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

There are a myriad of reasons why parents opt to send their children to local schools:

Cost
Friendship
Bullying
Pastoral care
Academic achievement
Convenience
After school care/activities

Your lack of understanding and utter smugness defies belief

Look OP, you judge parents who choose a school because "it's the easiest and most convenient choice for THEM"

I judge YOU who drives your kids to school when there are perfectly good local schools your kids could walk to.

I would home educate rather than send my children to a catholic school.

Yep me too.

"they embrace children of no faith", so my children who happen to be born to atheists would be welcome to apply? Bullshit!

Forago, techically your children could not be prevented from applying and would have to be given a place if the school was not full. In reality, if there is a faith criteria in the admissions, and the school is oversubscribed with catholic children, then less chance of a place.

Local catholic school had two form entry, but because it is outstanding ofsted IT could only take siblings and Catholics, catchment is apparently lower priority! How frustrating for those mums in catchment :(

You judge ME for choosing to send my chidlren to excellent schools that bit further away that will surely I increase their potential to succeed instead of sending them round the corner to the dead end schools with terrible reputstions.....? That's laughable, it really is.

So basically you judge me for not being lazy like so many of the other mums I know who just laze in bed expecting their chidlren to sort them selves out and make their own way to school. Instead I drag my backside out of bed early to ensure my children are sorted and yes I drive them to school but their schools are 2.5 miles away, which yes isn't much but I sure as hell ain't going to send them on the bus, and I'm not going to walk it in winter with a four year old in tow.

No, I judge you for being smug about having a genuine choice of school when so many don't, and generally unsympathetic.

And unless you are saying that your school has enough vacancies for every child at the school you dislike, then your scenario is a nonsense anyhow. For no matter how willing to travel a parent is, that is utterly irrelevant to school admissions rules.

Don't get upset Gracem, you are doing the best possible thing you can for your children, as most people on this site are, and we have different opinions about what is best.

There is no such thing as a dead end school, honestly there isn't! And there are any factors that affect how a child does in school, the actual school they go to is quite far down on the list.

The top factors are

a) intelligence
b) parental support
c) peer group

None of us can do anything about A! But clearly yours have B and you ahve done what you can to get a good C, in that they are largely mixing with others who have B

My DC go to a school 2.5 miles away too, we don't consider it far, and they do go by bus or walk, but this is at secondary level, so a bit different.

I suspect your children will reach their potential whatever school they go to.

For what it is worth, as a teacher of several decades standing, I have come to the conclusion that it is hard to go wrong if yu are trying hard to do what is right for your children, because the fact that you are trying to make the best decisions in the end affects them more than the actual decisions themselves.

I care far too much about my DCs and would never have contemplated sending them to a catholic school.

The quality (or not) of the education would never be enough to make up for the religious aspect and lack of proper sex education.

Spot on Caronaim

Caronaim - yep

The smug and unpleasant side f you won't help them much though OP.

"So basically you judge me for not being lazy like so many of the other mums I know who just laze in bed expecting their chidlren to sort them selves out and make their own way to school"

This says far more about you than it does about the mums you are referring to.

When we were looking at primary schools for DD it was a toss up between the local village school or the one in the next village. All things being equal I chose the local school so that DD had friends she could walk to and from school with and not have to be taken to school in the car.

As it turned out the local school was an excellent choice and it is now in the top 20 primary schools in England.

Why did you start this thread? Surely you knew you would get a pasting.

I have three children to get to three separate schools/nirsery withing the space of 30 minutes, so I have to drive!

You chose to do that. You don't have to drive, you chose to put yourself in that situation.

There are other important facets of child development aside from academic achievement:tolerance; acceptance; being able to get on with people from all walks of life; not being sneery and superior. Can I suggest you work on these otherwise you are at risk of turning out children with a superiority complex.

I don't mean religious tolerance by the way. I mean day-to-day niceness and an ability to rub along with others.

I don't know how old your kids are but martydom and doing everything for them (e.g., running yourself ragged and driving them around everywhere) is not necessarily good for children. Different ways of viewing the world. Yours isn't necessarily best.

Oh, and some people don't send their kids to the 'outstanding' school because they have done research and don't necessarily take the supposedly 'objective' measures of a school's success as a statement of fact.

Do you know how your children's school does by kids on free school meals compared to children from more privileged backgrounds, and how it compares to the other local schools you disparage? Do you know how well your children's school provides for children with special educational needs? What their value-added scores are?

Chance (and choice) is a fine thing, isn't it?

Precious little of it where I live. Mainly because of the religious schools.

As I feel very strongly that religion is a personal choice and shouldn't be taught in schools and too many people conflate religious belief and personal morality I would go with the local school over a catholic school every single time irrespective of the reletive distance or the OFSTED assessment.

Wow. Happy you are satisfied with your choice.
Am also sure that the local families you have written off will be devastated that they won't be exposed to such levels of judginess.

you're completely missing the point on what you're being judged for. Your lack of self awareness is astounding. You are extremely lucky to be able to choose to send your kids to a non local school, if you can't afford to pay, because the vast majority of people that cant are stuck with their local schools as that's all they can get.

it only the schools that are allowed to discriminate on religion that can take non local kids and private schools. That's the reality of education in this country today.

your smugness and kavk if awareness about that is pretty offensive to those of us that didn't have your choices due to not being hypocritical enough to pretend to believe in god.

lack of awareness.

I think my child will benefit much more from having friends in their own neighbourhood, more free time, more walking, and more membership in their own community than they will from a school with a better ofsted rating. And I would NEVER send my child to a faith school.

Judge not lest ye be judged, OP.

I think you're missing the point, a lot of parents choose/have chosen their current home with their child's future in mind and already in the right location or they feel confident that the local school is adequate.

I would say the problem lies with your acquaintances, perhaps something about you attracts people with what you seem to describe as lacking in aspiration? Perhaps your friends feel that since you feel the nearby schools are so bad locally that you should have made the move.

If that doesn't sound particularly pleasant perhaps you shouldn't make the same assumption of others.