local school or the better school.

PurpleJay

I would go with the good school in your situtation. Your DD will know some of the children from nursery and it will be no less convenient for you to get her to and from school except in unusal circumstances - illness or very bad weather.

Could you not make other arrangements if she were ill? Could you or your OH come out of work - it won't happen all the time and if it gives out horrendous weather, you will just have to keep her at home.

So long as she has friends and you are prepared to make an effort if she wants to see them outside school - this may involve a bit of driving about, then it will be fine.

Trust your insticts, you are her mum

Just to add, I would have liked my son who starts school in September to go to a Steiner school but the closest one to us is about 12 miles in the opposite direction to my work which is 10 miles from home. There was also the cost (they might be free in the future but not now) and we were concerned that if we have another child we couldn't afford to send both.

In the end, he will be going to the school whose catchment area we are in. I didn' want him to go to the other school nearby (actually slightly nearer than the one he will be going to) so I didn't put that one as a choice, choosing 2 others a bit further away as the 2nd and 3rd choice. Luckily we got first choice but I was prepared to make sure he saw his friends if we got one of the others and would rather do that than send him to the one which I didn't like.

Mimi_Arc_en_ciel

Because I work over an hour away if she needs to come home from school its usually my parents who would pick her up (it’s a 5 min drive from their house, if that) the school would obviously keep her whilst I fetched her but its easier just to ring parents to collect her (neither work – don’t really do far away from home) OH doesn’t drive (but he better learn soon!)

She generally doesn’t mix with the local kids at the moment and i sometimes feel awful for this – I grew up in the village and moved away, we moved back about 3 years ago and i don’t mix with the locals (many are gossips / two faced etc and I can’t be bothered with it)

We’ve got our first play date this weekend with one of the kids from nursery (usually we only see them at birthdays) so hopefully this is something we can continue when she moves to infants.

I did say the local school will shut if bad lol I had to leave work early last year, boss didn’t believe how bad it was until I sent him a picture message lol I think my parents think I’m aiming too high for DD – they had same attitude when i put her in nursery but I think they can see the benefits now

Random

I sent my child to the local school, we stuck it out there for several years despite it visibly declining in quality and numbers, and frequent disagreements with them. For instance they kept trying to get my child labelled as special needs despite there being no problems except that the teachers scared them! Finally, after a major fallout with them where I was told 'I never seem to be happy so should probably go elsewhere', I rang the next closest school and started there within a week.

After not very long there, the vast majority of problems had disappeared, no trouble getting them to go to school, they finally started producing the written work they were capable of, and they passed the 11 plus. My child is now happy and doing well at the local grammar. My only regret is that we didn't change schools sooner.

CH27

Trust your instincts.

spikyspiky

I can see this from both sides. My 15 yr old dd went to the local school even though it wasn't the 'best' in the area, made plenty of local friends and did shine through academically being g and t in maths and science. So it was fine for her.
My step dd goes to an Ofsted rated outstanding church school 7 miles away from where we live. This is through circumstance, not choice. She is 7. Although she has plenty of friends at school she is never invited on play dates as I think the parents think we live too far to take her, which of course is untrue. Only 2 friends turned up to her birthday party, heartbreaking as you can imagine. Again, this is a distance issue, nothing personal. She knows no-one at all where we live, and I am worried for the future when she goes into the 'big school' which is 5 mins away knowing no-one. If she's ill at school its a half hour journey to pick her up and of course half hour back with a sick child. If I'm too ill to take her and pick her up her Dad has to have half day holiday from work to do it. If it was up to me she would be in the local not so good school 2 mins away up the road. So swings and roundabouts. Not sure I've helped but its all stuff you have to bear in mind. Go with your instincts.

Mimi_Arc_en_ciel

As DD already goes to nursery in that area i don’t think it would be an issue re parties etc – She always ends up having 10-15 kids from nursery there (sometimes wish they wouldn’t all turn up lol) DD is quite bright (I know everyone says this about their own! Lol) but we enrolled her into French lessons, yoga and tennis with nursery – these are all things the “other” school do also. The local school teaches German, which, although would be nice for DD to learn another language I’d quite like to encourage her French (she’s already done a year and is quite good! Would hate to see it lost) I’m worried about the “not knowing anyone where we live” but then as it’s a small village I’m figuring that when she’s old enough to go to the park on her own (and the park isn’t littered with smashed bottles etc!) she will meet them there and will (hopefully!) have a few local friends who she can interact at the weekend and after school with.

All the local kids go to the same comp – this isn’t the comp I want DD to go to (ok, it might change – but right now it has a lot of issues – esp bullying – my nephew goes there so know firsthand how rubbish it is) Where as the other school feed’s into a better comp.

In all honesty I’ve made my decision – I’m just worried it’s the wrong one now lol doesn’t help with parents disagreeing!

brians_daughter

Op we have had (in the past) the same issue with both the ds's.

With ds1 we chose the out of area school and although he excelled in academia imo his social skills and social circle suffered.

All the local kids were all together in school and therefore had a much stronger bond. DS1 could only go play with school friends when arrangements were made. For us, it was the worng choice, as now at 14 hes very, very shy and when we speak about ithe states the reason was the choice of school and not forming strong relationships with a set group of boys. Instead he had friendships with 2 groups but was out the loop on many things. Then there was the travel etc etc

With ds2 we chose (for reasons above) to send him to the more local school. OK - the reports werent glowing but we enlisted my brother (ks1 teacher) to set us targets and additional work (we tried to make it fun!) He has just (last sept) gone to high school and has a strong bond with about 6 of his peers and is veery happy and very bright.

I dunno if its 'just their personalities' that are different or the scholl was part of it. I also found with ds2's school they did loads of extra activities after school, he used to do football monday, gymnastics tuesday, cricket another day etc etc. WIth ds1 school they never did anything apart from football in y6. So this may also have been part of the issue?

I followed in my parents footsteps really... i went to the 'best school in th earea' 5 miles from home and felt my ds1 did/does where as my brother didnt get a place at the same school so went to the one at the top of the road (not a glowing report i can assure you lol) and now at 35 yo, his 5 close friends are friends he attended junior school with. I dunno if this is a common theme or not tho?

Its your choice, but it is worth looking at past reports - i know now its ds3's turn to start school that the 'outstanding school' 5 years ago is now average and the poor performing school is 'good' so things change really quickly

Good luck, its such a hard decision isnt it? For me tho esp at such a young age i would also evaluate the social implications

k3lvc

Maybe I'm just a simple in my outlook in life but I have to love all the labelling that goes on - i.e. we'll choose the school that's good for high achievers with little evidence that DD will fall into the category now or at any point in the future

As an employer/interviewer of many a key thing that comes across in recent school-leavers (& Grads to some extent) is a lack of social awareness from being driven/transported/pushed everywhere.

We've just had the same dilemma (though the distance was only 2 miles) and the 'poorer' local school won hands down and has been the best decision ever. So much is achieved/learnt outside school from interaction with neighbours and other kids, our garden often becomes the informal 'after school club'/'mothers union' and when favours are needed they're there to be asked for/used.

As well as that the school is can be the hub of the community (particularly in rural/semi-rural locations) - it is what you make of it and if specific skills are lacking (highlighted in Ofsted) then use local skills to compensate/assist.

clearingout

You need to have a proper look at admission's policies - I suspect the head telling you to 'apply early' won't make one jot of difference when it comes to allocating places as it's done by the local authority, not the school. They may well have never turned anyone away who is out of catchment but there is always a first time - at my son's school for September this year, 20 out of 30 children going in have got in on the sibling criteria meaning that a small number of children who live nearer than some who will be starting have actually been turned away. You should also be aware that going to a feeder school is not a criteria for entrance to any high school I know (although I accept different areas do things differently)and that siblings/distance are the primary criteria (after looked after children and special needs, obviously) for entrance to schools at all levels, unless religion comes into it.

I don't want to be doom and gloom but many 'outstanding' schools are oversubscribed which is something to consider when making a choice and at the very least, you shouldn't count your chickens (in other words, be very careful what you say to your daughter if there is even the remotest chance that she won't get in). And the final point is if you put down the better school as first choice and don't get in, there is potentially the problem of not getting your second choice and then being allocated the school that no one wants to go to!

Spendless

I had a very similar dilemma when my DS was starting school. I had 2 places,(in the days when our area allowed you to apply for 1 chuch and 1 non church school) the first was at a local school, minutes from my door. The other 'slightly better' is in the next village.

The slightly better school turned out to be a 'smokescreen' which I knew before term even started. The HT gave confidential info out regarding my son's place (cos the parent it was repeated to told me!) Several parents took them to appeal as their child hadn't got in and won, because the school admitted it hadn't stuck to their own admission criteria. It is on its 3rd change of HT in 7 years.

Meanwhile the school on my doorstep that I did send him to, got a new HT whilst he was still in Nursery and turned it into an outstanding school. Though I would add, after the outstanding Infants mine go to a satisfactory Juniors, and still sometimes I was unhappy with infants and sometimes I have been over the moon with Juniors, so don't let an Ofsted report sway you too much.

Anyway DS is in the last few weeks of yr 6. Identified as gifted & talented in Science, got the top marks in his group in his mock sats for maths, so was moved up a set, and yes he fell under the radar when a sudden weakness in literacy wasn't picked up, but too late I found out that help had been available via the school, and I paid a private tutor, which turned him around in 4x 1hr sessions, cost £60.

On the social side of things, when I was weighing up which school to send him too, I stood at my front door one day and watched to see which school the majority of local kids went to (by their uniform). Sending mine locally, has meant they could walk to school, initially with friend, later by themselves independently of me. They ahve local friends to call and play with in hols and after school. Meanwhile the handful of children who do attend different schools, do not attend the village cubs/brownies/church groups et al. You don't even see them in the local park, despite one of the families living on the same street it's on (like I do). I can only assume they attend the clubs in the village where they attend school where their friends are.

Both schools feed into the same Secondary though. I would take that into consideration, which Secondary is better? Also, exactly what was it, you weren't keen on?