What did you look for in choosing a primary school?

[Purplebutterfly320]

I’m very interested to know what you looked for when choosing which primary school(s) to apply for please?
Have started reading Ofsted reports and will go to the Open days/evenings in September. But really interested in what made you put a school as your number 1 preference.

Many thanks!

We narrowed ours down to a choice of two, the two others we could have got in to, one was a faith school which I wasn’t keen on and the other had a poor ofstead report.

Of the two choices, both had outstanding ofstead, one didn’t even bother to respond to my enquiries to look round the school. I tried three times and each time got nowhere so they were ruled out.

The final choice, we went to look round, it felt like a happy place, bright rooms and corridors, busy children, lovely displays of all the children’s work in the corridors, they had a little allotment and greenhouse where children went out with the gardener to learn about growing food and could pick tomatoes, squashes etc. They have a good playground and field and do woodland walks every week in their own woodland.

Basically, as we walked round, me and dh were both saying “oh dc1 would love that.” “How good is that, dc1 would love to pick tomatoes” “dc1 would love this”.

She is coming to the end of her first year there and it has been the best choice for her.

I've got it all to do again next year for junior school! Fairly sure where I want them to progress on to though. That's another factor really - infants versus primary. I initially went for a primary (which was shit), but they've thrived much better at the infant school I moved them to - but obviously then you need to be aware of the criteria regarding progressing onto junior school destinations (we've went into it aware we're out of catchment but looking at previous years and the pupil numbers in their cohort we should be OK - or be OK on appeal for KS2 and we do have a tentative plan B).

Basically round here I want to avoid a certain academy chain where the primaries are being run into the ground - but the lead secondary school has fucking private number plates on the sodding school minibus.

Even if you don't work - having a breakfast club available as and when needed has been a godsend for us. One child has strings of medical appointments at the arse end of the city at 9am invariably - so having the ability to drop the other child at breakfast club on the days needed has been brilliant... wasn't something I'd factored in needing initially - but once it's there you do find you tend to use it on occasions.

Another surprisingly big factor in where we moved our kids to after the trust between us and DD1's original school broke down was toilets for Reception. Original choice of school have them right away from the Reception classrooms, down two corridors and around corners. Would not have worked at all for DD2 who has SEN reasons which have made getting her fully continent difficult - school we decided on have toilet areas within every classroom meaning it's not a daunting walk for her and if there are any problems she can get help easily.

The feel of the school, do they make an effort to brighten it up. It will always get a bit shabby before they repaint, but that doesn't matter if they put up colourful posters, artwork etc.

Outdoor area, especially if it's all the way through to yr 6. Sometimes all they have modest size grass area which is taken up by boys playing football. I say boys because even when girls play football for teams they don't often join in.

Before and after school care/clubs. Previous school of the boys had very limited clubs and no general after school care. Clubs are very limited in number and can't usually be used for ad hoc care if needed. Current school has external providers and we use it for as hoc care.

Age if teachers - old school had a head teacher that had been there for years and a lot of the teachers had been there with her for a long time too. They were nice, but it did feel they were coasting a bit. When the new headteacher came in and they were asked to submit new lesson plans to him a couple of them decided to 'retire' as they really didn't want to put that much work into it at that point in their careers.

Does the HT answer your actual question or feed you the party line? You need to know they will listen to you and answer your questions. Always worth asking a question that is slightly unusual to see what happens.

How often they send out a newsletter. Current school sends out a fortnightly newsletter and the back page is a list of dates for the diary, running several months ahead. This allows you to plan. Previous school would let parents know a week or so ahead sometimes about events and get stroppy when parents couldn't help/join in/provide costumes etc.

Proximity to home and as a catchment school we knew we had a good chance of getting in.
Nice area.
Nice atmosphere.
Smaller than other schools round here (1 form entry rather than 2/3) which means that everyone genuinely knows each other and it genuinely feels like one big family.

I read the ofsted but it wasn't a major factor because all the schools round here have a "good" rating.

It is hard though. All the ones I looked at (4?) seemed perfectly ok so location was the one big thing that trumped the one we chose. After applying I did get a bit of a "have we chosen the right school?" Panic because if I'm honest we went for the most practically easiest option.

However he's now coming to the end of reception, he's happy and other than some small niggles we're happy with our decision.

The Daily Mile at our school is amazing, not at all like a prison yard

Gives both my two who struggle to concentrate much needed active time.

For us it was gut feel that after some thought (months!) we realised was down to the school leadership.

The school we chose is furthest from us and instead of a short walk we have to drive. But it's absolutely the right place for DC1.

We surprised ourselves by accepting split classes. They have a fantastic way in R to get the children accustomed to school life. Head teacher was someone we got on with - we knew she would be practical and that we'd have no trouble supporting the school.

What finally decided it getting 1st choice on our list was "I'm not willing to sacrifice DC's education for our convenience".

So yes, the daily drop off & pick up is annoying but it's worth it.

Oh I had such angst over this (and possibly 00s of MN threads

As others said, don't go to see ones you don't have a remote chance of getting into. Side note: use all your preferences, they do not 'have' to give you one on your list, it comes down to distances, have a banker.

Definitely join a tour if you can. I liked to see the lived-in look, one school had such an 'Open Day' vibe, everything cleaned and prepped, that I felt I hadn't really seen it properly. Another one just carried on with their day, which I really liked. Lots of different examples of work on the walls, not just perfect work. Reception classes are very different to what I remember. They're busy and the children move about often, but you can hear the difference in working noise vs making a racket noise.

Go to summer fayres and buy tickets to end of year performances as well.

I was a little bit disappointed with our allocation because I felt the Head kept us very much at arm's length. Now we're through the door I can see how well run the school is- they focus on the children they have, not the ones they might get... I realise now that I was a bit of a nutter about it all

Wrap around care - did the after school club at nursery pick up/drop off there.

If the answer was no, I didn’t apply.

I was fortunate that because of my previous role in outreach education, I had recently been in all of the local schools.

We chose the school in our village and that is where DS has been given a place for September.

It was a mixture of things:

It's in the village so he will have friends very locally.

Him and DH can walk to/from it when it is nice and in the case of snow as our lane gets quite bad.

It's a relatively small, one form entry school with lovely classrooms and fantastic outside space.

The reception teacher is very experienced and he taught reception for a long time.

It is a very friendly school and has a nice feel to it plus they seem to do a lot with the children not just 'desk based' learning.

My ideal was an separate infant school rather than an all through- there are a few of these in our area.

I also wanted a school that was on the bigger side- I think it's better for friendships and opportunities.

I wish I had looked more closely at: the reading scheme, how schools cater for the most and least able. If I could go back I would find out more about these things.

I have read the thread and not a single person has mentioned the progress children make. This is up to date information and trumps any old Ofsted Report and Sats results. It’s key info and every prospective parent should check it out if it’s a combined school.

I totally agree that you shouldn’t just look at YR. That is a very narrow criteria. Looking at what’s on offer for the older children is just as important. I would definitely consider the quality of the Head and also what they talk about in newsletters and to parents. Are they visible and do they know all the children? You need to be able to trust them to improve a school, maintain the ethos or develop the school and be able to recruit great teachers. Without great teachers, you won’t get a great school.

How do you see last years admissions ?