Dilema about which school to choose from nursery age!

[mrspurple79]

My ds is now 3yrs old and can start nursery at school but i'm not sure which one to choose. He will be going to a welsh school so i have a choice of 3, 2 in my catchment and one which isn't. one of the schools in our catchment is out of the equation (not nice!) but i can't decide between the other two. Originally i wanted the school outside our catchment as it has the best reports and is a much smaller school than the other.

My ds has a nursery place at the school i like but i've just found out that he won't be guaranteed a primary place as we're not in the catchment area. These children get priority, then if they have siblings at the school and then on the distance you are from the school. I don't know whether i should send him there but might have to move to new school to start proper school, or whether i should stick with the school in our catchment as he'll get a primary place.

Any advice welcome, not sure what to do!!

What is there to choose between the two? Have you visited them, chatted to the staff, do you know any parents of older children locally who might have opinions?

I like ti hedge my bets so dd does 2 sessions each at 2 different nurseries. Different resources and different attitudes give her different experiences!

Second actually looking round both schools and talking to parents who already have children there. Also I'd talk to the headteacher at the out of catchment school to find out what your genuine chances of getting in are (they should be able to tell you things like how many out of catchment children get places, how far away they live etc).

I would prefer to send him to the nursery of the close school if there is no genuine chance he'll get into the other school.

Also, I wouldn't split sessions between the 2 if it is the norm for most children to do 5 sessions - this will just make it harder for him to make friends and settle.

Thanks for the advice. I have spoken to the headteacher from the school i wanted and got the impression he would get a place, but after speaking to a parent i didn't realise it was down to the LEA. Also our local paper has just had an article about the number of places expected in 2011 for the school i want, and it's quite a bit more than they take!

Spoken to my OH and we've decided that we should go with the school closest to us, in our catchment. I wouldn't want to split the sessions as my ds would get a bit confused i think, and i'd rather him stay in the same school. I just hope he'll be able to cope with the number of kids in the school.

Thanks again all x

How big is the bigger school? DS1 went straight from a private nursery into a 3 form intake primary school with no problems whatsoever.