I don't want to leave my lovely house, but our local school is awful, what to do what to do

[sherby]

I can't believe I have to apply for DDs school place this year (she is only 2.6 sob sob).

We really don't want to move houses but the local school at the end of our road is awful awful awful.

I read the ofsted and it was ok but not great by any means so I thought I would go and look around. They had a christmas fayre so fab chance to see inside the school and that was really not good, dark and gloomy crappy old furniturehardly any work up on the walls, no school field. I know it's not the schools fault if they have bad resources though so I start catching the bus to town at the same time as playtime as the bus stop is right outside the playground and that just sealed the deal. I saw a horrible bullying incident that was not dealt with at all well by the playground assistant and just seemed indicitive of the schools attitude.

The problem that we have is that they don't have enough applicants for places so it is very likely that even if we apply for other schools in the are DD will get given a place here as it really is just at the end of our road.

What to do what to do? Put up with it or move or start reading up on sneaky ways to get into other schools?

Any ideas anyone

We're in the same position, and we are moving (to Edinburgh, mainly because we know and love Edinburgh, but the school situation is a significant factor).

IMO the academic side of things doesn;t matter so much until children are 8 or 9, but I would be concerned about their emotional welfare.

Move.

Go and look at other school, and get an idea form the head if you stand a chance of gettin in. You could be pleasently suprised to find you can get into a lovely school on the other side of town. This happened to us.

Depends on the alternate school, if that is undersubscribed you shouldn't have a problem, but I guess that's unlikely, is there a local private school? Moving is very expensive, and houses near a better school are going to be more expensive, god sometimes our country is crap..

Information is everything.

Whether you move house, try to get her into a different primary or just want to investigate further your local primary (I agree both things you mentioned would be off-putting to an outsider's pov but in themselves wouldn't necessarily mean it was a bad school) you need have a firm idea of what schools you do want.

As a starting point have a look at www.dcsf.gov.uk/performancetables/ and particularly have a look at the level 5 columns for maths, English and science.

You can also type in your postcode/or any postcode of a prospective area to upmystreet.co.uk/ and then click on schools and then primary schools to get an idea of how they compare.

But also have a talk with other mums & and go to the open mornings and get a tour around the school.

The other school nearest to us is really oversubscribed 107 apps for 30 places I am guessing they are taking the overflow of people not wanting to go our local school.

I have found this website to be really useful the map is really good

I spoke to one mum who's children go to the local school. She was quite pissed off when I mentioned that we wanted DD to go to the other school and said that she thought the school was fine, the reason it is undersubscribed is because of the bad rep and because the secondary next to it is in special measures.

I would start researching. DD1 goes to a school which is undersubscribed, has a mediocre Ofsted report and an iffy reputation. BUT when we looked around, we felt entirely comfortable with it, the children were happy and confident and we felt sure it was the right place for her. You are getting a very different gut reaction and I think you need to take it seriously. Especially if you think behavioural problems are not being dealt with well. DD1's class has one or two interesting characters in it, but their behaviour is managed very skillfully and does not appear to affect the rest of the class unduly.

If I were you, I'd go and visit one or two other local schools, as well as making an appointment to go and visit the local one again, so that you have something to compare it against. Find out where you might have a realistic chance of getting in, or whether you really do need to contemplate moving.

Depending on where you live and if you can drive and are prepared to drive you may have more options than you first think. Depends where you live though.

I'm researching schools at present as I am moving in the summer with a 5 year old. If I was prepared to drive a few miles out of the town and into the country, there are several small schools in various directions which are in such small villages that they have a few places not filled. I'm not prepared to drive because would have the option of private which is closer but if I didn't, I would consider it for the sake of a small, villagey school. It depends on which county you live in. I imagine there are parts of the country where even the very rural, small village schools are full and oversubscribed. It's worth looking and ringing around.

this mapsite is good - you can put your address in then keep zooming out and moving the cursor to see what other schools are in the vicinity

Start now and visit other schools. If you like them, ask if they are oversubscribed or if you stand a reasonable chance of getting in. If you don't like the answers then move (however much you like your house)there is nothing as important than the school IMO.The academic side does matter in the infants, it sets up the whole attitude to learning.I wasn't sure from the OP if you had only been for the Christmas Fayre. If that is the case go on a working day, see every class and ask questions. Ask to see their anti-bullying policy-they have to have one.

We are in a similar position to you except our DD has started at the local school. I am finding that because I wasn't very impresssed the couple of times we visited the school and the ofsted was absolutely appauling I am finding fault it a lot of things and don't trust the school at all. Needless to say we will be moving DD at the start of year 1. If you are wanting to stay where you are of course you could look at other local school however it sounds like you only have 1 DD - what if you have more children? they may not get in (although I guess that a risk you may be prepared to take). Secondly you may be in a position to look at private schools, depending on how much it will cost you to move you may find you can cover the fees!

Apply elsewhere. I don't think you'll get ordered there if you don't put it as any of your choices. And you don't have to be sneaky to get into other schools, sometimes you just have to apply and you get in.

Apply to the school you want. To my knowledge all schools leave a few places vacant in case of successful appeals. Just keep appealing until you succeed. My colleague got all three of her children into schools out of area on appeals. Do your research on the schools and use the appeal process.

I shouldn't rely on the appeals process, it doesn't work in my area if the school is over subscribed! Be warned that if you manage to get first child into a school outside your area you are no longer automatically given a place for subsequent children, the way that you used to be.

Spawnchorus

Which Edinburgh schools are you interested in? I am just begining my research and would be interested to know your opinions, if you don't mind.

Avoid appeals. You can't say why you don't want to go to a particular school, you have to give reasons for your school of choice which can be difficult as your catchment school may be offering the same thing.

Don't assume that getting into an oversubscribed school is the end of your worries though. ds1's school is oversubscribed - but as a result the classes are big and the funding doesn't live up to it - they have one half-time TA shared between two classes of 30 in Y1. So his teacher heard him read ONCE last half term, and they've not taught him any maths because "when we introduce something he already knows it". We're doing work at home with him and paying for external tuition for him so he does actually learn something

We were in same situation, but we have ended up commuting 14 miles each way to ensure ds attends the right school. Seems a small sacrifice to make for us. we also pass 5 schools on route to his, it is not a problem, all schools take out of catchment now.

HTH.

Mairseydotes - I've only just started looking at schools, so can;t give you much info I'm afraid. I'm also currently living in the South East of England so haven't acually visited any schools. However, in terms of area I'll start by looking at schools in the Morningside/Bruntsfield area. There are (I think) some good Catholic schools in the Leith area (but we're not Catholic). I've also heard that there's a bilingual Gaelic/English school in Tollcross (a MNer called Harrisey talks about it here) which I'm interested in....although my DCs are only a quarter Scot, and I've never learnt Gaelic myself