It will depend very much on what your catchment school is - there is much less scope for a 'choice' in C/Ford than there was a few years back. Several years ago when we applied for our oldest dc (now Yr 6), you could pretty much choose any infant/primary school in C/Ford and get a place - they were pretty undersubscribed (we went for an out of catchment school, albeit walkable from where we lived, and got in, no problem). Now however, there are a lot more families with young children moving into the area, and the birth rate is increasing, such that you are much less likely to get into a school unless you're in the catchment.
I suggest you go and look at all the schools and see which one you think would suit eg. Hiltingbury has a 3 class intake, so a much bigger school than CF Infants. St Francis is a primary, as is Knightwood, so slightly different set up. C/Ford links to Merdon, and Hiltingbury Infants links to H'Bury juniors, but attendance at one does not guarantee a place at the next. There were 4 or 5 children at H'Bury Infants this year who did not get a place at H'Bury juniors because they were out of catchment and some distance from the school.
To be honest, there's probably not a lot to choose between them - I feel we are pretty spoiled for choice in C/Ford - they all have strong points and generally all get good results. I'm not aware of any in particular that is better for boys, so probably better for you to visit and see which would suit your dc best.
May also be a good idea to think about secondary school as well, depending on where you will live. There are 2 secondaries in C/Ford, one of which - Thornden - is outstanding, and you can pretty much forget getting a place there unless you're in catchment. Hiltingbury sends most of its children there (the catchment for Thornden covers that for H'Bury) but part of Valley Park is catchment for Toynbee secondary, so a lot of children from St Francis attend this school at secondary level.