just found lovely primary school - u would not believe the stats!!

[autumnlover]

a lovely school, that has 45 places and last year 207 applications. WTF?!?!?! and it was only a primary school. okay the secondary school (it was a 3 yrs to 16+ yrs school, dont know the terminology) had the best results in town, but WTF?!??!?!?

i just cant believe the whole 'finding a good school' situation has gotten that crazy. how for gods sake are we suppose to get our children into a good school in the area we want/live in?!?!?!

thanks for listening to the rant and congrats if you understood what i've just said.

when we moved here, dd1 had been allocated a good school in the town we used to live. we wanted her to go the school up the rd from here as its wnderful. no spaces. so we had her in a a different school and waited a year for a place for her.

best decision we made. the school is closer to us, smaller (only 30places) and has great sats results. it is lovely.

thanks for replying misdee! did changing schools upset yr DD? i am scared how the change would affect her or am i just worrying too much in advance??

she was a bit upset at leaving her friends, but by the time she left she was very happy about moving. she still sees her old friends from the other school as they lvie just over the road.

dd1 is now on an IEP as the new school picked up problems with her sounds/reading/writing within weeks of her starting and are very good at dealing with it. the other school hadnt picked up anything.

the primary school is was looking sounds lovely from its website - has its own kiln, 2 libraries and real 'small village' feel to it - bit like my primary school.

its such a headache and nightmare. we've thinking of moving next year to be nearer to family. i'm basing my search for houses on the areas with the best schools - am i mad??

nope. but remember the best schools arent always in the best area. dd1 school isnt in the best part of town, and neither is our home, its facts its a bit a bad area. but the school is wonderful. (the iother school which i wouldnt even look at is awful)

dd1 is a red brick village type school. its half the size of the school she started at.

how do you know which are the best schools?? do u just look at the exam results/stats?? or get recommendations from people - bit difficult if you're moving into a new area...

i grew up here so i know which are good schools. when we were looking we visited lots of school. the one we decided on (for a year that dd was there) felt a lot better than the other schools. the headteacher was lovely, the kids looked to be interested and not bored, lots of facilities, and did ok on SATs.

i'd say make a list of schools to visit, go round each one, looks at SATs results, then go on your gut instinct. lol

thank you very much for this..its really reassured me that i'm not mad - and given me a game plan, i hope... LOL