DS will be starting school in September, so we were looking at schools this autumn. We visited 5 state schools. They were incredibly different.
One school wants to be seen as a pushy school. They have strict behaviour management systems, and give homework from year 1. They are proud of high achievements in SATS. They say that if you are wanting your child to just coast along, this is not your school. They want parents to be involved, incl. financially. (They also say they base their policies on the latest research, however somehow they seem to have missed the research that says that homework for young children is not effective, and that reward systems can be detrimental to intrinsic motivation.)
The reception class we visited, was very noisy and chaotic. It would be impossible to hold a conversation in the din, let alone focus or concentrate on anything. The children were playing inside and outside, mostly by themselves, with ride on toys, sand&water, lego, drawing, etc. It also featured a couple of children who were just sitting there, staring into space, and five minutes later they were still at the same place, still staring into space, and no-one was attempting to include them or get them to try out some of the many toys/activities.
In year one, the children spend most of their time sitting at desks, doing formal 'learning'.
Another school we saw, was completely different. They are not pushy as such, but differentiate carefully and teach each child at the level they are at. They get excellent results. No homework, no behaviour management system (if behaviour turns into a problem, they find individual solutions with the children and parents involved). Their reception AND year one classes have lots of self-directed play time. How they do it: Their school days start with 15 minutes (reception) or 25 minutes (year one) of teacher led activity (e.g. introducing a letter/sound). Then the teacher goes to work with a group of six pupils, and the TA with another group of six, for about 20 minutes/30 minutes respectively. The other 18 kids do 'self-directed play': They have a board with pictures of all activities on offer, with hooks under the pictures. The children go to the board and hang their name tag onto an activity, then go and do that activity. Each activity has an 'end' so is not just 'aimless' but rather the child knows what they are attempting and can see their own progress. When done with an activity, the children go and put their name on another hook. This continues until it is their turn for the teacher/TA group.
The reception and year 1 classes we saw were calm, quiet, with the children very busy and active but concentrating and ordered. No shouting. They were playing (inside and out) and yet it was quiet enough for those who were 'learning' to hear their teacher's voice.
This IMO comes very close to Montessori education. Lots of structure and discipline lets children thrive, at the same time most of the day is self-directed playing.
The other three schools we saw were at various points on the scale between these two.
I'd suggest you really need to visit the schools around you. The differences in how schools 'deliver the curriculum' are enormous.
Then you need to start weighing up your preferences with things like distances and costs...