What did your child's primary school of choice have that others didn't?

[Salome61]

Hello, my daughter has a choice of 5 primary schools within reasonable distance of where she lives. All of them got a 'Good' Ofsted report. The nearest is a Catholic school.

How did you choose your child's primary school please? Do you do a comparison of the facilities?

I literally live next door 😂
There was a few things i didn't like about the school (the uniform, no grass to play on) but the convenience of being next door trumped those issues.

Mine was also chosen as the closest to walk to 🙂 I am so grateful to be able to walk to school and not have to drive there every day.

Agree, closest. Them school runs are a lot twice a day and would hate to have to drive

Convenience and outdoor space.

Wraparound care

We chose our second closest. The reason we didn't choose our closest was that it was on a very small footprint with no grass at all. Second closest was only five mins walk further. I agree with PP though - proximity is a big one for primary school.

Small class size.
We had a choice of two, school 1 had an intake of 60 per year in one large classroom with two teachers and 3 tas. School 2 had a class of 20. I felt dc1 had asd (turns out he did) so i knew he'd not cope in a large school so I picked school 2. Dc 2 and 3 went to school 2 because it was easier to have them all in the same place. There were some things about school 1 I preferred over school 2 but just knew it wasn't right for dc1.

It was completely secular, had a nice ethos (big on mutual respect, all teaching staff addressed by first names, very integrated into the inner-city area it was in, no uniform) and geographically close.

It was the closest.

Amazing outdoor space and lots of opportunity to use it. It also had great experienced teachers, wraparound care, a warm atmosphere and great reputation, but we had a choice of 2 like that and the outdoor space particularly sold us the one we put top.

Wraparound care but also a headteacher leading the tours who was enthusiastic, proud of the school, knew pupils by name and stopped to interact with them as we went around. He clearly ran a happy school.

Secular, much more outdoor space, better wraparound care. Generally felt much less chaotic.

A school that could see beyond the disabilities, a school that was accepting, could see the mischievous child within.

Ours is the second closest school, walking distance but the only non religious school in the village.

LOTs of open space. Her friends were going there. A good music teacher.

Lots of outdoor space (that they actually use). Lots of focus on music, arts, PE etc. Continued play all the way through (look at the whole school, not just the early years bit - you might find a school is lovely for reception but then they are sitting at desks all day every day for the next 6 years).

Practicalities here too. Close + wraparound care.

Thank you everyone, that is so interesting, I'll pass your comments on.

Only school in our village so no choice really. Religious which isn’t ideal for us (wrong religion) but you just suck it up.

Music!

Outstanding ofsted

It’s 5 minutes walk round the corner. Reception is play based rather than forcing them to sit still and learn alegebra!

Hot food made in house and not brought in from elsewhere. Small class size. Weekly swimming lessons for the whole school. And generally just a good feeling when we visited, and felt we were listened to when we asked questions!

Closest to our house. Not too big.

Wraparound care for breakfast and afterschool. As working parents, this was our number 1 thing