What is the best way to find out online the best school in the area?

[bytheMoonlight]

Looks like we are going to be moving so wanted to research schools.

How do I find out which schools are perfoming best? Do league tables still exist and do they give an accurate account of the school?

I think they do yes, and no they don't give an accurate account of the school. They give an accurate account of SATs tests and GCSE results.

Try reading the Ofsted reports, look in the local paper's website to see what is said about the school re performances, days out, awards etc. Visit. Try to speak to parents.

League tables show best results, but not all round aspects of the school (how it encourages personal development of the kids etc). Best thing is ofstead report. Go on rightmove web site, type in the post code of the area you looking at. At the bottom of each page is a map. Click on Primary/secondary schools and it will bring up all the schools inthat area. Then click on each school for the ofstead reports.

A friend of mine's son went to a primary top of the league tables and it was all about results and pushing the kids through the SATs, hardly any Art or play. It all depends what you want out of a school.

lots of information on here

Don't forget the school website. And check the Value Added score - very important in my opinion. But most importantly, visit, visit and visit again.

Thanks for the responses, will check both ofsted and league tables.

Seeker what does value added mean?

Really useful link bruffin

When looking at the league tables what % would you want to see when looking at KS2 results?

Its really difficult isn't it.

We have a whole town to choose from so have the pick of 136 schools, its impossible to visit them all so how on earth do you start to narrow them down?

We moved house last month and faced a similar decision. I tackled it this way:

1 - made a spreadsheet
2 - looked at ofsted reports to get general idea - but some are a few years old and tbh I didn't discount many
3 - sent (many) emails to find out whether they had spaces for my DC. As there were lots to choose from I felt there was no point in going on waiting lists etc - ones that were full were taken off the list
4 - looked at websites of schools but not all have them
5 - went and visited. Think I visited about 13 or 14.
6 - made short list and then worked with that and avaiable houses.
7 - made decision We are very happy with it

I really didn't look at SATs results.

Hope you find a school you like

NoahAndTheWhale, may I ask what age was your DC when you did points 1-7?

NoahAndTheWhale, may I ask what age was your DC when you did points 1-7?

There are far less secondary schools than primary - so start by narrowing down which secondary schools you'd consider sending you dc to. Looking at the league tables will give you an idea about each school.

Then when you've narrowed down thx secondary schools and ruled out all the places you can't afford to live you won't have that many primary schools left and you'll be able to research them.

When looking at the league tables pay more attention to schools with a better cva rather than ks2 scores. Also be wary of schools with low number of sen kids - they've probably all been driven out by an uncaring school.

DS has just finished year 1 so was 6 when I started planning (in March) and DD will start reception in September and was 4.

IndigoBell makes a good point about secondary schools - as secondary school is a few years away for us and another move before then isn't out of the question, I focussed only on primary schools.

Where we are (York) the secondary allocations are mainly based on the catchment of where you live rather than the primary school your child attends so that is something to consider. I did look carefully at the LEAs admissions policies to understand exactly how thd system worked.

We have just moved areas.

I started by working out which were the best secondary schools, the adnissions criteria for the them, and as the area we looked at covered 20 odd miles (rural area), I also looked at neighbouring schools, should the catchment school go downhill - would we still have options?

Then, I think it is a mix of the other options the pp have mentioned.

I ruled out schools with awful ofsteds / results and that left about half a dozen, which I visited, visited the towns and asked people who lived there / nearby. Incidentally, I often found that people who lived in the villages often liked the schools - but people from neighbouring villages could give a more impartial view. Most people are happy with their child's education/school iyswim!

Also, don't forget to post on the web too. You can glean a lot of info from there.

Tables, particularly the value added scores are often telling, but may reflect the importance a head puts upon sats - so visit the school to check this!

And good luck!