How long would you travel for an outstanding primary school?

[Quijanotango]

Thinking about where to send my little one...primaries next to our home are very satisfactory. We have visited them and they are not an option. They are also oversubscribed since population in our borough is increasing by the hour.
We are catholic but the nearest catholic school is well out of our catchment area.Not an option either.
There is an outstanding catholic school close to my work where we could get a place based on the last 10 years stats. We attend church and this would put us in a stronger position than people living closer but no catholic. there is no sibling policy either. The problem is that it is a 45 min drive from home. Little one would have to travel with us leaving home around 7.45am and I'm feeling guilty already...Dropping off and picking up would not be a problem.
Moving is not an option. We love our house and we are in the catchment area from a very good secondary school.
Private not an option.
By the way, my husband and I are both in education and fully understand ofsted reports and school results.
What would you do? I'm losing sleep over this...Any opinions would be highly appreciated.

We are in a very similar situation and we have decided to put the outstanding school as our first choice. They only get one chance at getting a good education. I am going to enrol DD in Rainbows in our village to ensure she makes some local friends and I am going to be prepared to have to make more of an effort for playdates etc as the social side of not going to the village school is what worries me most.

Oh and our outstanding school is enroute to my work but it is still accessible for us if I changed jobs etc so maybe you need to consider that issue too

Thanks reddaisy. Enrolling her on a local club such as ballet sounds like a great idea to keep the links with the local area! We have thought about the possibility of changing jobs, but both my husband a I work near to the school and chances of both changing jobs in the near future are slim. The school is still accessible in case we did. Are you worried about deserted birthday parties because your child's school friends can't be bothered to travel to you home? I know, it sounds pathetic...

You need to look at the current admissions. At the Catholic shools round here, they're often filled with Catholics, so you wouldn't get a place anyway as you would miss out on distance. Sometimes they give priority to people in a particular parish too (and not necessarily the one the school's in too )

7.45am is not an issue, DD has to leave the house at 7.30 since she is 11 month and it was never an issue. Yes, she is sometimes grumpy but she is not a morning person generally.

But: how do you travel? What happens if roads are blocked, trains delayed or cancelled? What happens if one of you is sick? Are you both going the same way or does one of you then has to do a detour?

If you go by public transport, rush hour is mean on adults, I wouldn't want my DD to travel on it daily.

What do you plan to do regarding holiday and inset days? Will you be able to get childcare near your work or home?

Thanks DeWe. In this case, the school has never been filled with practising Catholics before ( at least in the last 10 years). Admission number is quite high (60) and no siblings policy. There are a couple of outstanding non faith schools in the area hence not applicants 'faking' being Catholics. No priority is given to a particular parish. We've spent A LOT of time looking into these little details.

I'll be honest, I'd not want a young child travelling 1.5 hours every day. I guess if you work nearby you've considered this, but would the journey be actually longer at school run times? My niece travels a similar distance to her school - and her parents admit she finds it tiring - also makes for a long day. However I presume if you DC did go to a more local school she would spend more time in after school club/some other childcare?

What is the journey like? Is it heavy traffic all the way, so you need to have your wits about you, or could you reasonably spend time chatting to DC on the way and when they are older maybe practising tables etc?

You also need to consider that you might need to got to school at other times - e.g. parents evenings, school plays etc, so that's additional round trips to factor in. How important are things like friends coming round? To be brutally honest, if I was the parent of a child that made friends with your DD, I doubt I would be prepared to travel so far to get to your house for a "play date".

Noramum, very clever questions! I'm a teacher hence get long holidays, and we employ a live in au pair. No problem if DD is ill and has to stay at home.
You are right about public transport in the mornings...the plan would be: mum, dad, little ne and au pair travel together by car. 3 days a week, dad, DD and aupair get dropped off at tube station. They travel in different directions, with a 6 min trip to school for little one. Same on the way back with mum collecting them from tube station a around 3.30 pm. Home by 3.50pm I could drop Dd at school and avoid the tube trip BUT it'd be too early since school does not open until 8.45 am and I'd drop then around 8.15 am
The other 2 days, dad drops mum off at work, little one at school and au pair collects her. After school activity until 5 pm and then we all travel home together.we have been doing this for the last 3 months since nursery is close to work too.
If traffic is jammed, then we are all late!

We used to travel about 20 mins (good day) 35 mins (average day) to DSs nursery which was where DH worked. We managed....but it was a pain and very expensive on petrol.

Now they both walk about 3 minutes to local school and it is so much better. I think we are really lucky. It is a London school and so most children live close and playdates are easy, and you are always bumping into friends on the common.

Only you can decide, but in my mind the local school is probably the better option. RedSky makes a good point about the other activities - popping back to school in the evening would be a major issue - an hour an a half in the car/ day, turns into 3 hours!

There should be a catholic school which covers children from your local parish. My DC's school admits children from about 3 different parishes as there often isn't a school for each parish. The children that live a distance away have transport provided so travel in and out on a school bus if their parents are unable to take them and they live further away than a set distance. So even if your nearest catholic school appears to be out of your catchment area you may still be eligible. Have you investigated the different schools transport options? If you phone the schools directly they will probably be able to give you more info. Good luck.

Outstanding school is close to work, no added expenses in petrol or trouble attending evening events. It's just about the travelling time and the distance regarding play dates.

Thanks ringing. We have investigated all the options. Nearest catholic school is 1.5 miles away and is filled by practising catholics and siblings that live no further than 0.5 miles (data from the last 10 years)

We chose to drive about 15 minutes down quite country roads to a vilage primary. It's a great school (poor Ofsted at the time we chose, went on gut instinct and it now has an outstanding and is oversubscribed) I don't really regret it, but as others have said, the distance is a pain - and it's much less than you're considering. Friends are mostly a drive away, arranging for friends to come to tea is complicated. They inevitably want to do things like Brownies in the village because all their friends from school are, so we end up driving back there in the evening. There are children on our street they don't know because they all go to different schools (though, to be fair, none of them the local one.) Even though the school is so lovely, it makes me sad sometimes.

It is such a tough decision. The school that we are planning to apply to takes around half of pupils from out of catchment so I am hoping that everyone will be prepared to make a bit more effort for playdates. And re. birthday parties I would probably hold them near to the school at a softplay for eg to make it easy for parents and then maybe meet halfway to swap children for playdates when your DC makes particular friends. It is unlikely that we will get into the outstanding school so I am letting fate decide as our village school (which has been rated inadequate) is our second choice.

It may work differently where you are, but if your nearest catholic primary is full, then the other catholic primary (is this the one by your work?) may still be able to provide transport. This way your DC could stay at home with the au-pair and possibly not have such a lengthy journey in and out with you each day, even if you are going in roughly the same direction. If it is a bus service then you'll find that all the kids on the school bus will get to know each other very quickly.

I know it's not what you want to hear but I travelled a long way to school as did my dh and we both feel it compromised our childhoods. I think it's influenced many important choices we've made since (we are obsessed with walking and cycling to work and have always lived in very urban, unresidential areas as consequence). I used to sit on the bus to school working out how many weeks/months/years of my life had been wasted on that bloody journey. And that was secondary. I personally cannot imagine what any state primary could offer over another state primary that would be worth it. You both work in education so you're well aware of the importance of home influences at this age. Imagine what fulfilling and enriching activities your children could do with all that time saved - an hour and a half a day, seven and a half hours a week, over a hundred hours a term...

Honestly, don't do it. No school is worth this sort of journey. Who will your dd play with in the holidays? It's easy to say "Oh, she'll make friends at Brownies" and she might. It's far more likely that the brownies who go to the local school will stick together. What about when she gets older, and has rehearsals or sports practice after school? What about parents evenings? What about having friends home to tea/going home with a friend? She'll never be able to have any sort of spontaneous social life. What about when she wants to walk to school by herself?

Think of what it will be like for a 9/10 year old.

This thread is now really making me think. The school we are thinking of is only six miles away but it would still mean that she wouldn't be mixing with all the village children.

I wouldn't. We moved from an outstanding primary to a good one (when we moved cities) and the dc were fine, then we moved another couple of miles 6 months later and the local school was a satisfactory, but the journey to the good one was tedious. So we swapped again. The dc were totally happy in the crummy little satisfactory school (and now the satisfactory school has got an ofsted rating, just to show how things change). and we had a sweet 5 min walk to school rather than a hellish traffic-clogged hassle. And they had lots of local friends. I am so glad we didn't go by ofsted results.

I mean, the school that was "satisfactory" is now ofsted rated "outstanding". But we wouldn't have guessed that when we switched to it.

I have found, after bitter experience that Ofsted does not mean much, at all.

What is really important is not Ofsted, but

• the HT, what is he or she like, do you agree with their view on education? this is an important question
• how does the school feel, is it a happy place?
• how close is it, and will DC local friends be going.

Ofsted I would ignore unless it is a code red or whatever it is called.

I think you know the answer to your question deep down, do what YOU feel is best.

We asked this ourselves when dd1 started primary, as we wanted her to go to a welsh speaking school which was 40 mins away with a very good reputation. We finally decided on the local primary a 5 minute walk away, mainly because we considered the chunk of day travelling unfair on dd, especially if you get stuck in traffic.
It would stress me out, travelling by car, then tube, then walk into school, let alone a small child. I think it's an unreasonable ask of them, and that's not including if you all get caught in traffic etc.

I agree with Farewelltoarms- hours and hours per year spent travelling is a waste of hours that could be spent doing your child enjoys and is enriching for them.

I wouldn't do it my 2 both went to the village school judged satisfactory but have done really well academically. More importantly they're really happy and have lots of local friends. Travelling that far sounds a nightmare.

I decided against applying to the 'outstanding' school a few miles away in favour of the more local 'good' village school that we can walk to. DD's school has edged up a notch with Ofsted and the parents at the 'outstanding' school are concerned that the standards will change there when the Head retires...Schools can change and Ofsted doesn't cover everything, although it's a good place to start.
I can see the advantage in some ways of a school near work, it's something I considered with nurseries but not schools. I work quite a long distance from where I live and it has made for a few anxious journeys home on occasion.
I'm fairly pleased with DD's school - but am aware of some issues behind the scenes so to speak that I'm not impressed by, but DD is happy and settled there and is doing well, but has friends both locally from her school and also who live nearby but go to other schools.
The social side of young childrens lives seems to be enhanced by proximity - i.e. not having to be driven about all the time by your parents. The children DD mixes with outside of school are the ones who live nearest to us.
My older DSC's both went to an excellent selective school but have endured 7 years of slogging commute to do so which they have not enjoyed!

I wouldn't if I had a choice. We are applying out of catchment for DS but it's not our ideal, it's the only way we can manage school, work and drop-off though. Ironically, if he went to the nearest school he would have to start and end the day in wraparound care, which I don't want for him at 4 years old.

We hope to move house in the very near future to the village where DS's school is. Our county operates a three tier system and even at lower school they have a social life. DS is at the preschool on the same site and doesn't get invited to birthday parties or to friends' houses to play because we're not local. It's a shame for him.

Also, most importantly, with DS already going to the preschool, and having gone to the village toddler group before that, he will make each transition with children he already knows, which will be much easier for him.