I need your help. What makes a 'good primary'? Is is down to Ofsted reports or do you ignore these?

[scrooged]

Down to the area? The head teacher? Word of mouth/reputation? How can you tell without putting your child in there and making a potential mistake? Does it matter if they are very bright?

ARGHHH!!! I've choosen 2 to move ds to (don't ask), both in good areas, and tick the right boxes but how do I know?????

Ofsted reports are pretty brief these days and don't tell you an awful lot.

You need to get the opinion of parents who already have children at the school (if possible) Plus make your own visit to the school.

I've had to fill in the form pronto so choose two which were close to where we live, I've been told they are both good schools. We find out tomorrow which one he's moving to so will be arranging to go in and see it and speak to the head.
All this is new to me so I don't have a clue . The Ofsted reports for both were 2s and 3s, they both looked erm... according to them.

Mega stress!!!!

Actually proximity to home is good imo for various reasons - anything from the school run to the having friends over to play stage.

I think a visit to the schools would be your best bet though

That was one of the reasons for the move. He's an only child and all his school friends live miles away. He does have problems socially so I'm hoping this will help.

If I've already picked 2 am I stuffed??

we found visiting really good as well as asking other parents, when we visited we were able to ask the children what they liked about their school, the kids were more accurate in representing the school than anyone else. Good luck

Wehey stranger!!

hello real life gets in the way of mumsnet, that and them changing the format which was too much.
How are things going?

You've got to go and find out how you feel about them yourself.

The two schools around here are very different, both equally good though. I thought I had definately made my mind up on one until I'd visited the other. Which then confused me. HTH

Things are crap at the moment. I'm sure they will get better though. How's you?

Thanks Ohfor

Good here my sister moved last week which means peace

Are you able to meet up over the weekend? we are around all day sat and sunday afternoon, You are more than welcome for coffee and danish at mine if the weather is crap or meet up in town.

Yes, that sounds good. I'm rubbish company though at the moment.

Well you can tell me your woes for a change saves me doing the moaning.

Na, I'm house hunting, school hunting and have a kidney stone. As ds's off school until I sort this out I'm off work which means I have to make up the time over easter. If I have too much time off we won't be going to Paris. This is it really
I'm going to be the snobby cow at the new school who's pulled her kid out of a private school arn't i!

they will be fine, pick one with a good or outstanding Ofsted (if overall it's a '1' then it's outstanding, a '2' if good, a '3' if satisfactory) if you can and also make your life easy by making it walking distance from home.

There's 2 by the Uni which is close to home. They both beat the 3 hours a day I spent travelling/in traffic/waiting for a bus at his old school. He's got oddles of confidence, we're not posh though. He's maga bright aswell, at least 3 years ahead. I'm worried about this.
They are both 2 and 3.

Sounds like alot going on and ouch about the kidney stone, house hunting I do not envy, let me know what you fancy doing over the weekend, I have your email somewhere so will email you tomorrow but need to put the tesco shop away now

Ok. There's normally loads to do so I'll think of something.
I need to blag the house problem. I've only just started paying by direct debit, the bank told me it takes 1-3 days for it to show, it didn't, it took 6! They are pissed as it was late before christmas. I need to think of something, I don't want to move, not yet.

It is essential to visit the school. Impressions about what you actually see for yourself make all the difference. I personally think that some schools/nurseries have the inspectors 'on side' or not eg the nursery I first considered - because everyone sent their kids there, it was close by and it got a good report - was not as good as the nursery I finally chose which was quite a walk away for me, in a relatively less well-off area, and got a more critical report (not by any means a bad report, but definitely more critical); I simply would not have known this if I hadn't visited them.

I think you need to listen to everything on your list, but also to take every source you mention with a pinch of salt too. They are all useful in building up a picture, but at the same time they are all fallible as sources.

Local reputation - Important, particularly if parents don't like the school - easy to hear what people's niggles are etc etc.. but reputations can be misinformed. It is also easy for the schools in the nicest areas to have the best reps, when they might not necessarily be the best. Mainly because people only experience their children's schools, so have nothing really to compare it to (escept hearsay from other parents). I say this having worked at a school where the reputation was probably no long deserved and also now teaching at a place, where a rival has got the better reputation, but that's only because it is has got a 'better clientele' iyswim!

Area is important as this shapes the other children who will be going to school with yours and therefore could affect the culture of the school. That said, I have also taught in very middle class schools that have not had a great cultures.

Its also important to get a good feel for the school and the headteacher, but again this is only a snapshot, the Headteacher could be having a bad day; might be someone who is great with parents but not so good with students, or vice versa and so on...

And finally OFSTED are good for seeing the true picture. I know in our recent OFSTED, they were great for really seeing what the strengths and weaknesses are - they do often see below the gloss. That said, they are driven by stats - so you can't get an outstanding if the stats aren't good enough and this is unfair on those schools that have below average students coming into it.

And of course, there are the stats... but these often reflect the socio economic background of the students who go there, the emphasis placed on stats and so on...

So all the methods used are flawed, but that's all we've got - so all you can do is to use all the methods available and take a jigsaw appraoch.