Reception 2021

[Cam2020]

Good morning,

I'm here to get some other perspectives on what makes a good school? The environment or acamedics - or a bit of both?

My daughter is starting school next September and we're currently trying to scope out the local schools (as best we can right now!). We're fortunate in that they all have a least a 'good' ofsted rating and they're all roughly the same distance, so not overly worried about where she gets into, but I'm just wondering what people base their preference on? Does it come down to the ofsted rating or the feel of the place?

My daughter is pretty typical in terms of development; she's making good progress with her language, numbers and letters every day and I'm leaning towards the 'good', more family feel school, rather than the 'outstanding'. We are reasonably intelligent people and prepared to help/bolster at home. I'm more of the opinion that children learn and flourish in a nurturing environment, while DP leans more towards the 'best'.

I also realise that ultimately both points are quite often moot and the get the school the council give you!

For us the choice was about being able to make friends with other local children who would eventually also go to the local secondary schools.

It was satisfactory not good in those days and I wanted a friendly school. We watched the children playing in the playground at lunch and how the staff engaged. Teaching was not so important because we were invested in both our children and they were well rounded.

The environment was absolute priority for me. A child in the right environment will thrive.

We have two schools we could have reasonably got into. One was very academic, very intense and heavy going from day 1. The other was very nurturing, caring, less intense. There is no difference in eventual outcome.

We think we made the wrong choice for DS. He's now in year one, and is not enjoying school because he's bored, to the extent he's not wanting to go some mornings. He's bright but not outside what you'd expect within the range of a typical class - the school has turned out to be bad at differentiation (e.g. they teach whole class phonics and reading rather than splitting into ability groups). It wasn't something I worried about when applying because we thought we could help at home - but actually being bored at school has turned out to be a problem home help does nothing for. Friends with older children say it's a problem further up the school too unfortunately.

There are of course many other things that can make a child unhappy at school that are important too - but if your DD is already learning her letters and numbers it might be worth double checking how many ability groups maths and phonics are split into.

Ofsted reports aren't the be all and end all - go with your gut feeling OP