2008 Reception entry - how do you choose a school? <wails>

[TigerFeet]

Been to see my first school today - the one we have earmarked as our second choice.

I liked the school, nice atmosphere, well laid out, good reputation etc etc. It is a big school (90 entrants for Reception next year) which has advantages and disadvantages.

So how do I know whether it's right for dd?

At the end of the day, does it really matter that much? DD is fairly gregarious and gets on well with most people (albeit after a slow start) so will probably settle well pretty much anywhere.

Our next visit is to a smaller school, also with a good reputation, and closer to home. This one we have earmarked as our first choice, mainly down to location but partly because the nursery she attends now does a before/after school club for this particular school. There are ways round that though.

At the end of the day, as long as she isn't at one of the, erm, less well talked of schools in the area does it really matter?

Sorry this is a bit disjointed but am struggling with deciding what will be best for dd on the basis of an hour long visit to umpteen schools.

Any thoughts???

you lot are busy today, fallen out of active convos already!

Please, anyone?

I would always go for local school for lots of reasons, unless there was a massive reason not to (cannot think what that would be but maybe endemic racism or bullying - v unlikely ime).

Why local? - friends are local, logistically easier, no driving, playdates and clubs to hand etc etc.

TBH I have never been in a primary I wouldn't happily send my children to in the town I live in and have been in lots. At the end of the day I don't think it's about finding the perfect school for one child - what about yr other children, who may have different temperaments too?

I think the choice that some of us have is a double-edged sword, brining needless dilemmas like this.

I take your point about locality, although we live in a small market town that has about 7 schools within 10 mins drive so none of them would be a complete nightmare in that respect

I would be more than happy if she was allocated a place at one of 5 out of the 7 - hence my problem - I have to choose 3 for the form!

We had the same problem with lots of good schools in commuting distance.

Go and visit the schools in a short space of time, write down good/bad points and go back if necessary. You will definitely get a feel about the school that is right for your dd. I wasn't convinced, but the moment we set foot in the school we KNEW - and we drive 10mins, so no local friends but ds is happy and that is all that matters.

em

This will sound a bit organised, but have you looked into which secondary schools the various primaries feed into? We were lucky to have 6 or 7 primaries, all of a similar standard but all with their own personality. We went for a faith school, which is also our closest school. It is also the only local primary that feeds into a well-regarded faith secondary, which was the deal-maker. The other school i liked has an intake of 90, and is a very lively school, lots of drama and sports going on, but would've given us less choice at secondary.

gosh tigerfeet, just seen this.

TBH if we classified 10 mins drive as "local" we would have had about a dozen schools to choose from!

10 mins in the car is maybe 30-40 on foot. By local I mean 10 mins walk really.

In our very nice road, some children go to other schools, eg one to a faith school, one the other nearby school as nearer dad's work, one to a posh private school with hats, one to an enhanced resource school because of SEN.

All good reasons. But what I love is that my kids walk down the road with all the rest of the kids in the street in their red jumpers, to the same school.

They all know each other, we wait for pals, can help out if someone's child is sick and the other needs a walk to school, the kids go and kick a ball in each other's gardens, someone can easily pick up my children and have them for an hour...

If you really go and look at every school you can drive to you'll go mad. One will have a nice head, one excellent SATs, one a lovely new building, one a huge playing field, one fantastic equipment.... you get the idea.

What I would do is find out which school most children in your area go to and if that was on my list of 5 I would pick that one. Personally.

(sorry for long ranty post)