Help choosing a primary school? Local? Outstanding?

[toobreathless]

Would love your opinions please, we are very torn.

We live very rurally in a fairly deprived area with NO oversubscribed schools. We have a local village school which is 'good' and seems to add a lot of value. It has a nice atmosphere, good resources & is a sweet little place, but nothing inspirational IYSWIM?

There are a couple of smaller village schools of which we have visited two, nice enough but not as nice as our local school so ruled them out.

Then the nearest town, 9 miles, terrible roads. Has 2 primaries one good one outstanding both under subscribed. We have looked round our nearest, the outstanding, it is AMAZING.

It also has a really good record of getting children into the Grammar on the same site which is taking top 30% ish.

But... I always saw my children going to the local school, which is a lovely little school.

I have checked admissions and sib links means that baring an increase in population AND also a change in policy our younger children would get priority.

Any views?

Go local unless you really don't like it (and sounds like it is lovely).
9 miles each way is a lot to commit to IMO. So much nicer to walk to school.

Thank you mummy1973 the distance is the major negative alongside the fact that our local school needs pupils or in the long term local schools will close.

Your post reminded me that I have never done the drive to the town in rush hour so might do that to see how long it takes.

Yes good idea to do the school run actally in Sept when they start back. What is parking there like? It can be a nightmare to park near our school (we try to walk as a result) and you may need to leave even more time. What was it the outstanding had the local didn't?

I would def go for the local one as long as it's not awful.

It's not something I had placed that highly but my DS got a place at a school that is 7 mins walk away from us. I am really looking forward to be able to walk him when I don't have to rush off to work and there are 5 kids in his class who live really close to us as well.

9 miles on bad roads is a big commitment 2x a day if you have a good option more locally.

I would go good local over 9 miles away outstanding any day. The value of school friends living nearby is huge. My SIL did a 10 mile each way commute with her daughter for a few years (following a move) and she said having friends to play was a real pain to organise.

Think about the 9 miles in really bad weather. Unless you were thinking of moving I'd go for the local one.

Having school friends on your doorstep is lovely and you'll also probably make more friends too.

Which one suits your dc best?

If closer I would go for the amazing one, but 9 miles is a long way (we walk 1/2 mile ) and its fab to have all friends local

mummy1973 yes thank you for tactfully pointing that out! Otherwise I would hand been doing my trial school run in the middle of the school holidays

[spanky] not sure to be honest. Both are fairly small schools. The outstanding one is a bit more intense feeling and dynamic, more new ideas etc. I would describe our children as delightfully average at present, no SNs, not obviously exceptional at anything, no behavioural issues, not unduly shy. Easy going, eldest makes friends very easily. I think they would be ok at either.

Taking every reply on board, thank you.

Good local over 9 mile away outstanding definitely. If only a couple of miles or local was worse then might be different. Having said that we live 3 mins walk from DCs' school and it is great to be so close - so easy to pop home if anything forgotten, no moaning from DCs (or me) if have to go back an hour after getting home due to one being at a club after school. Know parents who hang around outside school for an hour in that situation as not worth going home. Then there's the fact that unlikely to have school friends living nearby.

So no contest in my opinion unless you actively disliked the local school which it doesn't sound like you did.

I would go local as when your children want friends over to play or are a little older and want to play with their friends out after school you will only end up being a taxi service and other families might not let their child come to yours after school because of the distance or if they can't pick them up etc - Local allows them to have local friends too.

Excellent point re clubs! I have boy and girl and they often do different clubs which requires us going back after an hour. Also op don't know if you work or plan to but might be easier if nearer to find a childminder near home if ever needed or even a friend/neighbour who can pick your child up if you are ill or something. I've had to call on neighbours and friends many times unexpectedly over the last 6 years. If school was a long way away it would be so much harder.

Go to the local "good school" the advantages of the short commute are simply day to day, (and on a cold and wet dark winter day especially so) - outweigh a nine miles away "outstanding"

This is heart felt advice; as a child I went to a primary school ten miles away, it was a rural setting and not in England, my children could walk to their primary, in London, in five minutes. So much better.

Another vote for local. I too found myself being schlepped to and from school every day and hated it, when all my friends could play at each others' houses after school. My daughters can nip round to their primary friends (one is now about to start Y9, the other has just left primary) and it's lovely.

What will happen when your younger DC go to pre-school? Will they go to one attached to DC1'S school meaning you are having to do an 18 mile round trip at 9am, noon & 3pm? That would be incredibly frustrating as you will scarcely get home before setting off again. Or will they go to a local one meaning you magically have to be in two places at once presuming both the school & the pre-school start around 9am?

I would go local. There may not be that much difference anyway between the good and the outstanding schools (have you checked to see when the inspections were done? An 'outstanding' a couple of years ago may not be relevant now!), and with the local one you would have the bonus of having your child involved more in the local community, no stress of terrible roads at busy periods, etc.

One option would be to choose the good local school, and to use the time you would have spent commuting to the outstanding school to help DC with his/her homework, or let him/her have music lessons, etc. That extra activity could easily make up the difference between the quality of the schools!

It's interesting - this thread could have quite easily gone the other way! I've seen posts saying 'oh, there's no problem, you just take a packed breakfast and a packed tea' or - to my mind the saddest of all - a suggestion that on a wet Sunday kids could get together and play a Wii game over the phone.

Local is nice. And it also means you know lots of people in your locality, which IMO is a distinct plus. I really like knowing the fact that if I walk down our local streets, I'll see people I recognise. And now my kids have both left primary, I still have local friends too.

as long as the school is fairly good and deals with any behavioural issues arising then you can make up the difference between that school and the outstanding one. the amount of work you will be asked to do with your dc will amaze you. if you can do it, they will fly. that makes the biggest difference.

We were in this position 4 years ago. After much soul searching we went local and have never regretted it.

In OFSTED terms our 'good' school now 'requires improvement' and the 'outstanding' school is now classed as failing (can't remember the proper term). Puzzlingly, they both seem as good as ever and certainly my boys are flying academically and thriving. I don't worry so much about OFSTED these days!

Yes the gradings are only till the next inspection. It is impossible to know what is happening behind the scenes. dd's good with aspects of outstanding school was special measures within a term. This becomes a tendency to move kids around if it isn't your nearest/ catchment school.

Local every time for me. Then at least if things go wrong you have a vested interest in it being sorted out.

and the sm hasn't affected dd either! She had an excellent teacher last year, which tbh I think is the most important thing.

If your local feeds into the same secondary schools as the 'outstanding' then absolutely go local. We made a similar decision lately and chose the long distance school over the local for two reasons, our parish is linked to the long distance school where our older boy went, so we know everyone there and also, our local, lovely school around the corner feeds into one very lame, oversubscribed monster of a secondary school...no thanks. We would have definitely gone local had the school fed into various good secondaries. Trust me, it flies by and you want to get to know your secondary schools. Good luck.

Go local, save the money you save on fuel over the next several years and pay for a bit of tutoring to get your DC into the grammars if you decide that is what you would like for secondary.

I lived a 5-10 minute walk from my school most of my school career and I loved it. Lots of my friends had to take buses etc and some trains for miles and all of them would have preferred to be closer.

Local school, an 18 mile round trip is ridiculous. Also intense doesn't seem a positive to me.