Applying for a place in reception.

[mint123]

Hi,

I'd really appreciate some advice on how to chose the right school. Few months ago we moved to a new area and the schools around here aren't that great( regarding to ofsted). My daughter is in year 2 and we are pleased with her school,the only problem is,it's a bit too far (about 2miles away). My twin boys got a nursery place at the school just behind our house and they've also got a place at my daughter's school. Now I can't decide wether it's worth to travel to the school which is in traffic around 30-35 min away or go for the one next to our house. The school further away is rated as good by ofsted and most of their student reach level 4 at the end of year 6. The school near to our house isn't doing so great,only 60% of the children reach level 4. They seem to have some behaviour issues as well.
So the school that is further away achieves 30% higher result at the end of year 6. Does that in real life effect the child's education.

Many thanks for any input.

I'd say travel the two miles. Behaviour issues alone are red flags for me. 40% failing to reach level 4 is pretty dire to be honest. That's 40% of 11 year olds only achieving what a reasonably able 7 year old would achieve.

Whether it will affect your child no-one can know. You might have super-bright kids who will block out the disruption and sit quietly in a corner teaching themselves whilst the teacher deals with Billy throwing chairs round the classroom. Or you might have kids that will suffer from the lack of teaching and themselves fail to reach Level 4. Or you might not be that bothered about academics.

If the 60% was a one-off that's another thing of course - 4 or 5 kids with SEN can skew the stats, but poor OFSTED, consistently poor results and poor behaviour would not be the school I would choose tbh.

Thank you so much for your advice. Unfortunately it's not a one time thing with the school. Their achievement is about the same each year. They received "require improvement" from ofsted for few years constantly.

I'd carry on travelling for that kind of difference tbh.

I work with schools and wouldn't put a massive significance or worry about a 10-15% difference. Scores can vary between year groups especially in small schools and also some schools spend a lot of time teaching to the SATS at the detrement of the rest if the curriculum. But that is a big difference and only 60% consistently at L4 is poor. Together with the behaviour issues etc means I would put up with the journey.