How did you choose a primary school for your child

[mumtoone]

I've got to choose which primary schools to apply for my son over the next few months and the decision is not straight forward. What information did you base your decisions on? How much emphasis do you put on third hand information and general rumours about a school?
I've done the obvious things such as looking at the OFSTED website and visiting the local schools. Are there other sources on information out there?

I'm in a urban area with a lot of schools within walking distance and due to falls in population there seems to be spare capacity in quite a few schools so I think there is an element of choice available to me. I may be proven wrong but I've done a little research on what has happened in previous years and this seems to be the case.

yes mumtoone you may well have lots of choice.

As I understand it, this varies, but certainly where we live you would have got a place in most of the schools in the city this year regardless of catchment.

For eg, our well rated middle class area school is taking about 50-odd this year with a possible intake of 80.

It does vary tho - year just finished FS2 was full. Certainly some of those out of catchment tho.
HTH

I looked at the Ofsted reports, then at the schools, then asked around, then back to the Ofsted reports (which I was getting suspicious about) then met a few of the teachers, then decided to go private.