Help me choose between two primary schools

[Schoolchoicemission]

School 1: 10 mins walk away. Infant school (reception- year 2) rated Ofsted Good recently. Kids do loads of play and it’s very relaxed. No homework. Majority of local friends will send their kids there so DD will know people and easy for play dates etc as so local. Issue is that the junior school most kids move to doesn’t have a great rep.

School 2: 20 min walk away, but in opposite direction from my commute. Reception- year6. Less play based, bit more “academic”. Rated ofsted Outstanding about 5 years ago. Immediate area is much more middle class than school 1, active well funded PTA etc.

DD is an extremely bright child but has struggled socially (though this is improving a lot since she started pre school). I get the sense that school 2 would be better for her academically, particularly when compared with the Junior school, but possibly school 1 might be a bit more nurturing and she would know more kids there initially.

What would you choose?

School one.
A lot can change in the 4 yrs before they hit the Juniors.

School A

School 2

A bad junior school is bad.

Thanks for the replies…not that conclusive! Perhaps it doesn’t matter too much.

There’s a fair chance the junior school will improve (though it is a bit of a gamble compared to school 2), but as against that there’s the ease of commute and local friends etc. Though school 2 isn’t exactly far. We cycle and it’s about a 5 min cycle.

Bumping for any other thoughts!

School 2... I have spent the last few years wishing my children went to 'the more academic' school...

I would definitely prefer a good primary than a good infants and dodgy juniors especially if your child is academic. You have to be a bit careful with infants as while many little village infant schools are lovely, that often comes with less access to wrap around care, clubs etc. the scale of what can be offered is just not as much. If the juniors is bad you might start to find people disappear to private for year 3 so I wouldn’t base a decision around friends.

A lot can change in school 2 too. We couldn’t get in at time as was so popular everyone wanted kids to go there. Headteacher retired and year or 2 later went down to requires improvement.

Yes I get that @Lau52 but same could be said of school 1. I don’t think there’s much point basing the decision on speculation either way 🤷🏼‍♀️

As she's extremely bright then school 2 sounds more suitable.

School 2 sounds better suited for her.

OP doesn't really give much to go on, e.g. number of pupils, playground etc facilities, etc etc.

Based on the information provided I'd say it's about coin flip.

20 minutes is quite a very tiring walk for a 4/5 year old, it's 10 minutes extra from school A, and OP says that most local kids will go there.

The Ofsted outsanding rating is comforting but it's quite a few years old, also the other one is good [if lower than that then it'd be a whole other discussion], that's worth about 5 minutes' extra walk IMO.

I'd say that going from reception through to year 6 is IMO quite an attractive feature if there's a question mark over yr 3 - yr 6 provision elsewhere, so I'd make that worth about 5 minutes' extra walk.

Based on what you've said I'd put school 2 first and school 1 second. It sounds like really you'd be happy with either and you can always move your child if needs be.

School 2

School 2

I think 2. If she struggles socially then a disruptive junior school will be much harder for her.

School 2. Even if a 20 minute walk feels far for a 4/5 year old, they won’t be that age very long. Can you imagine your child at 10? Which would the 10 year old thrive at?

Are there other options at junior?

I would choose school 2 as it goes through to year 6. For a shy child the change at year 2 to year 3 might be hard. This gives her a longer stay in one place. You will soon get to know people and many will be new.

You can always put the other place as 2nd choice, in case you do not get it.

School 2 for me, definitely.

School 2 if she's very bright.

Definitely school 2

I'm assuming you've visited both? Which one did you get a feel for?

You describe school 1 as "loads of play" and traditional EYFS is learning through play, even beyond into KS1.

Something to keep in mind that ofsted intend to inspect all schools over the next few years, in light of the pandemic. From my understanding, it'll be (and is) extremely difficult to now retain the 'outstanding' label.

For what it's worth, I've taught in both good and 'outstanding' schools and outstanding comes with its own difficulties and pressures, even on the children.