Local or better primary school?

[mama1987]

DS will be starting primary school next year so will be applying at the end of this year. Just after people’s experiences as we are in a bit of a dilemma as to which school to send him to - the good local one or the outstanding one a 10 minute drive away? Looking at catchment trends it seems likely he would be accepted at either, as the outstanding one is bigger school to bigger intake. The local one is a 15 to 20 minute walk away, but one I would most likely drive to anyway as would be driving to work straight after. The outstanding one has a good reputation, have spoken to lots of parents and they speak highly of it. However I do worry about traffic and DS not having local friends, although it’s only 2 miles away (1.2 miles on straight line distance). What are people’s experiences please? Grateful for any advice and things I need to consider!

Wait until Autumn, when hopefully they can have open days. Then judge for yourself which is better. Ofsted doesn't tell the full story (especially if the reports are more than a couple of years old).
But both schools are local really.

When you can go to an open day could take him with you and see which one he feels more comfortable at?

Absolutely planning to look around both once schools allow it.

I chose the 10 min away excellent school. The school run is very stressful tbh but my child is loving it there and I know I made the right decision. It's an inconvenience to me but a huge difference to my child in these early years.

I don't worry about the 'no friends nearby' thing as I am a paranoid parent and probably wouldn't have let him walk the distance it was to our local school alone anyway, not even in Y6.

I had many sleepless nights over it, so I feel your pain! Hopefully when you view the schools the answer will be obvious to you

I chose the 10 min away outstanding school and have never regretted it.

The only issues are a 10 minute journey taking 1/2 hour due to rush hour traffic but it's been worth it.

I also worried about friends but most of theirs ended up living close to us - 2 were in the same street - and the others they just needed a lift to and from play dates.

Thanks everyone for your responses. Hoping things will become clearer once we have looked around. The local one actually doesn’t have after school clubs so that’s something else thrown into the mix.

The less local school becomes more of an issue as the children get older. For school runs, independence, local friends. 7 years is a long time.

Definitely have a look round both. Other important points are secondary feeder school status, sibling following on, school size, amenities (field etc), clubs, trips away etc. In non covid times.

Excellent ofsted doesn't necessarily translate to excellent experience.

"Good" and "outstanding" aren't necessarily totally reliable indicators of which school will be better for your child, particularly if it's a while since the last inspection.
Local has a lot to be said for it, and later on he'll be able to take himself to school. If your work moves to be in the opposite direction to the further school, you might be glad to have chosen the nearer one.

Local school unless overwhelming reason not to. You might be driving to school anyway but it would be preferable not to also drive to every after school event, every play date .... and to have local parents who can occasionally help with the school run in case of emergencies. Plus your child will be able to play out with their friends when they are old enough.

Thanks all. The good school had an ofsted report last year so pretty up to date, but prior to that it required improvement. Do I need to pay attention to previous ofsteds? It seems to go back and forth at every inspection. I’m worrying myself senseless as we have only just moved to this area but feel like we should have moved 2 miles up the road where there are lots of good schools. The immediate area we are in is fine but it merges into a notoriously rough estate which is where most of the schools are, one of which is a Catholic school (we aren’t religious) and one was rated inadequate. Just having major buyers remorse, feeling guilty that I didn’t prioritise my son’s education enough.

How on earth can a 10 minute school run be "very stressful"? . Or preclude friendships out of school?

Have checked with local authority and we would have just missed out on a place last year at the school in the better area based on last distance offered.

When was the last 'outstanding' OFSTED? Good is good. Outstanding doesn't necessarily man a good educational experience for your child.

@GreyhoundG1rl

How on earth can a 10 minute school run be "very stressful"? . Or preclude friendships out of school?

It doesn’t. Some people choose their kids school for their own convenience and nothing more.

I chose the outstanding school further away and I’m absolutely delighted. My daughter is thriving and absolutely loves it.
A lot of the children are scattered around so to speak and there’s a great network of parents.

Check the age of the outstanding report and definitely visit if you can. I had a similar choice to you. I thought my DD would do better in the 'good' local school. The ofsted report for the outstanding school is now over 10 years old so pretty useless for any sort of comparison or telling you anything meaningful about the place.
The good school by contrast was literally last inspected again just before COVID...

My sons school is a 20 minute walk, 15 if he walks a bit quicker, but I say 20 so as not to rush. It's not a problem at all.

We had 3 options, 1 school that is about a 20 minute walk down residential side streets, 1 that is also about a 20 minute walk down a main road, and the other is literally on the next street and about 5-10 minutes away maximum.

We went to all 3 schools with an open mind and chose the best school for him. It was the 1st option listed above. It was by far the best. Before we’d even walked out the gate after the open day we knew that school was more than likely where he would go, because we loved everything about it. But as I say we did go with an open mind to all 3.

(Tbh I say we chose because obviously in a literal sense we did choose. But in terms of how we felt it was never a choice. That school was the only 1 we were happy with. I’m not saying the other 2 are not perfectly good schools, but they weren’t right for our son and we didn’t want him to go to either of them).

Definitely go to the open days, we got a lot out of them.

@GreyhoundG1rl

How on earth can a 10 minute school run be "very stressful"? . Or preclude friendships out of school?

Depends on school. Driving to our local school is infinitely more stressful than walking - you sit in traffic not moving, there is open warfare on acquiring parking spaces and you end up parking a 5-10 minute walk away anyway. Not for the faint hearted!

The issue with friendships out of school is that if a friend lives 2 miles way at age 8/9 when children start playing out, it's unlikely that they will be allowed to go so far on their own, so maintaining friendships out of school is heavily reliant on parents as taxi service. This, of course, can go either way. My own DC (despite having local school friends) also made local friends that went to other schools so played out with them. My DB's children never played out, on the basis that they didn't know the local children and were too shy to get to know them.

We 'chose' the outstanding bigger school, but got the good more local one at allocation. Having said that, both were near enough to walk to.

At the time we chose the outstanding one due to better EYFS room and school facilities overall, slightly better academic results.

Personally I think in the end we dodged a bullet by not getting the outstanding one. The head there has been awful over the past year with COVID/lockdown/opening decisions, to the extent governors had to overrule him at one point. Also at Juniors, classes merge into 2 x 35 children classes, where as at my sons school it's one form of 30 the whole journey through. I think it's easy to focus on the infants provision in particular when you are applying, but before I know it he's already in Year 3 in September.

Our good school is excellent in my opinion. Fantastic head, stable staff, lovely community/family feel. I personally feel it isn't outstanding as they don't focus on all the box ticking necessary to get outstanding rating these days. Academic results have seemed to fluctuate year on year, they generally seem to be much of a muchness at all the schools around here....except one outstanding Catholic school. The other outstanding schools are all in the same ballpark as our school.

We drive past our nearest school to get to the one we chose - about 20 mins each way in a very rural area. Travelling to see friends is a non-issue as people live where they live, and until he's old enough to cycle/drive we'll have to take him everywhere anyway, as there is no public transport here.

The school DS attends is perfect for him, it felt right from the first moment of the very first visit, whereas the more local one was clearly not interested in him or us - we're not special, we just hoped for more friendly and attentive interaction, which we didn't get.

Either school could be right for your DS, as soon as it's allowed, or virtually if not, go and visit and soak up the atmosphere, you'll soon know which one you, and he, will feel more comfortable with.

1.2 miles is nothing, for me it's an absolute no brainier.

Always go for the better school unless the distance or logistics outweigh the benefits. If you're driving anyway, and it's such a close distance, go with the better school.

We drive miles and miles each day for a better school. Only a few times when traffic was awful and it's 1hr+ in the mornings to get there did I begin to wish we hadn't. Parties and play dates etc are not a problem, we just drive further or meet the parents/child in the middle for a child swap.

Wait until you can go and look around.
We choose the 'outstanding' school, my eldest was miserable and hated it, he had very little support and any issues were swept under the carpet.
We moved to a different 'good' school 10 minutes drive aware and was the best decision we ever made he thrived and turned into a different child.
Ofsteds are good in some respect but not everything x

I think I’m right in saying you can put your further away school down as a preference as your nearest school. If you don’t get the further away one, you would get the nearest lame unless it’s full from catchment. You need to look at the history of successful applications for that one too. Would you definitely get in under any circumstances?

Driving a mile or so is not a very big issue. Children go home with other parents of they play after school anyway. You are hardly going to be any distance from other children.

I am not a huge fan of schools to yo-yoing in and out of RI. There is always disruption, more training required and big efforts made to improve teaching. Then those who have done all the good work leave and it sinks down again. I’ve seen this time and time again. Establish if RI was a one off.

If outstanding judgment was old it means nothing. If it has the clubs you want and you like it, do apply.

I meant: as a preference AND your nearest school.

Thanks everybody for your input. As the outstanding school is only just over a mile down the road (on straight line) and it offers wraparound care I think we will most likely put that as first choice. Obviously we will look around both with an open mind and who knows, I may be bowled over by our local school. Two years ago last distance offered at the outstanding school was 2.7 miles so would have easily gotten in, last year we would have just missed out by something like 0.1 miles. It’s hard to call which way it’ll go.