Comparing primary schools in Wales

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Hi does anyone have any advice on comparing/choosing a primary school in Wales? We live in a village with a church primary school and was all set to apply to send ds there from 2014 - it was highly recommended by local mums, lots of competition for places, so to be honest hadn't really looked at school reports etc. Possibly a bit naive I suppose. We are now seriously considering moving to another village a few miles away and a bit further from the city. My main concern is making sure there is a good school for ds to go to. There is a school in the new village so have been trying to find some info. Estyn report from a few years ago was average - good, and the national numeracy / literacy results (I think these are the Welsh equivalent of sats??) from last year were 90%+ achieving level 5+ (?).

So sounds good but can't find the same info on the school we were originally thinking of. Because it's a church school it's not catchment based so we could (assuming we were offered a place) still send ds there - would mean a few miles drive to drop him off. And we already know several children hoping to go there too. But part of me thinks it would be better to go the new local school so he can make local friends etc. The Estyn report from the church school was similar but done at a different time, so one is several years old and one is recent - how can I compare them??? And no "sats" results on line - would the school tell me if I asked?

Sorry for such a long post but any advice gratefully received!

mylocalschool.wales.gov.uk/ has end of key stage data (and lots of other info)

That's just the info I was looking for - thank you!!

No problem, it's a really useful site with a wealth of info. I'm amazed it wasnt publicised more when it was launched earlier this year.

The date that is important is September 2010, as this was when the current Estyn inspection regime was bought in. There have been minor modifications every year since but the difference between pre September 2010 and post is stark in terms of how the inspection is carried out and what is inspected. All schools in Wales are inspected on a 6 year cycle, so you might be able to gauge when the next inspections are likely to be.
The inspection post September 2010 will have a grade with the majority of schools being good. This is in my opinion a weakness of the inspection regime as a good "good" school is significantly better than a poor "good" school, but it would not necessarily be easy to differentiate in the written report between the two. The top grade is excellent which means that as well as having many strengths the school has significant examples of sector-leading practice.
I would visit both schools and go with your gut feeling having seen the school and talked to staff as to which is right for your children. Being highly recommended by local mums is not necessarily the best way forward as it sometimes takes a long time, especially in village communities, for the penny to drop that what they think is a good school is not actually the inspection team's idea of a good school, in fact it could easily be an unsatisfactory school.

Have just had a look and it's so helpful! Didn't come out in any searches I did on school performance etc on google though! After a brief look seems as though school in new village has had better results than our current local school! Very interesting and not what I was expecting given the rave reviews of our local school!!

Thanks admission - we must have cross posted. The inspection reports are very confusing I think.

As I write some parts of the reports, as I am part of the Estyn inspection team, I would hope that the reports are able to be read and anybody can make sense of them. However I am also sane enough to realise that what we might think is perfectly readable is actually not to many very readable at all. Unfortunately there is a set format to how things have to be reported and I can understand how it can seem confusing.
If you want me to look at the two inspection reports and tell you what I think, then PM me the names of the schools and the LA.