When do I need to start thinking about primary schools?

[NewMum0305]

My daughter has just turned 2 but my mum think we need to be looking into local primary schools now - I just can’t see the point?? We’re not planning to move house between now and when she starts so it’s likely to be luck of the draw as to which catchment area we fall in and something we can’t control. Am I missing something? Is there something I need to be doing this early on?

If you are looking at selective pre-preps, yes now.

If you are looking at your local state schools, you don't need to look just yet, unless you are interested in attached nurseries etc.

I think you need to think about it in terms of understanding admissions so you have an idea about what primary school you’re likely to get allocated. If you’re not happy with that there is time to do something about it. But then again if you’re not going to move then that side of things is pointless.

My kids are now teenagers but i do wish I’d realised when the oldest was a toddler that once they start school you are pretty much stuck with your location. Unless you want to cause huge upset changing schools and moving away from friends

I think it's better to start looking earlier but in a relaxed way. Once you know at least the names of the local schools then you'll start to pick up on useful random bits of information in conversations with parents at play groups and parks etc.

Basically now is the time for casual conversations so you can avoid the need for spreadsheets and sticky notes later lol.

I started thinking about it when my son was four and it was a couple of months before we needed to put the form in

But then we have a lovely school just down the road which all our neighbours say positive things about so we were always going for that one. Some of my friends who lived more inbetween schools started looking and going on visits a few months earlier.

If you're not looking to move, then you need to be sure you're happy with the schools local to you. Check on something like Rightmove what the closest ones are on your street, then check out the ratings of the top five (you're usually asked to select five). If they look ok, you're good to go!

My girl is 2.5 so will start school in Sept 2022, 6 weeks after her 4th birthday. We need to apply this coming autumn. Your DD will be the year after, and so be 4.5 when she starts. We looked at primaries in the May before applying in the autumn, for our eldest, so you see the real school, not a set up open day, but that won't be possible this year. Some areas don't have catchments for schools, you just go to the nearest with a place. I'd wait a year then look at a couple of schools. You have 3 options (6 in London I thinl) so it's best to see which local schools would suit your girl.

If you want her to attend a school nursery, to might need to look at options now to check the admissions process.

We didn't think about it until the autumn before (when dc were 3, about to turn 4), as school applications open in September and that's when open days are, and close in January.

If you want her to go to school nursery then you will will need to apply before this Christmas. There maybe online potential parents evenings for you to join. You will need to check each individual school for this.

You will get to state a prefer for school places but how much of a chance of this depends on your area.

In an ideally world you will probably want her to go to the same school nursery as school and then follow into the next schools with her friends. I live in an odd area and our first school catchment is into two different middle school catchments. It makes for a very competitive housing market within a couple streets. Now my daughter is in reception is means we have very limited choice of places to move or we risk having two children in different schools.

When is her birthday? Dts are august so we looked the September after they turned three to apply the January they were 3.5.

I feel like I’m completely ignorant of this process. My understanding is that you can put your first choice but on the whole, it’s down to where you live, and that’s not something we’d be planning to change, so I’m still not clear why I’d need to be doing this early. She has literally just turned two so applications wouldn’t be due until November 2022 at the earliest?

I don’t think any of the primary schools near us have nurseries attached. x

This totally depends on the area you're in and the schools available.

If you're rural and only one school then no point looking, just put the school down when you apply.

If you're somewhere semi rural with a choice of schools you could get into then it's worth looking and considering which would work best.

If you're in a built up area then it is likely you will get into a school dependent on where you live rather than being able to "choose". But it is still worth knowing which school you'd prefer as you can put it first and hope to get in.

It would be unusual for none of the schools to have a pre school attached, I'd investigate that.

Thank you. I totally get and plan to do all that - it just feels a little premature to do so 18 months before I could apply to any.