Chosing a school - how important is distance / the school run?

[Nasturtiumsalad]

I am also looking at primary schools for our daughter. We have two main choices:

School A: better academically, warm envirmonment, faith school (this is important to us), but a 20 min drive or 45 mins on public transport and would have to rely on setting up a school run in order to manage it (we both work, in a different direction to the school).

School B: OFSTED outstanding (though report was a few years ago) and very well regarded locally, though on gut feeling we found the environment cold and it was not amazing, taking a bulge class so will be in temporary accomodation for the first year on a different site, non-faith, but 5 mins walking distance.

Overall, we prefer school A, except for the school run, which is a real headache. Any advice on how much this matters would be appreciated.

i HATE driving to school.
DS1 used to go to school very nearby, and it's really lovely being able to walk there.
we moved him to a school we felt would be better for him, and it is. but the drive just is a real pain tbh

so much so that we are looking to moving closer to school so we can walk rather than drive.

i would go for school A in your situation for sure. your child's education is more important than whether you have to drive to get there in my opinion.

All I can say is really really don't commit to a difficult school run. People will say oh, no it's fine. But it isn't. Particularly if you're working, and not doing it yourself. It only takes one element of the arrangement to break down and you're stuffed.

Think about , apart from anything else, snow, illness ( you will be amazed at how often small children need to be picked up from school because they've thrown up), car breakdown. Think about friends for tea, going to friends houses...after school clubs ( your child wanting to different ones to the child who's parents are giving the lift....) And that's just for starters.

DDs school is 5 mins walk, I can see it from my front garden. I am not overly keen on it at the moment, but the alternative school would mean having to travel by car (even if we could get a place, which is very unlikely)

At the moment, I am sticking with it but may well review the situation in the future.

I would say that if you love school A and it is manageable, and it sounds like you do, I would go for it. Would you be able to get a place though?

In comparison to your OP, if my local school was a faith school but I could get a place at a community school within reasonable distance, I would take the further away school, because not attending a faith school is important to me. In fact, my school is considering becoming a faith school so I may have this exact issue.

But I would go for the school you are happier with - warm environment and good pastoral care is hugely important. You can do extra work at home to stretch them etc if you want but if the school has bullying and behaviour issues you can't make up for that at home in the same way.

Go for the easy school run every time.

DD goes to a school with a 20 minutes walk and I find that enough.

We moved during nursery time and had to drive 4 mornings 20 minutes to get there and then run to the train station. It was for exactly 1 year and after 1 month I already had enough. There was no option to move her to a different nursery so we bit the bullet and carried on.

You need to think about traffic, is it the same during morning rush? Have you driven during morning and afternoon runs? Think about the weather, we had snow and ice and I had to take the bus which meant getting up even earlier.

I'd be put off A not for the school run but for being the opposite way to work.

It's no hassle to have a drive to school if it is enroute to work - my DD's school is 15 mins drive but then i'm only another 5 mins on to work.

i find it really handy having her in a school near work.

If you opt for the driving option what would your child need to achieve at the end of year 6 for it to have been worth all the hassel and cost ?

For us it is worth is as our children (might) have a better shot at getting into grammar and at the time we applied would be in a feeder school for a better secondary than our catchment school - having said that the "better" secondary has since fallen apart and is now in special measures...... several times I have doubted if it is actually worth it.

Sorry to throw a spanner in the works but is School A popular? Have you checked whether it's likely you'd get a place there before you spend time deciding ?

I went for easy school run to school 10 mins walk away. I like the school but in many ways it's not the 'best' . I just made the decision that school being nearby would be handy for school run, dc socialising with friends, being part of the community. At the time there may well have been a possibility of getting into a different school ( a drive away) if I had wanted to. Now everywhere is so over subscribed I don't think I'd have a choice anyway!

I'd go for the school you like, as long as you're prepared to do the journey - or is there a subsidised school bus?
Some people who live in rural areas have no choice but to travel several miles to school.

Seeing as school B seems to have many positive aspects, I would choose it on the basis of the school run. Don't underestimate that if you are driving/taking transport to school then you will be unlikely to live in the same area as many of the pupils, so it won't be 'your' community, if that makes sense. Social/community aspect are v important to us.
Also, not sure how you will get a place at a school as far as school A, but maybe it's different here in London catchments?

When I was looking for first schools I started on the basis that my DC were going to our local school unless there was a compelling reasons why not.

DS has now moved to a junior school and he is 25 minutes walk away as opposed to 5. This does feel like a huge hassle - 5 minutes walk away is so lovely and makes it so easy to get involved in whatever you want to at school.

Also to note as you've mentioned faith is important to you - even non-faith schools are obliged to follow a broadly Christian ethos/worship.

Being close to school isn't just handy for you, its also good for DCs as their friends will be close by, they can walk together, go to each others house easily for playdates & when they're older go out on their own and walk to school alone.

For me that was a big consideration. I moved DS1 from a lacklustre school only 15 mins walk away partly because it wasn't great, but also because he didn't have any local friends there. Once he started at our local school 2 minutes away his social life changed beyond recognition and now I hardly see him as he's always out and about with various friends after school and at the weekend. He loves it.

If school B is outstanding and local, I'd definitely go for that. Faith is all well and good, but school is about the whole spectrum of education and you can concentrate on faith outside of school (you'll have an extra hour a day for that when you're not on the school run!)

Also bear in mind the financial and environmental impact of 20 mins driving each way twice a day. Agree that you'd be more likely to get a place at your local school too, so this may all be academic (pardon the pun) if you don't get into school A.

What do you mean better academically? Better Sats? It might be worth burrowing into these as the overall level of 4s and 5s gives you no indication of how your particular child might do.
Do you know anyone else who will be coming from the same direction as you? It might be impossible to find someone who wants to share a school run with you.
I have three kids. I end up going into school in the day at least once a week. Presuming you work is, say, 20 minutes the other side then you might be looking at an hour and a half round trip for a school play etc.

B

I'm just finishing 10 years of school run. No nearer school, so no choice.

I'm hugely envious of the mums who walk, chat and make friends. Cars are very isolating and very expensive. The exercise is also good for all concerned.

It's only worth considering yourself as having a 'choice' if you have looked at the admissions criteria for both schools and know that you have a very good chance of getting into both (e.g. if your faith moves you so high up the list for the further school that you will normally get in).

It never ceases to amaze me how many people agonise over school 'choice' when a quick perusal of the school admissions booklet, including the last admissions distance in previous years, indicates that there is only one school they have any hope whatever of getting into...

if you haven't checked, check now before you get your heart set on School A and find that there is no way whatever you would ever get a place there....

Agree that you need to check the criteria for admission to the faith school carefully before applying. For C of E schools there are 2 types VA (voluntary aided) which require church attendance or baptism and VC (voluntary controlled) where home-school distance may be more important than church attendance. For Catholic schools they usually require evidence of church attendance and'or baptism too. So often you have to have a strong faith link so statements such as "this is important to us" are not sufficient without anything to back this up. The long distance that you have to travel would put me off though!
School B sounds like the sort of school that would be oversubscribed in most areas and many schools do feel like this on a first visit.
Finally are these 2 schools the only "choices" that you have or are you just trying to choose an outstanding school. Outside of London you usually have 3 preferences and unless you live in a very rural area, it should be possible to name 3 schools on the form.

it depends on your personal situation.I have,or will have,4 under 5 in September,so for us it was the local school within walking distance or nothing.Im not going to catch buses just to get them to school,and tbh even if i could drive i wouldn't.

crazymum,

I agree that you can usually name 3 or more schools on the form BUT it is rare to have a genuine choice, pretty much wherever you live - unless you count, for example, a choice between your nearest school and an extremely undersubscribed poor school at the other side of town.

I live fairly close to the middle of a medium-sized town. There are at least 7, possibly 10, schools within walking distance. If I were to be applying for schools for next September, there is only 1 where I have any chance of being admitted and even that is a push because its catchment has shrunk to under 200 metres in recent years.

Reaslistically, I think that most people are in a similar situation unless they have a reason such as faith for an RC school which puts them high up on the list for a distant school. There is a lot of agonising on here and elsewhere, but cold hard analysis of the data would normally suggest that all bar 1, or at the most 2, schools one might apply to are 'hopeful' at best.

If by setting up a school run, you mean sharing lifts with other people, then I would definitely think again. School runs are hard work at the best of the time (even getting to a local walkable school) without having to coordinate with other people.

I moved my dds from a school that was 15 minutes walk away (but in a very different area with a very spread-out catchment) to my local community school. Like someone said earlier, the social advantages of your local school are amazing. My dds are really really happy there, with lots of friends nearby.

I think the socialising is really important once they get into juniors (it doesn't matter that much in the first year or two of infants). So, on that basis I would go for school B. I'm not religious though, so your faith might be more important in the end than all the above.

Thanks for all the advice so far.

teacherwithkids and crazymum - Good point - but yes, we would meet the criteria for school A, we are Catholic, attend Mass every Sunday, all baptism certificates, priest references etc in order.

PollyParanoia - it would take me up to an hour to get into work afterwards [groans at the thought], it would take DH about 25 mins. I work 4 days a week. I know of 2 (maybe 3) families who live near us with kids already at school A, so a school run might be possible.

How far do you work the opposite way? Consider if your dd might have a playdate or party a similar distance the other way from the school, you could easily be spending an hour or more driving. Nor can you rely on setting up a convenient liftshare or even having a childminder picking up/dropping off that far away. Agree with others it could well be academic as you may not get allocated a place at A if it is popular and you are in an urban area.

I think you have pretty much decided on school A actually. You will curse the school run every day - especially when you are taking other kids - but it is what you want so go for it!

Distance to me was everything, but then we're in the fortunate position that the nearest school had a lovely warm atmosphere when we looked round. May have flummoxed me a bit if it had been cold and unwelcoming.

Do the 'toss a coin' trick and see what your gut reaction is to the result of the toss.

I agree you want to be convinced School A is the one.

But the majority on here are speaking sense. Don't underestimate how often you need to go in to primary schools for meetings, assemblies etc. This week I will have to go in twice apart from school run. The school is 5 mins away (not THE school in the area) and so I can dash in and out without seething with resentment. These things are important. Do the children at school B all look miserable? If not, is it really cold and unwelcoming?

You seem to be set on school A, but I'd go for school B. Really important to have a community around you and for your child to go to school with her neighbours.

People round here sell a kidney to get their kids into the nearest school.

My school run is 2 mins. Would HATE to have to drive. Wouldn't much like having to rely on others either.