Help me choose a school

[EdPops]

Hi – a week away from primary school application deadline and struggling to make a decision between 2 schools. My DS will be starting reception next year and I was hoping some parents with primary school experience might be able to help add some perspective.

Both (London-based) schools are Ofsted rated as ‘Good’.

School A
Smaller school, approx 220 pupils

Much closer to home, 2 min walk

Pros:

• Is celebrated for it’s community atmosphere, parent-led fundraising activities etc. It’s a very popular school amongst local parents who continually rally around to support its upkeep (pupils Xmas fundraising single hit the charts for example!)
• Smaller school, everyone knows everyone.
• Places it’s focus on the social development and emotional wellbeing of it’s pupils above academic achievement (in fact they have a full-time on-site Mental Health & Wellbeing Practitioner available to the kids any hour, any day). Could be important for our DS as - although undiagnosed at the moment– ADHD does run in the family.
• We know a number of parents with children already there.

Cons:

• Has by far the lowest scores amongst all the schools in our area with reading and writing scoring average, maths below average and Primary results in the bottom 45% (although the school put this down to the fact they take in more SENDS kids than other schools - 22% versus approx 13% intake of other schools – which lowers their average, and the fact they are less results driven and more personal development focused). I only have their word on this of course.
• Has been hit hard by recent budget cuts (-£432 per pupil in 2023-24) that may put some of the facilities we liked during the tour at risk e.g. the full-time Mental Health & Wellbeing Practitioner.

School B
Larger school, approx 600 pupils
Further away from home, approx 25min walk / 20mins on bike factoring in time needed to get bike out of lock-up etc.

Pros:

• Big focus on art and music which we like.
• Finances seem a healthier than School A.
• Primary results are in the top 30% with Reading, Writing and Maths scoring well above national average.
• Buildings and facilities are generally better than School A.

Cons:

• The commute concerns me, it’s only 20mins from home but getting our DS out the door on time can be nigh impossible some days.
• Bigger school, less personal… potential for DS to get sidelined if ADHD does manifest (although DS is very sociable so might appreciate more faces).
• Currently less SENDs support than School A.
• Also hit by budget cuts but less than School A (-£290 per pupil in 2023-24).

So my main points of concern are:

Academic achievement and the fact School A has such low scores, should i worry at this age??
Best environment for DS if he does develop ADHD.
Daily commute and having to get DS in on time every day.

Any thoughts or advice would be great!

Definitely A. Assuming it’s a state school, it’s parental input which gets them reading/learning times tables etc.
school B is too far for a little one (I’m assuming you can’t drive in an emergency/rain)

School A

What is your liklihood of being offered School B? I'm guessing its about a mile, which is quite far in London...

Do you need After school care- is there facilities for this?

In my experience over 5 Primary schools... smaller schools have less facilities but more access to them. Larger schools have more going on, more specialists etc... but it can be harder to access them due to the volume of pupils.

On balance, I'd probably pick the first of those two options.v

My rule of thumb for primary school is always to go for the local school unless you have very compelling reasons not to.
So for that reason alone, I'd go for A

(Although 25 minutes walk is absolutely not too far).

School A!
The social and emotional aspect to me tops everything. I work in a primary school and my daughter is 8 and over everything all I wish for my own daughter is that her social and emotional wellbeing is cares for! In this day and age its huge x

If you suspect SEN I would probably go with the larger school (assuming that means there are more classes in a year group). Smaller means less money and less well resourced. And, if there is no possibility of classes being mixed the children who don’t get along each other have nowhere to go.

School A sounds like it would suit your child better. I would be more concerned about the academic aspect in secondary school than primary. You can easily provide extra support at home for reading, writing and maths if he needs it.

I go for school B! I did the same mistake years ago - education is so important in primary ages otherwise you need to spend lots of money to tutors for 11+! Even if you dont consider private or grammar school in secondary, your child needs to have good education background to be able to do well in state secondary. 25 mins walk is not too far at all! We have a state school just 1 min away and I do drive 15 mins every day for my children! If he/she will get better education its worths! Good luck! 🌺

Both schools are community state schools.
No i currently can't drive, my SO does but i'd be doing the school run and SO doing the nursery run for DS2.

School B is 0.71 miles away (school A on the otherhand is 0.13 miles away).

I've no idea of the likelihood of getting in to school B other than last year we probably would have as they were slightly undersubscribed (as were a lot of schools in our area due to low birth numbers and the London exodus following the pandemic). When we asked the headmaster on the tour he just advised that if we really like the school then we should try.

Yes both schools have after school care, given finances and facilities are in a bit of a better shape at school B i think their range of activities is better than school A. However, more people who live closer to us will most likely have kids at school A so there's a better chance of shared pick-ups, after school play-dates etc.

In terms of access to specialists, a mum i spoke to with a child at school B whose DS also has ADHD and Autism complained that the school only has 1 SENDs rep and she felt it wasn't enough.

No, 0.71 miles / 25 mins doesn't sound far to me either, my primary school where i grew up in the sticks was 3 miles away(!) but i took the school bus, my poor DS will be expected to walk all that way with me or jump on the back of my bike, in all weathers. Maybe i'm being lazy but we've had it easy for the last 2 years he's been at nursery which was only round the corner.

A every time.

Start with your nearest school whenever you can. 25 mins each way, when you forget something, they're ill, you have to go in for harvest or sports day, or back in the evening for parent consultation...

Being close to home is a huge gift in the early days when they're tired and the weather is awful.

Little children benefit loads from small, local schools where they and their families feel like an important part of the community. Roots give kids wings.

Yes, and the fact they have an in-house mental health practitioner who children can drop into for a chat whenever they needed was a big hit with all the parents on the tour, we loved the idea! It does worry me though that the current funding cuts will mean some of these advantages might have been lost by the time DS starts next September. I've got no real way of finding out how much the cuts will affect the school and what things might be missing by the time we start.

An important point i wanted to raise actually...

Is there a way of tracking your children's progress through Reception, Y1, Y2 etc. so you can keep on top of progress and provide support where needed?

My fear is that (with school A in particular) we'll simply presume DS is getting the education they need and won't find out if the schools been under-performing until DS sits his SATs and becomes another 'below national average' statistic in an end of year results table.

Without wanting to sound pushy, is there a way of keeping track i.e. understanding that at this age DS should be able to blend words, at this age DS should be able to add and subtract etc?

Your child's teacher will keep you informed via parents consultations and reports. You should have some sort of home - school reading log, some schools have paper based, some have apps.

To an extent though, you need to be quite relaxed for the first few years as DC develop so differently and it has v little bearing on their later achievement and is often not a reflection on the school/teaching.

I've got 3 dc and they've ranged from way ahead in yr R and maintaining that all through primary, to fine at literacy but struggling with number until ks2, now top maths at high school, to seriously behind in yr 2 (covid lockdowns a big factor) but completely caught up and flying a year later...

It's probably better to know that their learning isn't linear and that the real end goal is successful transition to secondary. You have a lot of time, space and notice to step in before then.

"Without wanting to sound pushy, is there a way of keeping track i.e. understanding that at this age DS should be able to blend words, at this age DS should be able to add and subtract etc"

I'd leave that to the teacher tbh. This way madness lies.

There are age related expectations for every age group as part of the National Curriculum. These are freely available.

What is very hard to judge is whether your DC is doing well relative to their own abilities.

School A every time.

I live somewhere where a lot of people drive past perfectly good schools they could walk to go to the one Ofsted says is "better" and their lives are so uneccesarily complicated and stressful with frequent issues with roadworks, traffic, parking and all the knock on effects of parties and play dates also being further away.

Really interestingly, despite years if being told that their DC are getting a better education that makes it all worth it, now they have all ended up at the same secondary together there is zero evidence of this superior start over 7 years. My DC are flying, having had the benefit of a much easier and relaxed school run every single day since starting school. Being able to walk to school, pop to the park next door, play out with friends have all been a huge feature of their early years that we've all benefitted massively from. We also have such good relationships with those who live close to us and have all helped each other out with school runs when poorly etc.

Clearly it depends on circumstances and the schools involved. But if your nearest school is ok, start there.

Being in safe and easy walking distance also helps as the dc get older as you can encourage increasing independence and gradual steps towards getting themselves to school. Good practice before secondary.

A

This is a great way of putting it.
Looking back, my school was 3 miles away (with many good schools much closer) due to my god-fearing Irish grandmother insisting our parents sent us to a catholic primary and secondary school on the other side of town. Throughout my entire education I really struggled making friends in my neighbourhood as everyone went to local schools. Okay so 0.71 miles is a lot closer but it's still very unlikely any children within our immediate vicinity, or in the local playground, will go the school B.

Sounds like my grandmother!

School A - results can vary so much year to year.

We opted to send DD1 to then almost failing school down the road with most other local parents opting for other local school. The school we chose was smaller, had a brilliant head teacher who turned school around and now OFSTED outstanding, has a brilliant SENCO.

Also, think of your DC as a Y5/Y6 where walking to school can be such a good first step in independence.

I’d pick School A, but make a point of doing lots of times tables practice at home as you go along (when you get to that point). Really nailing the times tables will provide a good foundation for maths. Also read to & with with your child every day. Don’t try to second-guess phonics teaching, but enjoy books together and choose interesting books (fiction or non-fiction) from the library each week to look at together at home.