I need to choose a primary school - help!

[WYP2018]

We need to apply for a primary school place for our youngest. I have two older children who will both be in comprehensive next year, so have been through primary school already with both of them. Generally schools are not oversubscribed here, so we should be able to choose our favourite. We have a choice of three:
1- our catchment school. Their children have a wide range of ability, and as I live very close have seen a lot of the kids over the years...pretty badly behaved out of school, lots turn up late in the morning. However the head seems to know every child personally, and they have lots of free sport clubs and a free orchestra/music tuition.

2- the school my other children went to. On average they get the best results at KS2, but the kids enter at higher ability on average than school 1. I know the school and my kids have been happy there, although they don’t have any sport clubs or much in the way of music either. The head has been on secondment for a while now and I’m not thrilled with the deputy head who’s in his place.

3- school just over the border in the next county, that is the furthest away but there will be a free bus. It has the best buildings and gets similar results to school 2. Has lots of paid extra curricular clubs and they teach a small amount of foreign languages which the other two don’t. It has less funding per pupil compared to the others as it is in a different county, but tends to be more affluent families choosing it.

All feed into the same comprehensive. Which would you choose? I don’t think we have a bad choice to make, but that makes it hard to choose!

Local would always get my vote, and I don't think anything you've said is a strong enough reason to prefer either of the other two.

Remember children out of school may well behave differently to children in school!

They all do a bit of foreign language learning – it’s in the curriculum.

I agree with PP that there are benefits to going to the local school, so it’d be a good idea to explore your specific concerns with that school first.

If you’re seeing lots of late arrivals, check the attendance figures. They ought to be available on the school website. The impression you gain from seeing latecomers arriving might be worse than the reality.

In terms of outcomes, how do their KS2 results compare with their starting point, ie how much actual progress is made? They might be doing very well for their pupils, but you should be able to find this out from the school website or from www.compare-school-performance.service.gov.uk/compare-schools

What do you think of their behaviour policy (which should be on the website)? As PP said, the children might be well behaved in school. If you know any parents of children at the school, see if you can get their views on how bad behaviour is managed.

If there’s a reasonably recent Ofsted report, it’ll comment on attendance, progress and behaviour.

At school 1, I would be concerned to see persistent lateness. I can assure you that in every good school, the Head knows the children. They should also be communicating with the parents and carers of late arrivals and the fact that this is persistent would make me think the Head is not as good as they might be. Are they meeting and greeting every morning? In these circumstances I would expect to see them actively engaging with parents.

Your obvious concern is that the Head of your known school is not there at the moment. Deputy Heads rarely run a school as well as a Head who is still the Head! The Head is not there, but it is still their school in the eyes of the Deputy. At best it will be a holding brief and no development will be happening. I would also ask why the school is not developing anyway. It seems to have stood still and the curriculum would not excite me.

Therefore I might go for school 3. If you can leave and get into another school if it does not work out, then you don't have much to lose. Just make sure you can do the school run and do not lose sight of local friendships - if these are important to your DC. If you are prepared to travel for playing then going a bit further away makes little difference. I would evaluate if you actually want the extra activities and are prepared to pay for them. Are you ok with a 4 year old getting the bus?

Thanks all! Very helpful in making me think about what’s most important for us. We are already pretty used to driving around to see friends as our current school has kids from all over, so not too worried about continuing that. In any case we are only talking a 10 minute drive.

I’d be happy to have him at any of the schools, and I wonder if I’m finding it so hard to choose because there’s no truly bad choice! Thanks again for the thoughts.

We are in similar situation, need to move to a junior school next Sept for year 3. Our local high performing, over subscribed (we are in catchment) well established junior school has over 700 children attending. How does the Head know them all?

Have you asked to go and look at the schools? I mean as a 1 to 1 rather than an open day. You get a totally different perspective and can ask as many questions as you need to and see things differently than when your trailing alongside a group of other parents.

How a child behaves out of school isn’t necessarily how they behave in school.

Will you be able to afford the extra curricular activities at school 3? Also, parental income affects results. Higher income means higher results. This may be happening in school 3. It might not be the quality of the teaching. I would also question whether you want to be sending an 4yo on a bus every day. Is the bus provided when they take part in after school activities or do you have to make the journey to pick them up?

Consider the ability of your DC when choosing a school (I know it can change) if they aren’t a high attainer now, will they cope in an environment where everyone else is? If they are a high attainer then ignore this point.

I would pick the school that best fits your gut instinct. The school that fits best with your family life, values, morals, expectations and what is important to you. No school is perfect but you have more influence on your child than the school does. You can teach your child right and wrong and how to behave.