Friends outside of school, or their school's teaching style?
Trying to decide between two schools for DD.
School 1. Walkable in 10 mins. Very academic style from day 1. Kids sit at desks in reception etc. They have to finish their schoolwork before going outside to play. Focus on "resilience" and "stamina". I've heard mutterings if kids being "shamed", but tbf that's always from parents who don't have kids there. Great results in KS1 and KS2. Ofsted outstanding.
School 2. Walkable in 25mins or 15 on the bus (no option to drive even if we had a car, which we don't). Montessori approach in yr R and 1, very focused on welfare/happiness of children and child neurodevelopment. Ok KS1 results, great KS2 results (v similar to those of school 1). Ofsted outstanding.
Context is that DD (as far as we can tell - she's only 3) is pretty average academically, but definitely over the average in terms of energy 😁. She's also very sociable but is an only child, and will remain an only, so friends are very important to her. She's fairly confident and outgoing. We don't have a car and won't be getting one, so play dates etc might be a problem for school 2. The vast majority of children where we live will go to school 1, although there are a few children in our street and neighbouring streets at school 2 (due to distance calculation/location of large parks etc).
Any thoughts? Obviously it might be decided for us as places are not guaranteed, but trying to decide which to put as first choice.
Thanks!