Primary Schools (private & non) close to Darlington & Northallerton

[kmini]

Long shot, however anyone familiar with primary schools in this region. We are moving mid year and trying to decide whether to start our DS (only two) at a nursery that's a feeder to a private school (Yarm, Cundall, Aysgarth) or stick with a village school and ideally save for private school in latter years. Any views or experiences most welcome.

It is a massive region with house prices that vary immensely. You need to be more specific. Where will you be working? What county do you want to live in (N Yorks, Darlington, Stockton, Durham?)

You imply that you want a village? Which ones are you looking at?

So we will living between Yarm and Northallerton. Close to Great Smeaton if that's familiar to you? Location already fixed. Work, is really unknown at this stage for me, as the location change will make my London career to an end. In that respect, a drive of 15-20 mins one way seems reasonable commute to a school. This effectively rules out schools like Aysgarth and Cundall but any opinions on any schools in the region are welcome.

Great smeaton primary is lovely

Great smeaton primary is lovely

Thank you Stealth . What do you like about it? Community, parents, teachers. Academically what is it like?

Sorry just realised how little your ds is, smeaton doesn't have a nursery I don't think.
I have pmed you anyway.

Very few north yorkshire primary schools have a nursery. The villages have playgroups/pre schools.

You need to think what you want. If you want to be part of the village scene then local pre school and village school is the way to go. Lots of the village schools are small and some only have 2 classes - generally the community sense of belonging is very strong. All the villages are a mix of rural working locals and incomers. You are an incomer for at least 35 years!

If you want private then look at the bus routes and it will indicate if there are other children who go there.

The best private school nursery must be queen marys as it is very good but not good long term for a boy as they can only attend in early years as it is a girls school.

Aysgarth is a long way to go - especially winter.

In that respect, a drive of 15-20 mins one way seems reasonable commute to a school. You know that with the tractor factor that isn't a long way?

Academically you can't compare the schools easily as the cohort sizes means that they don't publish their KS2 results. What other schools are you considering?