Private primary or local friends

[CornieliusRevival]

Hello! We are starting to think about primary schools for my DD for next September. We could afford private for primary but the two that we like are not very local to us. The other option is the Ofsted outstanding CofE school. We are likely to get a place there as we attend the church next to it.

My DD is an only child. She seems clever (I am biased here), she is sociable and outgoing. I just wonder if, being an only, it would be better for her to go to a local primary so she had local friends or whether the smaller class sizes would be a real benefit. The private schools that we like are very selective so this decision may be made for us but any advice would be great.

It depends on the village as well. Our village has a lovely central green/playground/rec which is close by the school - on any given day there will be at least one family we know out playing. We don’t organise play dates because we can just wander over to the green and see who’s there. Our neighbours’ children (primary age) go to a non local school and they don’t know any of the kids playing there, it’s a real shame.

Our children would probably get a “better” quality of education in a private school but they’d spend 90 mins a day in the car getting there and back, they’d have a far narrower social experience, it would cost us about £25k a year and they’d have far poorer friendships - no matter how good their friends would be, all non school interactions would have to be planned and scheduled, rather than just popping to the park. Not worth it at primary IMO.