Need some advice

[PollyPerkins87]

Hello

We are waiting to hear about primary school allocations - due to be announced on 19th April.

We put down a two form intake down as our first choice. It is our catchment school and literally a few minutes walk away. It is rated Ofsted Good.

Our second choice is a 1 form Catholic primary, who have the best performance results out of all of the schools in our area.

We went for the 2 form as felt it had more to offer in terms of specialist teachers and extra curricular clubs etc.

However, neither of us are very keen about the feeder secondary. We have talked about the possibility of moving to a private school around Y4/5, but this is very much dependent on how well the company my husband is MD for is doing at the time.

So, here is where I need some advice. The Catholic school is likely to be undersubscribed. DD is also Baptised Catholic. If private school is not going to be an option, should I decline our 1st choice, go with our 2nd choice (Catholic)? The feeder secondary for the Catholic school is in the top 10% of state schools in the country, but it is 1 hour away?

We have talked about tutors etc, but some perspective / advice would be helpful.

Thanks :)

An hour is a really long travel time, and a lot can change in the interim (performance, admissions rules, your daughter too).

You’ve got 7 years of primary, pick the one you actually think will be best for your daughter as these years are so formative.

Stick. You might move her to private, you might move area altogether, the schools may change, etc. You might also decide that an hour's commute is not worth it.

You might want to check out the likelihood of her getting into the Catholic secondary - look at their admission criteria and how far down them they usually get. Which primary they are at may come quite low down the list of admissions criteria, in which case it may make little difference. Support of her priest may matter more (do you actually attend, or is she just baptised?). The criteria vary, so you need to check out what they are for this particular school.

What RachelSq said.

When you say feeder, is it an actual, named feeder school system? Or just a ‘they tend to go from Primary A to Secondary X’? It is worth making sure what the criteria actually say.

But also, it’s a long time from Reception to Year 5 when you’ll apply for secondary. Things can change. The schools could have closed or changed entirely, new ones could have opened.

I would not travel an hour for any school. That’s a LONG journey plus school traffic will probably make it even longer.. your kid will be knackered doing that 5 days a week..

I did a 30 minute nursery commute for 6 months (house move, local nurseries full). It was horrendous. I’ve never been more glad to see the back of anything!

I travelled about an hour each way to secondary school. It was actually fine, I used to do my homework on it so once I got home I had very little to do, and also tended to travel with friends for at least part of the trip so it was social time too. However, how would your DC get there - if it's you driving them then it really isn't worth that much of your time.

Having said that, I'd echo posters above. It's 7 years of primary school away, it is very nice having a primary school you can walk to where they can make local friends. An awful lot can happen between now and 7 years, I would make the right decision for now not one for a future that may never arrive.

I would be a bit raised eyebrows at a one form entry RC school with amazing results that was undersubscribed, unless it was situated between two motorways and next to a council waste tip!!!!

Why aren’t people choosing it? There must be a reason.