Walk time to primary vs outside space once there?

[Thisoneorthatone]

Advice needed please - it feels ridiculous to be asking for advice on something that should be so easy but it's driving me crazy.

School A: 15 minutes walk to school and uninspiring tarmac-ed outside playground space. Good Ofsted (EY is Outstanding). 3 form entry and it feels big (we're in London) and a bit "sink-or-swim".

School B: 23 minutes walk to school (possibly even a bit longer if an underpass is flooded) but school is a Forest school with a lovely grassy field. Requires Improvement Ofsted but good recent Sats results & will probably improve fast. 3 form entry but undersubscribed so currently smaller & feels more nurturing.

The distance is important because we don't have a car and won't get one anytime soon; I just have no idea how much walk is too much walk and I appreciate 23 minutes could potentially turn into 45 minutes with three small children. We have 3 children (4, 2 and 0) so a good few years of primary to come.

Both walks are reasonably nice, walk A feels even shorter than it is.

We have a place in school A but school B is undersubscribed & admissions assures us we could switch without fuss. I appreciate we're very lucky to have the choice!

Thank you for reading. Any experiences / advice would be greatly appreciated.

We had a choice of a smaller, good school 0.5miles with hardly any outside space Vs a larger RI school 1mile away- went for the further one (for many reasons) but certainly one that cant imagine them not running off energy at break time. We will walk, but already walk 0.75 miles to nursery school so not a massive change. I'd go B for sure.

If you only had one child, the walk isn't so much of an issue as you could build up to cycling or at least you being able to cycle back but imo that's a long way for younger siblings to have to twice a day as a return journey if you are happy with the closer school. As others have said, they don't necessarily spent all that much time on the lovely grassy fields (too messy in winter, not enough shade in summer ..........) anyway.

I would stick with school A. If you at any point you decide it isn't working out it sounds like you would have a good chance of transferring, but less likely B->A.

tbh I would be asking both schools how they teach reading (hope for a pure phonics approach) and results of y1 phonics tests. I would as A how they ensure the kids get enough exercise. I would be asking both how they deal with high achievers and strugglers.

Open space and forest school is a lovely add on if the teaching is solid, but won't imo overcome poor teaching.

(We stuck with RI primary for DD2 because of her specific needs. But there is no doubt that when a new HT came in when she was in y4 and made it 'good' how much better the education became).

School B does have a new head since being RI and I'm sure it will change at next inspection, it's being well overseen and honestly has a lovely feel to it.

There aren't any linked secondaries to worry about; we may move by then which would possibly be away from School A and in the direction of School B but that's too vague a plan to factor in and would probably have to involve a car anyway.

I think the consensus is A, which I know to be the sensible decision. I hadn't properly considered clubs; one of the other things I really like about School B is the range of exciting looking (often free and active) clubs but I'm not sure where we'd go or what we'd do on a dark wet Winter day while we waited for one DC to finish an after school club.

Thank you all so much for replying, it's been really helpful to hear actual experiences and reasons (and to get just enough mixed responses to reassure me we're not crazy for finding it a hard choice!).

It depends on your family lifestyle. If you're at home / on mat leave I'd go for school A and take them to the park after school. There's plenty of time in the summer.
If you work (as I do) and the kids will be in after-school club and a longer day then I'd choose school B cause it will be a better environment to be in all day long.

I can walk to school in 20 mins but with DC it takes 30. It's incredibly miserable in the rain and I really miss the 7 minute walk although the school is incredible. It's a trade off for sure.

With outdoor space remember that if it rains they often don't go out at all. I'm a big believe in gut instinct over OFSTEAD though and I sent my kids to a school with a lesser OFSTEAD because I loved the environment.

Forest School, so much more than 'muddy shoes'. More about learning characteristics, perseverance, risk taking, resilience, having a go. SO important in helping children to learn to learn.

Although you can do all that at Scouts of course.

I can walk to our school in 5 minutes....the reality is with the double buggy it takes up to 30 minutes for me to walk a 4 year old home...
DC wants to chatter with friends, stop and jump in puddles, pick a flower, walk on the edge of a curb, find a woodlouse, etc etc etc

I would go with the shorter walk. It is miserable trying to get them home in the rain when they are tired (and they are very tired in the first term especially!)

and yes, one soggy field is just not worth it.

Also consider if your 2 yr old will attend nursery school now at the same place - doing the school run 3 times a day adds a completely new dimension...(I do the walk 3 times per day....in the rain its hellish!)

You have to try this walk at child speed for a couple of days!

If it's 23 mins child speed that sounds fine, 45 mins child speed might tire them out quite a bit if they tend to get tired?