Primary preferences decision help please

[IceAge]

Hello,
Trying to decide how to order our 2nd and 3rd primary school preferences. We already have a 1st. Sorry this post got a bit long, I was going to keep it short, however, I kept adding more information I thought might be helpful to explain things.

We are looking for some help in deciding between schools A, D and F. One needs to be 2nd preference and the other 3rd. Having difficulty deciding between them as they all have their pros and cons. Looking really for some general opinion on what other would choose and how they would order them and why.

Priorities
-Full primary (have younger DC will be useful to have them in same school)
-Non religious/not a faith or faith based school
-Walking distance
-Non-mixed year groups (although can compromise on this).

School A
Our catchment. That close we can see it down the hill from the garden.
We liked the teachers and the atmosphere but it didn’t fit our criteria.
Pros
-10 minute walk
-When considered alongside the juniors, it’s (they are) one of the better schools in town results wise
-Children from the estate to the right and behind us usually attend this school so local friends
Cons
-Have to cross very busy A road which is a main bypass and main arterial link for this part of the county and there is no crossing!
-It’s a VC CE school
-It’s an infants school (but it does work well with its associated juniors)
-Mixed year classes with PAN of 45.

School B - 1st preference
This is our first preference school. It’s a full primary, no religion, within walking distance and 2 classes for the year group which are not mixed with other year groups. It’s feels a bit big compared to other schools but has the advantage of meaning more friends to choose from and means there is a lot more going on in school. It’s organised in a way where it doesn't feel as big as it is. Plus, we don’t have to cross that road. Children from the estate to the other side of us usually attend this one so local friends not a problem. We loved the school when we went, we were made to feel welcome and included, we like the caring atmosphere, the teachers, the values and it just stood out to us despite not being the best on paper.

School C - ruled out
Huge Catholic infants with a PAN of 120 which doesn’t cooperate with the juniors and we have to cross that road.
We have ruled this one out.

School D
We liked this school because it was a caring school and we were welcomed warmly, it’s a non religious full primary just about in walking distance.
Pros
-20/25 minute walk
-Smaller class sizes of around 20-25 of mon-mixed year groups because it only has a PAN of 25 and most years doesn’t fill it.
-Has a forest school (something I never even considered but like the idea of)
-Lots going on
Cons
-We have to cross that road!
-Will be right on the edge of the children who go there but will get a place so local friends will be a bit thin on the ground.
-On horrid wintery wet days we may resort to using the car.

School E - want to avoid
Inadequate full primary which has had 3 heads in as many years and has changed academy sponsors twice in 5 years. Parents trying their best to get DC out of this school, erm, no thanks. We are trying to avoid this one.

School F
I originally ruled this one out because of the awkwardness of getting to it, but, DH convinced me to have a look because he works with people who have DC here and they love it. Anyways, we like this school because it just felt welcoming and lovely. It’s non religious full primary in a village on the edge of town.
Pros
-forest school
-Lots going on
-Don’t have to cross that road (just have to drive on it instead)
-Children from the estate behind us do go here
Cons
-not in walking distance because the way to get there is absolutely awful on foot, its 1.1 miles away but we would have to walk 2. Will have to use the car but it is possible to do walks home
-Theoretically a small school with a PAN of 15 and mixed year classes but in KS2 class sizes get above 30.

What I wanted:

Defo walking distance
Warm and welcoming
I like 2-3 class entries
Green outdoor space
Good+ Ofsted
Lots of local friends going
Learning through play

I wanted

• local, as local as possible, the school on the doorstep
• walking distance
• friendly and inclusive
• hands on learning
• lots of space

If it were me I would be choosing A because it’s close, the better school academically and CE schools aren’t that religious and if the infants gets in with the juniors itll be no hassle. Then I’d be choosing D because it’s the bigger school and can walk there.
From your descriptions and your priorities you need to decide whether you want to compromise on walking distance and go for D and F, or compromise on religion and infants school and go for D and A.
D seems to fill more of your criteria. - Have you considered how much you really want to walk your DC 20/25 minutes each day then walk yourself back? That’s could start to grate after a while and you end up in the car all the time. Are you really that opposed to a religious infants school that you are willing to do that?

How likely are you to get your first preference?
If it’s very likely then don’t worry so much and stay local with the second preference.
If not very likely then choose the school that best fills your criteria (so D), then stay local.

At primary local is much better than being ferried around in the car all the time. They also get to have local friends and be part of their community.

Have you considered where these schools feed into? Which secondary schools the Y6 go to? Just because you go for a non religious school doesn’t mean all the DC won’t go to a CE or catholic or other religious secondary school which will go entirely against what you tried to avoid in the first place.
Consider this, if you don’t want religion now you are unlikely to want it later,
Say you choose D and spend the next 7 years with the hassle of 25 minute walk twice a day and travelling to friends further away, and all the DC go to the catholic (or whatever religion) secondary, where will your DC go? Are you going to send the. Off on their own to a completely different secondary or let them go to the catholic secondary? All that hard work out the window, you may as well have gone with a religious primary school.
If you chose A some of the DC might go to the catholic (or whatever) secondary but others may go to the non religious one and others to a completely different one. Then you have a choice to go down the religion route at secondary or not. At the end of the day you have put less effort in for a better education, it’s VC CE, it won’t be very religious, it’s more of a community school. School B will also have teaching of broadly Christian nature and daily worship. It will make very little difference.

I’d put D second and A third

Every primary school has to do a daily act of collective worship, so I'm not sure I'd factor in the religious or non religious aspect too much.

B, D, A

I would compromise on the region before going to small village school F unless I lived in the village. I have known people who have and they left because the parents were friendly on the surface, but cliquey to the extreme and it impacted their dc when it came to friendships and party invites. Friendship pools can also be too small if there are any problems.

If F is over a mile away with a tiny PAN, would you stand a chance of getting in? Don't waste a choice.

You need to look at the admissions details for 2021 for the schools you’re considering, to see if you’d have got in this year. Things like furthest distance from school, how many got in on church attendance, will impact on whether you’ve got a chance of being offered a place.
I’ve worked in LA schools, academies and church schools. By far the best one I’ve worked in is the church school - and I’m an atheist! So I wouldn’t rule out a church school if you’re not religious.

Quite a few thoughts on the question of size/PAN on a thread I started a few days ago www.mumsnet.com/Talk/education/4434395-Ideal-size-for-a-primary-school

B, A and D from your descriptions.

B first and D second.

Thanks everyone, that seems to have helped rule out F which is a step in the right direction and helped my mind. I don’t think I really wanted to be driving DC to school every day.

So between A and D. They both have the disadvantage of that road but I don’t think we can avoid that so will just have to put up with it.

I’m drawn to A because it’s our catchment school. Its a nice 10 minute walk through the park (once we’ve conquered the road). It’s the better of the two schools academically, it’s the bigger school without being too big, and it is a caring welcoming school which does work well with the juniors, and the school seems to be doing more with the kids in terms of trips and community involvement and going to different places. I got a good feeling when I was there but, there was always a nagging feeling that it wasn’t quite right,
They have less outdoors space than the other schools, it’s just concrete playground.
I’m really put off by the split infants/juniors. I’ve read that transition at 7 can have negative effects on attainment?
Also the religious aspect. It doesn’t select on religion, it uses the LA admissions criteria so we would be quite high up the admissions priority list. It does have the obvious church links and bible quotes around school and they have Christian bible themes if the term which are woven into the curriculum somehow.
Also not so sure about mixed year groups because they will make friends then the next year there will be half a class that is different. That’s a lot of turbulence.

In drawn to D because it’s a full primary and non religious. It’s got a lot of outdoors space, both concrete and grass, they do do forest school and outdoors activities, and it’s a lovely school. The teachers we met were helpful and kind and I got a good feeling from the place. It’s constantly undersubscribed, I think because there are really good outstanding schools the other side of where it is (ones we have no chance of getting into so I didn’t even look), not because it’s a bad school. I like that there are non mixed year group classes but it only has up to 25 kids in a year which is quite small.
However, I’m put off by the walk, that’s going to be a lot of walking and it’s a bit far from the house, I would have to walk DC to see friends, people from nearer to us do use it but it’s very few as they all usually use school A or school B or school C.
Also, it’s not as academically good as school A, although it is completely average for progress and Y6 results.

So really,
A seems to tick none of the boxes, other than close, but seems to provide a better education.
D ticks all the boxes, but is a slightly worse education and a long walk away.

I’d do A then D.

You’re clearly going to be involved parents, commited to your DCs education so they will likely do well wherever. So it may as well be the one that is closest and gives you a good feeling

From someone who had the kids at a superb infant school... make sure the juniors is equally as good (go through local social media groups and search up the school name etc) - we ended up having to move ours after infants as the juniors was an utterly mismanaged train wreck, bullying was rife, behaviour was awful (the kids in one child's year group in particular ARE, my own included, a challenging cohort - but they were running the show and running rings around a struggling teacher).

The religion angle depends on your own views - I was adamant that Catholic schools were totally out of the equation for us because of my own experiences at them, but when the junior school was a disaster, we moved the kids to a tiny CofE school and yes, I don't personally like the religious aspect - but it's the trade off we make and it's pretty low key and not in your face with it.

Basically go with your instinct where you feel the kids will fit - in hindsight the junior school Head never sat at ease with us, and we really should have made the move after infants - whereas the current head we just got a good feeling from from the start, and all the staff we met looking around. Likewise the infants they started out at had the same feeling.

To me it does seem a no brainier to go for A over D as it's closer to you and gets better results. Primary schools are very similar really so to have one closer which, as a bonus, gets better results, seems sensible.