How did you choose your primary school? SATS?

[Humpdayruminations]

We need to pick a primary school for DD next year and are starting to view a few. We live rurally and realistically will have a choice of 3 or 4. 1 of the 3 is usually oversubscribed and has really good KS2 Stats. It would seem the SATS results along with an ofsted outstanding are driving parents to it. Is it simply a given that we should go for this one?

Proximity to your home, friends, indoor and outdoor space, clubs, religious vs non. Hours of operation, teaching staff (keeping in mind experienced staff retire, young energetic ones move). Loads of factors, including parking.

Not necessarily.
I’d look at how recently the school was judged to be outstanding. I know many that haven’t been inspected for upwards of ten years and it’s doubtful they would remain outstanding.
Sats results come fairly low on the list in my opinion. Have a look round. See what’s going on in classes and see how happy children seem. Consider how welcoming they are and whether there is a good variety of activity taking place.

Distance
Size (prefer large schools)
Before and after care

Proximity/where neighbours' children go.

Location, facilities, whether kids and teachers seemed happy, how welcoming the head was, general feel for the place were more important to me than sats. That didn't cross my mind.

Oh yes, before and after school care is very important too. Even if you don't need it right now it's good to have it available for the future. I can send mine 7.30am-6pm for £14 a day if necessary.

I chose mine based on the feel of the place, how well I thought ds1 would settle there, and how easy it was to get to. I definitely did not go for the school that was all 'targets, targets, targets' or the school that had very formal learning in the early years. I also discounted the school that would have probably suited ds2 but was too busy and noisy for ds1, I also discounted the school that I could not walk to. Luckily all 4 local schools are pretty similar on the SATs results but this was not really on my list of considerations.

SATS really really don't matter, apart from to the school themselves.

School had a recent (2016) outstanding. Why wouldn't SATS matter? Surely getting the kids to a good standard by the end of primary effects their start in secondary?

Nope not at all. We are near two school one was a one form over subscribed great Sats outstanding school and the other a 3 form school that had been graded adequate before and had just moved to good.

I moved to our house for the former. I looked round it and I HATED it. I just did not like it at all. I looked round the other and I much much preferred it.

DD is now Year 6 and has loved her time there (and will be going to a selective grammar so it clearly has not stopped her academically). A girl has just moved from the other school due to bullying and DD knows a few of them from extra curricular activities and would not have gelled at all.

DS is also very happy there

So much of this is instinct and looking at what the feel is and what suits your child. Not SATS or ofstd

Lots of people are undoubtedly picking the school because of the Ofsted outstanding and the SATS results. I would take both with a pinch of salt. An "outstanding" school may not have been inspected for years, and might be coasting. It might not be good at catering for children who don't fit a standard mould. or it might genuinely be outstanding. you need to visit, ask pertinent questions, and decide for yourself.

SATS results need to be compared against intake. The school that gets the highest SATS results in our area has an almost entirely middle class intake with highly educated, heavily involved parents, many of whom pay for extra tutoring. It's been said (not altogether jokingly) that the school could let the children play in the mud all day and they would still get great results. You also need to consider if good results mean that Year 6 is essentially turned into an exam factory. Every year on MN there are posts from parents bemoaning that their children are doing nothing in Year 6 apart from maths and English and constant SATS questions. I always wonder how many of these parents picked the school because it had great results.

You need to visit it and get a feel for it. We visited an "outstanding" school that was very uninspiring.
Also for me the size of school was important. My daughter had been at a big nursery and is a big personality so I didn't want her to go to a place with just one intake.
Also be realistic about where you will get in, don't put a first choice you will never get based on distance. I know a few people who did this and then ended up with like their 4th or 5th choice.

@RedskyToNight I suppose what I'm asking is what are those pertinent questions? Neither DH nor I were educated in the UK. Both of us come from very academic families where university is a given. I'm not fussed about after school care. I would like it not to be an exam factory but how on earth do I ask that? Surely they all say no? All the village schools we are choosing from have roughly the same intake of middle class white kids.

Ask how they ensure creativity as well as just learning to pass exams. Ask how they view the arts and sports.

We live in a rural area. I went with closest! I also thought it was best fit for my daughter. The other two were much smaller, and I wanted her to have a big group of friends to choose from/ find someone she connects with. Also I think I knew that she'd need some extra support, and the largest school would be able to provide this. If my son had been eldest I might have chosen differently.

How we chose... From time I was young I always swore that any kids of mine would attend a primary school within walking distance (yes the 1970s school run traffic was already terrible).

We wanted to move to town X. We didn't have a car & didn't want one, too.

2 schools to choose from in town X.

School 1 (juniors): had a terrible Ofsted.
School 2 (infants): had a good Ofsted.
School 3 had a decent Ofsted.
We bought a house near School 3.

ps: 1 yr later School 2 had amazing Ofsted; people stampeded across town to send their kids to School 2; 5 yrs later the parents orchestrated a coup such that HT of School 2 took over School 1.

It’s across the road.
It’s not awful.
It has wrap around care and a holiday club.
Rural, there are no realistic alternatives.

We chose one that promotes emotional resilience

All the village schools we are choosing from have roughly the same intake of middle class white kids

Even with similar looking intakes, the school that "gets great SATs" will attract people who care about great SATs, and of course those are the very same people who will tutor and push for their kids later on to "get great SATs" irrespective of what the school is achieving.

The sort of small differences in schools impact the parents which further shape the school in the different directions.

Proximity (shortest possible walk) and variety of intake are what mattered to me.

If you are very rural you won’t get to walk to school. Or there might be a school in one village serving several villages or several schools that are all small. Rural areas don’t have schools you can walk to. One school if you are lucky. Therefore if parents are taking DC to that school, they are probably driving there.

It’s obviously popular and the Ofsted is fairly recent. You need to know if you will get in though. What’s the admission criteria and how far away did the furthest DC admitted live last year? Your local authority should have this info on their web site.

You might be in catchment for one school but have s realistic chance of getting into all of them. However if you live too far away from the Outstanding one, then you won’t get in.

I think Sats matter for self esteem of the child. No teacher is teaching your child for the good of the school or ensuring your child does well so they get a tick during their performance review. Every teacher I have met has more integrity than that. They genuinely want your child to succeed.

If these are 4-11 schools, I would also look at music, drama and sport. What clubs are there? Are the children engaged with the teachers when you visit? Is there good quality work displayed? Look at their web sites. What is on offer for DC? Trips out? An exciting curriculum? Opportunities for parents to be part of the school community. Regular and informative newsletters from the Head. You can see the schools in action and talk to other parents on open days. Which school feels best for your DC?

I know some DC are coached. These DC are absolutely not all in Outstanding schools! Neither do these schools have a monopoly on interested and engaged parents. They might have the most supported teachers and are usually well run. Is the same Head there from 2016?

In the end, apply to where you will get in. What school meets your DCs needs and where you feel your DC will thrive for the next 7 years - not just in YR.

Do your worst. What would be your concerns with this school? We are in the designated area but not a sibling.

www.bucklandprimaryschool.org.uk

Had a quick glance at the website, and the school looks great, but, as the headteacher's welcome message states, you should arrange to look around, to decide for yourself.

Agree you should look around, but basically this is a small school (the small would put me off, but then I'm not a fan of small schools) with a high achieving able intake (so basically they take in bright able children, probably with supportive parents and get good results). I would be worried about how they would support my child if they turned out to have SEN, need additional support for other reasons, or "only" be of average ability. I would ask these questions on a visit.

Have you also looked here www.compare-school-performance.service.gov.uk/school/140278/buckland-church-of-england-primary-school/primary for more stats?

@RedskyToNight why don't you like small schools? It looks like there's still 30 in a class just split over 2 year groups. Would the composite classes put people off? Girls do less well in their SATS and that's a question I'd want answered.