King's School or Beech Hall

[petitemom]

Hi, we live in Macclesfield and are trying to decide on a primary school for our now 2+ year old son. We've read the Ofsted reports but it would be good to hear real feedback from parents, especially as we've moved from the Far East.

Does anyone send their children to the King's School in Macclesfield or to Beech Hall School?

We visited both and thought the teachers were warmer and appeared to enjoy their work more at King's. The facilities at King's seemed better (of course it's loads bigger). On the other hand, we met a couple of pupils at Beech Hall (Year 11 and Year 6) and were impressed with their manners, confidence and smart conversation.

We're also wondering about state school. What have you heard about Parkroyal Community Primary School? We're due to visit there tomorrow.

How likely would it be for our son to get into Dean Valley Community Primary School, considering we live in the middle of Macclesfield?

No comments about the Private schools, but I have heard that Park Royal isn't great. My SIL sends hers to Puss Bank Primary and really rates it.

How is your research going, petitemom?

Hi lovecheese,

We've visited five state schools including Park Royal and Puss Bank (lovely headmistress and very happy kids) and are due to visit another in a couple of weeks. It was well worth visiting just to see the differences in:

• attitude over phone when setting appointment (one school said it was too early for us to see their school and refused to let us visit)
• small (15 in reception, combined classes) and large (max 30 in class) schools
• outdoor and classroom facilities
• faith and non-faith schools -- even differences in what we would call 'religiousness' among the faith schools
• discipline
• how teachers greeted us (in one school they didn't acknowledge us), how they related to their pupils and if they seemed enthusiastic sharing what they were teaching the class
• classes taught in mixed ability groups or not
• pre-school setup
• etc.

I understand we only have a snapshot of each school, but it's been great knowing a lot more about what's out there beyond the OFSTED reports and league tables and it's certainly going to inform our decisions (still not yet set).

Thanks for asking!

petitemom, Hi, I think you are absolutely right NOT to base your decisions on OFSTED reports and league tables, very sensible attitude and one which is probably lacking in a lot of parents who cannot see beyond them. Good luck, will tell SIL you have been to Puss Bank!