Why did you choose your DC’s primary school?

[Cloud1220]

We’ve just started to look at schools for a reception place next year and I’m interested to know what others have found to be the key deciding factors when you’ve been choosing schools - what really ‘sold’ it to you?

Walkable - being able to leave home 5mins before the bell is a blessing.
Small one-form intake.
Holistic ethos, lots of outdoor space, outdoor classroom, campfire circle.
Friendly warm feeling when visited.

Lots of parking, before/after school care, not CofE, sport 3 times a week from Reception, lots of books in the Reception class room. Playing field and happy year six’s who showed us around

It was the village primary school in the village we live in.

Weekly forest school on site and from reception through to year 6. That was one of many reasons but its biggest draw for me. It's nowhere near my most local school, and it wasn't my first choice because of the distance but I'm very happy with it.

The catchment school around the corner has almost everyone smoking outside it while waiting for the gates to open. That was my biggest reason against it amongst lots of others. Not snobbery at all as my first choice school (which we didn't get) is the most deprived in the area but has an outstanding head teacher and innovative policies and curriculum.

Things I looked at pupil premium percentage, not to write off deprived schools, but so I could see if schools with good academic results were simply coasting, and the schools with very high PP and very high results appealed the most to me. I read all the policies, and I checked their social media feeds, Twitter in particular to see what kind of lessons and activities they did. I also drove past them at pick up times. The better ones had teachers and even school dogs greeting families. I also read their curriculums and found out how much they encouraged family to be involved, and what platforms they used for communication, eg Tapestry or something else was a bonus.

Picked a RC school not only because of the religion but also because of the general feel of the school: forgiveness, strict stance on bullying etc. Also one form entry which was also important. Other schools I looked at where huge whereas this school was much smaller in comparison. Rated outstanding via orated, most oversubscribed in my area. Very lucky to get a place as not our catchment school but due to SEN DD got a place. Very happy even though it's a 3 mile commute each way.

Local, diverse, cofe but not too religious also it felt better then the other schools somehow.

Main factor is 1. Walkable and 2. continuous provision up to end of Year 1. I really don't like the younger years being pressured so much with formal learning, assessments etc and our other local schools stopped continuous provision at end of Reception. My autistic son would have really struggled with a formal learning environment in year 1, now he's in year 2 he's much more ready for it so transition has been good.

There are 3 primaries in our small town, we looked around the two that were in walking distance. The short answer is we went on gut feeling.
The longer answer is that we looked around both schools on the same day. School 1, we were shown around by a harassed-seeming administrator, who walked us up the corridors pointing out each classroom (literally “this is a Y6 classroom, this is a y5/6 classroom, this is Y5…”), heavy focus on tech, didn’t actually see any children/staff. In and out in under ten minutes.
School two were much more approachable when I’d first rung them to arrange it, and were so friendly when we arrived. Met with the head, who then showed us around; she knew and chatted to the children we saw on the way round, the whole atmosphere was different.
We chose school 2. Based on ofsted, we chose the lowest rated school in town, but for us, it was exactly the right choice.
(The fact it had an independent out of school club on-site would have swung the decision if we’d been undecided, practicalities have to be considered too.)

It was the nearest best school in the next village and it starts earlier than the other schools, we can drop off on the way to work and it has an Afterschool and a Montessori attached also. The one in our actual village is only ok but I didn't like the head teacher there AT ALL! So we didn't even apply for it.

We were looking to move to Town X just as DC1 was about to start school. To live very close to DH's work.

Since a child I always resolved to live in walking distance of my DC's primary school.

In Town X, School 1 had decent Ofsted & School 2 had dire Ofsted report. We bought a house near School 1.

Not always as simple as that though. If it's a popular school a placing request won't always be successful.

Sorry - that was supposed to be quoting mandjmo.

Ultimately gut feel, but the practical things were:

2 form entry (I felt the 1 form entry alternative was too small)

Sense of pride being taken in the school, from children involved in showing us round to the amazing displays of work in each classroom.
Head understood things from a working parent perspective (eg no compulsory long settling in period in reception, good breakfast/after school provision).
Better outdoor space

Oh and not near a busy road, due to concern about air pollution

All four primary schools near us were rated Outstanding. So we went by distance. However, my son didn't get in to any of them. All were oversubscribed and we didn't live particularly close to any of them as three were clustered together and one was a religious school. We went private in the end, and chose the one that was non selective, alternative and it was fine.

There were four within walking distance. Disregarded the C of E one and looked at the other three. At the time (2001) we were just changing from 3 to 2 tier and there were rumours some schools would close. I disregarded the undersubscribed one for this reason. One of the others I liked as it had a computer in each class. The other one I liked and it was the one her dad went to. I chose that one just because it was the biggest and therefore probably wouldn't close. In the end none of them closed.

The 'feel' of it when visiting. Would never have chosen it otherwise.

Are your local schools doing visits? Mine are not. One is just putting a video up of the early years area. The other is doing a zoom a and a with the head teacher.

It was walkable and I literally lived on the next Street, which was lucky as I absolutely loved it. Brilliant little community school. Loved the Victorian building, loved the fact the head knew every child by name, loved the combined early years unit (nursery and reception) with open plan and free play concept, that was a great gentle intro to school. Homework policy was sensible, so was uniform.

Then we moved to Germany and you have to go to your catchment one unless you have specific reasons to want to go somewhere else. That school was fine too.

It was a community infant school that was completely non-religious. Also we really liked the headteacher who was very down to earth, and it felt like a very safe space specifically for small children.

For our Junior school it was again down to not being religious, plus the bloody brilliant headteacher.

@RevolvingPivot

Do you get a choice? I thought it went by catchment?

To some extent you get a choice in England, in that you can express preferences on where you would like your child to go (between 3 and 6 preferences depending on area). Schools then rank everyone who express a preference for that school in order of the admission criteria (regardless of whether it was your first or last preference) and the LA allocates you the school you ranked highest that is able to offer you a place. In practice, for some people there is only one school that they will get into due to living too far from others or not being of the required faith (or even 'admissions black holes' where you don't get into any of your nearest schools, despite listing them) whereas for others there is much more of a choice.

Class size and availability of wraparound care were our primary concerns. Followed by wanting a school that fostered a love of learning rather than a focus on academic success.

I'm in Scotland so my children went to their catchment school.

I wanted a certain school for my child although out of catchment(3 miles away)
It is a faith school of which we’re the same faith.
They’re many schools of the same faith closer.
I was persistent, wrote to the la requesting this school and got it, although many told me it would only go on distance, clearly it did not.

Cynically, we had a choice of three lovely schools, but having been a school governor one of the major factors was a new purpose built building that was in good condition. School budgets are so tight they would have to divert funds from kids to building maintenance and repairs, or run the building down. It is also a brilliant school that has fantastic teachers, luckily!