what do you look for when choosing a primary school? whats important to you?

[foxy1]

hello we are loooking at 2 primary schools both within a mile from us. they both have good things about them. one has a better ofsted report than the other. what do you look for when deciding on a school. what is important to you and do you take into account ofsted reports? thank you very much for your help in advance!!

we didn't take too much account of ofsted reports, although our 2 closest were pretty similar.
what helped most though was having visits and just getting a gut feel for what each was like. we had a choice of one quite small school, and one which was a lot bigger and in the end that's what it came down to. the size.
we went with the small one because we thought ds1 would thrive in a smaller environment, the head teacher was really warm with all the children and happy to speak to them when they approached her. they had a very child-centred approach to things too.
I was also interested in things like how the children were disciplined and that sort of stuff.

in essence though, go for the one that feels right. your instinct counts for a lot IMO

I would take into account Ofsted reports and Value Added figures from the SATs results.
But the three most important factors are the Head, the Head and the Head!

Do you warm to her? Does he/she have a real vision and enthusiasm for the school and the pupils? Is that a vision that you agree with and share? How does he/she interact with the staff and pupils?