When it comes to choosing a school for your child why do so many parents......

[graceM]

go for the easiest and most convienient choice for THEM, not their child? The only reason I ask is that most of my friends/aquaintences/neighbours etc have their children at the same primary school and then automatically chosen to send them to the feeder secondary school despite it being rated a grade 3 school (unsatisfactory/requires improvement). For most of them (and theyve admitted this) they chose to send their children to the school down the road as they are too lazy to have to drive a long distance and they "just can't be bothered"

Whereas myself I chose to opt for a catholic primary and secondary school for my children in the neighbouring borough

i sent my kids to the school where they would learn how to fight with knives.

I've no idea where my child goes to school. He leaves, he comes back. What more do I need to know?

Would that be The Catholic School of the Martyred Mum?

My children learn soooo much from me at home, that where they go to school is not too much of a worry, really OP you should put a bit more effort into your parenting like what I do.

Ofsted reports will go up and down over the time your children are at a school. I can pretty much guarantee that whatever school they go to they will end up having some great teachers and some not so good ones or ones they just don't gel with. The one thing that's unlikely to change is the location!

Also, having currently a 4 mile drive through heavy traffic to the nearest school DS could get into, I would choose pretty much any local school over that, except maybe samcro's knife-fighting school It's not just my time that's taken up, it's DS's time too. And preschool DD's even more so. We could do far more 1:1 with DS at home in the hour a day we're currently sitting in the car in traffic jams than the difference between a good and an indifferent school.

I would send my child to a school in special measures any day over a catholic school. Am I a lazy pants parent?

I chose to send my kids to the local school rather than the sausage-factory crammer further up the road because I can roll out of bed, wearing my onesie, throw a pop tart at them both, drop them off and be back inside five minutes. Just in time for Jeremy Kyle.

maybe they chose to give their support to their local school instead of taking their children to a different school.

What is it that you are asking?

Why people make different choices to you?

I'm not really sure that's something people can answer.

And at the end of the day, it doesn't matter.

You made your choice, which you have the right to do. Other people made the choice they felt was best in their situation.

I'm not convinced that looking down at them and giving them a far lower score on the parenting scale than you give yourself is all that helpful to anyone, tbh.

I have 2 faith schools on the road I live on, less than a 2 minute walk.
One of them gets brilliant results, the other not so.
I send my child on a 15min bus ride to a non-faith school. It gets good results but not as good as the one on our road.
I chose to send her further away because the closest is nothing but an exam factory, the kids are hot housed. I want my child to think for herself, be creative, have some flair, I don't believe the local (brilliant) school will allow that.

Having said that, had I known the bus fares would amount to £300/year, I might have had second thoughts

I think seeing as I can't drive,and the op has no suggestions as to how to get mine to a superior school,I'll have to go to plan B and saddle up the unicorn.

Dd goes to the school about 100m away from our house. I couldn't even tell you what the ofsted report says. It was my first choice because IMO, school is about far more that academic learning - it's a big school, but the catchment area is about a half mile radius, so all her friends are nearby. And that is important to me as much as learning in primary school is. She's happy, she can socialise easily, she loves going to school - and that to me is important than any ofsted report or rating.

Do you have a garden, ThatBloodyWoman?

OMG thatbloodywoman, you're Myleene Klass aren't you?!

How

Waiting

Being a slightly strange and obsessive type, when the 'bandings' came out from Welsh schools (it was a while ago, but IIRC they were banded from A = great to E = rubbish), I went and played about with the raw data a little.

Although it was all supposed to be legit and about value added, it was interesting that there was a perfect curve. Band A schools - average FSM very low, Band B schools, av. FSM a little higher, all the way through to band E schools which had the highest FSM.

As far as I can see, Welsh gradings say Good school = no poor kids . . . .

graceM, your DC are not going to get a better education because they go to a school with a higher ofsted rating. The ofsted rating tells you more about how good the school is at manipulation and spin than how good it will be at educating your child.

In fact, it is detrimental to some children to go to a school that is hell bent on protecting its "good" or "outstanding"rating at all costs - because the costs will be to the children.

I don't understand why you haven't moved closer to the good school. That would really be putting your DCs first because they wouldn't have to travel by car and they would live beside their classmates. I really don't understand parents who don't move house so their DCs can benefit from not having a commute and from building bonds in the local community where their school is. I guess it must be too 'inconvenient' OP for you to move house but really you're not thinking about and prioritising your DCs, are you? You're putting your own convenience above them just as you're accusing other parents of doing tsk tsk . . .

I have a school on my street! . my ds doesnt go there though as like the op I opted to send him to Catholic school, which is a ten to twenty minute walk away depending on ds! not because of ofsted reports or because im big on faith (I am Catholic my dcs have not been baptised.) but simply because it is a better school, even though the ofsted reports say otherwise. the school on my street I honestly believe is unsuitable and the staff need training! they have even had phones out making phone calls in the classroom! (I visited, its also connected to the private nursery in which I volunteer from time to time)

It depends on how much emphasis you place on education as to how deeply you look at schools when choosing.

We moved to a new area to ensure a place at that school as it suited DS and matched what we wanted from a school. It's Ofsted and results were good and that was important to us. The warm feeling within the school meant O knew DS would be happy. Not sure why so many think Ofsted is irrelevant, it's a great way of getting a true picture of the school and its intake from an outsiders point of view.

For secondary, we had the choice of a few almost identical on results, Ofsted and facilities so we let DS choose himself.

grace I'd send my children to a private school over a faith school if the local state schools were as awful as you say as I think faith schools are morally wrong and potentially damaging to children. So whilst you are feeling smug and superior compared to your friends who sent their children to the local schools, there are people out there such as myself judging you for your choices.

all depends on your point of view.

Maybe they work and work shifts? I can't drive my dd to a secondary school when I start work at 7am.

She had to go to a school which has a bus from our village to that school. Sadly it's not one of the better schools looking at league tables. Happpily the teachers are passionate, dd loves it and is on track for mainly A grades at GCSE.

Ha ha, well first off moving house isn't an "inconvenience" . Our house is currently up for sale and we have been looking for our ideal home for the last couple of months, so there, that's my reply to that. And secondly you can judge me all you want for sending my children to an outstanding Catholic school which in a lot of cases will be far superior than some private schools anyway, but I'm not all bothered it's bu far the best choice for my children.

Private school wasn't an option due to financial obligations ( as I expect it is for most people ) but if i did have the money I still wouldn't send my children private. There is absolutely nothing wrong with my children's school, it may be Catholic but they do not force the religion onto the children. I mean of course they do have lots of religious education classes, educational trips etc but they also embrace chidlren of other faiths or who aren't of any faith.

I used to say the same thing. My SIL sent her boys to the nearest crap primary and the nearest even-more-crap secondary. No effort made to look at other schools, just the nearest one.

We OTOH spent years driving our kids to various schools, and at one point had DC in 4 different schools and a 500 mile a week school run

Elder DN has been working as a porter since he left school, but has his own place and a car. Younger DN has had all manner of jobs - basically he walks out of one on a Friday and into a new one on a Monday. He is married, with a baby and has his own place.

My kids rent a house together and have no money behind them. One is married but the OH lives elsewhere. No kids, no permanent housing, and on the job front my DC1 has yet to have a permanent job, at the age of 29.

So I'm wondering now who was the fool. Clearly not my SIL.