choosing a school - help

[hotandbothered]

Our application needs to be in this week and we are torn between two schools. i'd love some unbiased opinions please!
School 1 is a smallish c of e primary four miles away (neighbouring village). Dds three best friends are going there. It has a lovely feel,good results, real 'life' about it, and the Christian ethos we hoped for our dd.
School 2 is an infants one mile away. We don't seem to know anyone going there. It isn't so warm and friendly going round it, but well thought of, good activities etc, good results.
We'd definitely go for school 1 if it was our local, but I'm concerned we wont truly fit into the school community, not being local.
Anyone been in this situation? Any ideas? I think she'd get into either :-)

always go for the way it feels IME - the first one feels warmer and friendlier then i would go for that one.

I'm sure there are plenty of families from outside the village there as well!

Thanks Tommy. I agree really but dh went to his village school, thinks dd should do the same. Also he is worried about me driving each day. I've had ME and some days haven't felt like driving anywhere - he's worried I'll get ill again I think. Can understand but dd would love to go to school with some familiar faces and I'd quite like to see some in the playground too! (smile)

Don't understand why I can't get a smiley emoticon!

Go with the one that feels right.
You need the square brackets for your smile.

Square brackets.

Do you have an equal chance of getting into each? If so presumably then other people are driving to the further school, so I wouldn't worry about fitting into the school community as such.

Go with your gut instinct - which one feels the best.

DD goes to a school 3 miles away. She still has play dates at least 2-3 times a week. Just the parents do the driving to collect from houses, rather than from school.

Oh of course, square brackets - never noticed them before!
I think both schools are good choices - if we didn't have to decide and were just given one then we'd be happy with either tbh. I'm just a stereotypical libran who can see both sides, but not the obvious one!
Family are fairly pushy - got to choose the one with best results etc - but I know they can be manipulated and good results doesn't necessarily = happy children.

That's reassuring hulababy.

Ahh and the other side of Hula's tale, my ds goes to a school less than a mile away and has never been on a playdate.

hot, would you have to change schools after infants? That would put me off, like starting over again. Go with your heart, not your head.

yes fox. It'd be a move to juniors which is even closer to where we live but is MASSIVE. People seem to like it tho' and again they churn out above average results.

bump!

Anyone got any wonderful ideas to make the decision easier???!

I would go for the one that 'feels' the best. My ds started school inAugust at a school that doesn't have the best reputation or grades but the staff work extremely hard and school is very welcoming with loads of afterschool activities. It just has a great 'feel' to it.

I think it's very important to like the head. And like on a personal level, rather than thinking, "Oh well, the school gets good results and has a good Ofsted, so the head must be good". Try to imagine a situation three years down the line where you need to have a discussion about something they won't particularly like (your child finds the work too easy, say, or you feel a particular teacher is treating your child unfairly), and see if you can imagine coming away from the meeting feeling that your concerns are taken seriously and will be acted upon.

Agree with Frogs. Also, I made the mistake of not going to open days because I was convinced that as the local school was the most popular, it would be fine. I've now discovered a few problems and have a poor opinion of the head! Hearsay is'nt always accurate.

We went entirely on gut feeling and what felt best and right at the time.