Primary schools - deciding factors

[Kelwa]

Hi everyone.
We're having trouble deciding on the order of schools in our application :(
Our current first choice is the furthest away of all of the schools we've viewed and I'm worried about missing the catchment area this year (although we were well within for previous years - it is a fairly new school). However our current second choice is the closest to us. Should proximity actually be a deciding factor in our application? Is it better to be closer to your primary school for friends, ease etc. Should we actually switch our choices around?
Thanks

Reading the admissions criteria carefully is good advice.
Based on your own post you made an assumption about how the admissions criteria were applied. I didn't realise it was so offensive to suggest you checked you hadn't made other assumptions - plenty of people do. And plenty of people also visit schools they have only a highly aspirational chance of getting into. As you said yourself, you have no idea how the "last distance place" will vary from year to year.

shouldwestayorshouldwego thank you, you've made some good points. I will definitely do my trial run and think about our choices again.

It isn't always the schools you think would be tricky either. One would seem to be a problem but generally fine as although in a busy area, few people actually drive to the school, most people go for other reasons and there is a fair amount of parking but busy and people can't park there for long so there is a high turnover, which means there is generally a space. The other school I only drive to because of dc's condition making walking difficult. It is hideous and you can be stuck for 15 mins going nowhere in traffic jam on a quiet residential street which during the day would look like a far better place to park. If you can face doing a morning run that is the worst time as you are more pressured as you have more children to get out of the house. Although in the afternoon parents will arrive up to half an hour early to park. No idea why they don't get there slightly later and park further away and then walk - other of course when there is a need to be near the school.

Another factor you might consider is if you go back to work which school will be closer to potential employers because there isn't usually much time between drop off and a job starting at 9am.

Seriously though don't overthink the traffic - go for a trial run at school run time on a weekday (avoid Fridays as it tends to be quieter so you'd get a false impression of it) and see how tolerable it's going to be for you and also how are you going to cope if there's a day the car's got to be in the garage or similar (we know we can manage with DH having a flexible work day if we need to in these kind of circumstances and as an absolute desperation measure we know there's a viable bus route).

Honestly though you do just adjust - we know we have to leave the house when X programme comes on Cbeebies on a morning - and that will buy us enough time to get there comfortably on a day the traffic's bad (ours can be very unpredictable - if there's a problem on the motorway our entire local area gridlocks with people avoiding it) or on a day the traffic's light the kids just spend a bit of time playing on the playground with their friends.

The times it annoys me slightly are PTA events where I can't drink (a whole new can of worms but we do sell alcohol at PTA events and boy oh boy a glass or so of wine would numb the pain of the KS1 Christmas disco somewhat) because I need to drive, and because I do PTA and am a school governor I tend to be in and out of school a lot more than the average parent so can tend to feel like I'm in the car constantly some days.

To be honest though when I was walking to the more local school doing that at younger sibling speed took up about as much of my day as doing the current school run does in the car!

HexagonalBattenburg thank you for sharing your experience of it all. I think we are definitely becoming more set on the idea of putting the more distant school as our first choice. It just feels more 'right' so I'm sure we would be able to work our way around the journey.

I'm glad you mentioned Fridays being more quiet as that was actually the day I was planning on doing the trial run! I'll have to pick another :)

I think the C of E component of school 1 may be minimised by some posters too. From the C of E schools I know (and its quite a lot) there is far more than a daily act of worship. The letters home are full of religious thoughts and how they teach the children to think about God and the teachings of the Bible. Some of this might depend on the Head but C of E schools have education officers from the Diocese and they oversee this and have a big input into the curriculum. I think the further school would meet your needs better and you would feel more comfortable there if school 1 is a bit zealous.

OP I was thinking about this thread today. We are listing a further away school because we prefer it. It's a 13 minute drive away rather than a 5 minute drive away. DD is at the preschool of the school that is 5 minutes away but I quickly learnt that in order to get a parking space in this very residential area I had to get there 30 minutes early! So I'm leaving the house at the same time now, and then sitting it out in the car with a moaning DD and crying newborn, as I would be leaving the house at the further away school. Hope that helps you feel less alone with your decision making!

It's a tough and important decision. Please don't use results as any indicator. The government and the inspectorate know that the system is deeply flawed and misguided. The pastoral care and progress are far more important. How you feel about the school is most important. Over the years, I've had so many new pupils from other schools because they weren't happy. You want to feel welcomed and valued as individuals. If your child is valued, they will be happy, safe and ready to learn.
Good luck!
@blueberrybytes