Which school - village or town?

[AshEL]

Hi everyone,

we recently moved to a town with a school walking distance from our house. The school is a great school, its DEIS so receives funding from the state, it’s quite large but classroom sizes are managed well as far as I know. The only thing that worries me is we don’t live in the nicest of areas, where we are is fine & quiet but a lot of areas of the town can be quite troublesome and there would be a large mix of these kids in the school.

second school is a village school 11 minutes drive from our house, small school with some mixed classes. Looks like a great school, great parents association that has a lot of things going on for the kids, teachers seem nice and it’s the village where my LO currently attends Creche so she would be with her friends. Only thing that worries me is the 11 minute drive over and back twice a day (If not more) and my LO potentially not being in the clique from this area as we don’t live there.

please help!!!

I’d never want to drive a school run so I’d go town. The problem with small schools is that limited kids can mean that if there’s bullying or issues there’s no other kids to be friends with. It’s good to learn about mixing with others from different backgrounds which you’ll get in bigger school

The village school. 11 minutes is nothing and sounds more nurturing.

Small schools seem great in infants, but can become limiting in older years, especially with mixed year classes.

Driving commutes can also become stressful (speaking from experience, a road closure for roadworks turned what should have been 10 minutes each way into a 90 minute round trip sometimes!)

Local school. An 11 minute school run will turn into an hour round trip at each end of the day

EDIT: also the town school has no Afterschool facilities so I would be depending on family each week to collect my LO and not let me down whereas the village school does have Afterschool facilities available. I know I can depend on my family it pile be just times where they are away/working I may struggle

The one with after school care would win for me. Your family might be able to help now but can you guarantee this every time you need it for the next 7 years?

The village school wins hands down - after school care, smaller classes, teachers know all the children, tend to be livelier PSAs, teachers can ensure no bullying as they are dealing with smaller numbers.

11 minutes is peanuts.

Surely the most important piece of information in your decision making is the after school club wrap around care?

You can't rely on family to collect your child every week so the lack of wrap around care immediately eliminates the town school and makes the decision for you.

There is no contest. You require wrap around care and one school doesn’t provide any. I have absolutely no idea how schools get away with not providing wrap around care. I would choose the village school

Look very carefully at the village school. We had one but achievement was very poor and children needed remedial help when moving to middle school. It closed due to falling numbers as people in the village voted with their feet.

Can you be confident of getting a place in the village school? An 11-minute drive implies it’s some distance away and being at the crèche is unlikely to give you priority. Admissions information on the LEA website should tell you the distance at which the last place was awarded last year.

Thanks everyone!
yes the Afterschool is definitely a concern but my partners dad is retired (he would have to drive 25/30 mins to collect her) and my mam only works 2/3 days a week. I only work 2 days so would only be relying on them 2 days per week but yes it is a worry for down the road. There are Afterschool facilities in the town, it’s just they are all completely full at the moment. A space could pop up next year or the year after but for right now, they are full.
didn’t think this decision would be so hard!

PanelChair

yes she has been accepted into both school thankfully!

100% the closest one.

There are Afterschool facilities in the town, it’s just they are all completely full at the moment. A space could pop up next year or the year after but for right now, they are full.

If there is actually an after-school club and it's just full at present then I'd chose the closest bigger school.

Budgets are being cut left right and centre the fact the smaller school has an after-school club but it isn't actually being used enough and therefore has some space would concern me more as it means it's much more likely to close because it's an easy place to trim the fat from when the school needs to find more money.

DS went to a village school 20 minutes' drive away because he had started at the preschool when we lived there. It was on both our commutes to work and he went to either the after school club or a childminder in the village after school so not an issue with the school run but it was hard work helping DS maintain friendships outside of the school day.

I also found that once he went up to middle school he and his village friends seemed more 'sheltered'. In hindsight I would have wanted him to grow up with children from more diverse backgrounds.

Another friend's DD was at the same village school and suffered terribly because there were so few children in her year and the few friends she had had left for different reasons. She moved to another school for the final year and was so much happier.

That said, I would have hated having to rely on family members for child care. It was always something we avoided as much as possible when DS was little because it can get complicated.

It comes down to the quality of the schools. I am COG at an excellent village school where parents are fighting to get their children in. But there are village schools (particularly those clinging to the edges of a MAT) that are not good.

It is worth remembering that education is more than SATs, more than academics, especially at this early stage where they need nurturing environments that help them to learn to get on with each other, to be considerate, to gain in self confidence, to have their imaginations nurtured ........

@MuffinToSeeHere
Budgets are being cut left right and centre the fact the smaller school has an after-school club but it isn't actually being used enough and therefore has some space would concern me more as it means it's much more likely to close because it's an easy place to trim the fat from when the school needs to find more money

where you’re right about budgets after school clubs are often run entirely separately and commercially so nothing do to with school funding

OP I would choose the closer, larger school in your circumstances even if no place available for after school immediately. There will be childminders picking up from bigger schools. But have a look round both.

I had a similar choice although both in walking distance, we went with the larger school as we didn't get to look round due to lockdown and ended up moving our son after reception (the size was really detrimental, loads of facilities but barely used as so many classes, lots of "issues" within the class which meant teacher barely knew my son when I asked at parents evening, just not "right" for us.)

I really value being able to walk to school though so that would be a big consideration in making the decision in your position but that aside I'd go village school every time (on the provision it isnt too small to hinder friendship pools etc.)

Purely due to funding, the biggest school.

I would say that the most important is the choice for secondary school. When it comes to primary with the exception of some very very bad schools I would go for the closest choice. This is because you have to walk/drive them for years in the morning and it can be a challenge if the school is far