Title: Two village primaries – head says one thing, heart says another!

[mamatotwo98]

Hi all,
We’re trying to pick a primary for DC and I’m totally overthinking it 🙈

School 1:

•	About 20 mins drive
•	Tiny cohort
•	“Best” school in the area – results a fair bit higher, more kids hitting expected levels
•	Bit more academic feel
•	Really enthusiastic kids

School 2:

•	10 mins away
•	Still a village school but roughly double the number of pupils
•	Not as good results or Ofsted
•	But has a lot of outdoor space and a lovely friendly vibe

My sensible brain says go for the one with the better results, but I can’t shake the feeling the closer one might just feel better day to day – less driving, slightly more space for the kids to play.

What do people think is actually most important at primary – results, Ofsted, size, distance, general ‘feel’?

Would love to hear what others would do!

How small is small? For me I’d choose single year group over mixed year group where possible so one class of 25 year 1s over a class with 10year 1s and 10 eyfs. As a teacher who’s worked in lots of schools I just think it’s easier to deliver a better quality education to single year groups. Eg phonics, if a larger class can do more catch up intervention sessions in bigger groups rather than lumping all kids together
I also think it’s nice if they have a larger pool of friends to chose between, if the class is too small I find they get stuck in friendships/roles for all of school, less able to branch out

which phonics programmes do they use?

Is the one further away still walkable? It’s nice to be able to walk or cycle the school run, so if everything else is the same I’d go for closer.
if cohorts are tiny eg less than 15 then results are less important in some ways as one child accounts for such a high percentage of the whole, so not necessarily the be all and end all

phonics wise I don’t rate ELS, jolly phonics or twinkle phonics, the rest are pretty similar

Yeh how small is tiny? I would be wary of anything under about 10 in a year group as the friendship pool would be so limited, also things like sports teams. People do rave about their small schools but surely that's better when you live in the village and are part of the community?

A 20-min drive - how far is that? where I live (suburb of small city) that would take you about 8 miles out of town and above four miles into town at rush hour. A drive like that to primary is not idea (tho obvs unavoidable if v rural).

The other school that is 10 mins away - is that walking or driving still? If it's walking that's a massive plus esp as they get older. If it's 10 mins driving then I guess it's pretty equal from that PoV as it's probs still not walkable.

A very small school in a very rural area is unlikely to close – but do be aware of the possibilty.

I would pick the closer bigger one. I like big primary schools. There’s more staff with different skills and interests. They are not spread as thinly, doing five playground duties, two assemblies and being English, history and RE lead.