relocated by then I imagine (if he is 3 have you applied already?)

I think you should look further ahead than primary school. Which secondary school do most of the children go to who live in the area to which you hope to move?

Now look at that school's admissions policy to see if they just take children based on proximity of their home to the school, or if they have a 'feeder/linked school' system where children who attend a particular school(s) get priority over children who don't. If both the primary schools - the 'good' current one, and the 'outstanding' potential one, have equal weight in terms of entry to the secondary, then I'd say stay at the one he's happy in. Good really is good.

But if attendance at the outstanding primary is more likely to get him into the secondary near your potential new home, then move him. Better to move them when they're younger.

Thank you. Basically the school that we want to take him to is near my workplace and it's about 40 mins from my current location. His current school is a small village school but I need to do more research on it. The school we like is linked to a nearby secondary school that has really good results and is also outstanding. Other than that there are a few other outstanding schools (I've worked in some of them) and compared to our area the area is also much better.
It's a risk though as I've put down 3 schools close to my workplace and I've given the reason that I don't have any help with drop off and pick ups and the fact that I'm close to my workplace and we are planning to move. Not sure if he will be accepted. We don't have any secondary schools close to us with outstanding rating and most don't yield good results.

If he gets accepted close to my workplace then of course we will move.

Unfortunately, those reasons aren't relevant to a school application. The only thing that is relevant is information that puts you in a specific admissions category, and things like transport etc won't do that. Most primaries, if not religious, allocate most places as siblings or distance.

If you only put 3 schools down all 40 mins away, I would suggest you have a very very low chance of getting any of them unless one of them is undersubscribed (and thus unlikely to be an outstanding school).

You will almost certainly be allocated an undersubscribed school nearer you, though it may not be one you want.

I would suggest amending your application to add a local school you would be happy with and are likely to get a place at as last choice. This won't affect the chances of you getting the further away schools, but just means you are less likely to end up at a school not of your choice.

So your child is 3 and you’ve applied for a reception place near your workplace? What are the admissions criteria? Normally it’s distance or catchment based. It would make sense to move now so that you meet the criteria and can be offered a place. I don’t think drop off logistics are a consideration? Circumstances that would be considered are things such as medical needs.

The application deadline is generally mid-January so you’ve still got time to move.

The outstanding schools probably haven't been inspected for ages. So I would check the dates of the last inspection before you give it credence.

Also you won't get a place at a popular school that's 40 minutes from home unless you have really extenuating circumstances - looked after child, ehcp etc.

I'm surprised you don't realise that having worked in schools. You should always put down a local school that you have a good chance of getting in, because if you don't your child may be given a rubbish school that's 40 minutes away!

To be clear, you haven't actually relocated, just 'want to'? I'm not sure any advice will be meaningful as there won't be many (if any) popular outstanding schools that have space for the children of people who live 40 minutes away but want to do dropoffs close to work. Special circumstances would usually be down to echps / being a looked after child or potentially step siblings at a school etc, depending on area.

Likely you need to go back to the school admissions rules and admissions distances from previous years, check that you have any hope in succeeding and definitely definitely make sure you have a local backup listed (presumably he's currently in nursery? So won't have a guaranteed spot for reception unless you put it on the list).

@Dystrophin345 is your child already at school aged 3 under out of normal age group admissions arrangements?

Well our landlord won't release us until March but yes I've put down local schools as my other choices just in case. I know the chances are slim but my brother did this with my beige and she was offered a place in the area they wanted and they eventually moved. Also, some primary school teachers have said that it could be put down as a reason if you work close to the school. Just wanted to give it a try I guess otherwise I've put him down at the local schools anyway

Well, unfortunately those primary school teacher don't seem to understand admissions (though speaking as Chair of Governors who also sits on School Appeals Panels for the county, it's not unusual!)

Those reasons won't be taken into account, I'm afraid.

But pleased you have a backup of local schools.

Agree with PP that many 'outstanding' gradings are now absolutely meaningless, definitely not worth moving house on that basis alone! If it was 10 years ago the entire staff body could have changed. It would be two Ofsted inspection schedules out of date and predate the 2014 overhaul of the curriculum and assessment.