Primary results comparison please help

[FreshCop]

I'm comparing three schools for 2023 reception admission.

I'm going to share the Locrating results of some stats here.

Now the closest school is the one with the worst results (bottom 24%). I've put it down to avoid getting into a bad school 3 miles away) and have been told that this is the best strategy to take and that we can then go on waiting lists for the desired schools.

The first school, which is in the top 24%, feeds into some really great top selective schools, and a fab grammar, whereas my second choice is in the bottom 44%, however the children's progress from their starting points has been really impressive. In the top 3% of the country.

Although the vast majority don’t seem to move onto the grammar or selective school I’d prefer. Which for the city we live is pretty critical.

Anyway, what I'm trying to say is, could someone with more knowledge than me provide some feedback?

I still have time to ensure I make the right choice here.

Another one along to say you have to visit each school and talk to the head to get a feel as to whether it will be right for your child. Statistics only paint some of the picture.

All schools follow the national curriculum. There’s no academic type primary schools. There’s great teaching and parental support but no school can afford to ignore the NC. They are inspected on it. All schools are required to teach the NC but how they do that can be different. What everyone wants to see is progress. Obviously some Dc find learning easier than others. Some schools do set a bit more homework and some try way to hard leading up to sats but in general I’ve never seen an academic primary. Even private schools have fun learning!

www.locrating.com

A school that moves children on from a lower starting base is a school where they are tracking individual progress, looking at their own data and using it to inform their teaching. They are probably also making their curriculum engaging and providing lots of enrichment activities. I have found that schools like this are also often pretty good at dealing with children whose learning falls outside expected parameters.

Some schools have what looks like good end results, but this is because their intake starts from a higher level, so kids come in on the point of reading, have parents who pay for things like music teaching, tutors and external enrichment so the children are engaged with education and learning and understand what it is they have to do. Unfortunately schools like this can get very complacent, especially if they have not had a change of senior management for some time. They are not always very good at dealing with children who challenge expectations.

Check how long it is since an Ofsted inspection, it is still possible for an apparently high achieving school to not have been inspected for a good many years, and for some it is a shock when they do.

But as others have said, the best thing to do is trust your instinct, schools are living breathing, dynamic places, not figures on a spread sheet. So visit and make up your own mind.