How important is one's choice of primary school?

[SpawnChorus]

Following on from the long-drive-to-school thread, and La Cod's comments, I'm now curious as to how important it is to choose a good primary school.

The schools round here (primary and secondary) are crap, and we've been agonising over where to move to when DD gets to school age. Are we agonising unneccessarily? Would DD be just as well off at the shitey primary school round the corner (t'would be good news if that was the case).

Whaddya think?

This thread has made me a bit

Yes, primary is important, as Hula says, building blosk of education, also social skills and making friends.

What I'm sad about is the OP's designation of her local schools as "crap" - nice - based according to a later post on the SATs results.

What they don't show is how the pupils behave, how the interact, what kind of social skills they have, what the head and class teachers are like (not really). As others say, they mostly show if it's a middle class school where parents are supportive or if the children come from a less well off background and are less likely to do well (saly this is true). Also yes, if the school teaches to SATS - or if it takes the view (as I do) that other things are much more important.

Please spawnchorus (great name!) go and look round your local school (and any others you may be considering) and talk to other parents, get a feel for lessons, what sort of enviornment there is - is the building in good condition and well resrouced? that sort of thing. To be totally honest, I have been in a lot of primary schools where I live and there hasn't been one I wouldn't, on first impression at least, gladly send my chidlren to if that was where I lived. And that probably includes loads of "crap" ones (in terms of SATs) too. Attending your local school has so many pluses in terms of friends/time/etc etc that it is always worth considering.

Right lecture over

My personal view (which is not mainstream) is that primary schools are more important than secondary schools. This might be jesuitical nonsense, of course, but if children get into disciplined working habits early, making positive and enthusiastic contributions, it makes a significant difference to the rest of their lives.

I think it is important - but not necessarily regarding academic achievement. I think your location makes choosing a school different. We live in a village so ideally I wanted him to go to our village school. Occasionally children are sent to the CofE school in the adjacent village which is also walking distance(but 25 mins instead of less than 5). But generally it is a village school with the village children attending. So unless it was really failing or I was really unhappy with the atmosphere that was where DS was going. If I was in a town with slightly arbitrary catchments etc (one side of the street is in, one is out kind of thing) it would be a different scenario.

As it is DS is in Y1 and thriving. I am really happy with how he is progressing. He has a new teacher who has only been there since Christmas but she is fantastic for DS.

I'm always quite surprised when people talk about choice because we didn't get a choice in our primary school. In fact, no-one we know in London got to choose where their child went to school unless they went to private school!

We liked the head at our nearest school, when the dcs started it was a middling school (SATS wise) but we always loved the way the children were treated and the fact that it was so nurturing (esp given that it was such a large school). Over the years, it has improved and is now very sought after.

I suppose, in a way, it's encouraging to know that some people really do get to choose their state school!

We had a choice of 3 - Catholic, CofE or A N Other

Went for the CofE for the main reason that dd1 had settled in the attached playgroup and my priority is for her to be happy

and I don't want to go to Mass

Well you can put 1,2,3 choices down and see what you get here. I just put down 1 - being the local school which is no distance as the crow flies - maybe 70m - although further to walk. DS's year is full but most of the other years are not due to falling birth numbers, I think 2000-2001 was a high birth year.

Round here very few schools were over subscribed this year. The city had a big drop in numbers for this academic year and it has affected roll for the schools in 2007/8, in state and independent sector.

Last year, DD would have been able to get into our local state school and also the state school a bit further away (as not oversubscribed for a change). And then also the 4 independents in the centre.

I put CofE, Catholic then A N Other

everyone I know got their first choice and they are all ok schools

oh yes, you can put 3 schools down here - but to call them choices would be a bit rich. We always knew we would only get into the local (nearest) school - the next 2 nearest were church schools which we had no chance of getting in and after that was another state primary which would fill its places from those who live nearer.

Everyone knows that if you live within a few streets of X, you'll probably get into X. If you are unlucky enough not to live near a school, you either sit on the waiting lists, hoping and praying a place comes up or get what the council allocates you (which can be miles away!).

I wasn't being sarcastic - I think it's great that people get to choose!

I think that it is like I was saying. It is very different for us living in a village. I would have been mightily unimpressed if DS hadn't got in, but I knew of several children in his year who live further away than us so I thought we were fairly safe. The reception year is much smaller and from what I can gather not nearly as challenging a class. I think DS's teacher will breathe a sigh of relief - this year's class has 23 boys, next year's class only has 24 children altogether.

I think it does matter. But not just academically. Your child needs to learn the basic skills for life - how to get on with others, give and take, following rules when neccessary, being part of a team. Without those secondary school will be a nightmare. A primary should be a nurturing warm environment where the child feels safe and cared for, and has the chance to grow into an individual who can cope with the (relative) rigours of secondary and the disciplines needed there.

Don't pleeease listen only to received wisdom about schools. IME (and beleive me I've had lots of experience of this recently ) schools can change hugely whilst the local reputation stays the same - once a poor school always a poor school, ie 'when I went there they used to shut kids in the coal cellar for picking their noses, so I know it's an awful school'). My mother was in a state recently because she met a mother whose child was starting primary this year in our town - mum mentioned that her grand children go to X school and this mother was horrified! But I know that the school she has chosen is in quite a bad way - by far the worst results in the town - one of the worst in the county. She was presumably going on the reputation that the 2 schools had years ago, and the fact that her school is in a leafy suburb not in the midst of Victorian terraces!. Go to the school, listen to current parents, try to meet some children who are there. Look at the Ofsted website for the report - I know that schools hate them and they don't tell you everything but the ones I've looked at recently tend to give quite a rounded picture, ie not just SATS.

a decent primary school is almost more important than a decent secondary. If children don't learn the basics at primary school, they will flounder at secondary. When DSs were at primary stage and we were moving we went round a number of schools and would have moved into a not so nice house just to get the right school. If you aren't happy with your children's schools it is a miserable experience!

just going to add that my dd is at one of the best local primarys for sats but tbh i dont think it is that great

i think it is good at ofsteds and form filling etc but in many other ways i am very concerned

so sats/local reputation is not everything

go and check it out for yourself