local school or the better school.

melb

I would be less worried about the standard of education than i would about a 4 year old having such a long "working day" after spending 9 hours a day either at nursery or at school. If your parents were willing to take her to school or pick her up a couple of times a week I'd take their advice and let her have a bit of a rest by spending some time with them if she can't spend time with a parent.

moomaa

Don't be caught out, the year group applying to start this September is the biggest for years, and I have heard that next year's is bigger still. That means that children getting in fro the last 3 years doesn't mean your DD will for next September. Make sure you put the local school as choice 2 or you might end up with a school less satisfactory to you than the local one.

Savvy_Sue

melb wrote: »

I would be less worried about the standard of education than i would about a 4 year old having such a long "working day" after spending 9 hours a day either at nursery or at school. If your parents were willing to take her to school or pick her up a couple of times a week I'd take their advice and let her have a bit of a rest by spending some time with them if she can't spend time with a parent.

that is a very valid point: I know the OP's DD has been in a nursery near the chosen school, but actual school IS more tiring for them. When I ran an afterschool club I used to BEG parents not to send Reception children every day, because you could see that they really were struggling! To then have a 7 mile drive at the end of it - OK I know it could be further, but that's twice as far as I drive to work, and it can take me over half an hour in traffic - and HAVE to get up early next day to have the whole thing start all over again ...

Judith_W

It certainly sounds like the further school is better on ALL points except location. Don't hesitate! I went to a secondary school a bus/train ride away and didn't get home til after 5 every day. Although I would have loved to have lived round the corner from the school like some of my friends, and feel that I did miss out on some of the social life as I lived so far away, it was the best school for me and I still had lots of local friends who I met up with in the evenings, weekends. Just be prepared for lots more ferrying than if school friends were local.

JC9297

Always choose the school that you think is right for your child. Young children need to be taken to friends to play anyway as they cannot walk/travel by themselves, most don't have all their friends on the doorstep (realise this may be slightly different in a small village) so don't worry about that.

I think in your situation you have to take into account your parents, are they likely to refuse to travel backwards and forwards each day and if so what are your other options e.g. child minder, after school club.

Whilst it is good to have thoughts about secondary schools, things can change and having a ready-made set of friends to go with is not necessary. Choose the primary you want for the next seven years, then choose the right secondary for your daughter.

Mimi_Arc_en_ciel

sorry havent replied, been busy.

Ok - Parents - as mentioned, they wouldnt be responsible for taking/picking DD up - they're concern is when DD is ill at school or, like last year, we have bad weather. DD's nursery school do a school run until she is approx 8 years old. I'd drop her off at nursery (like normal) she'd have her breakfast there, nursery would take her to school. At the end of the school day nursery wiill pick her back up, take her back to the nursery and she will hav tea there before i pick her up at 4:30.

Yes DD has a long day, but she's had the same routine since she was 6 months old - I think if it was going to be too much for her we would of noticed by now. Because she has breakfast at nursery i wake her at 7, she's at nursery by 7:30. Whats the difference in that and say, someone getting their child up at 7 so they can have breakfast etc before a "normal" school day?

There are 3 schools that are good outside of our catchment area, all within 10 miles of us. As mentioned - we live in a little village, surrounded by other litte villages. The nearest city to us is an hours drive away so the schools arent that full. The classroom size of the school we want to send DD to is approx 20 kids - there's 235 kids in the whole infant school. Theres one school that only has 48 kids in the whole school! the local school has 237.

Savvy_Sue

Mimi_Arc_en_ciel wrote: »

Yes DD has a long day, but she's had the same routine since she was 6 months old - I think if it was going to be too much for her we would of noticed by now.

I still think you shouldn't underestimate the difference between 'nursery' and 'Reception' on a young child. Your DD may be used to being in nursery all day, as were some of the children coming to our afterschool club. They'd coped with that, they found the transition to Reception VERY tiring.

Another thing to check - with any school - is how they start children, and whether nursery can work around the initial arrangements. I've heard of some strange (to me) arrangements in my time! Mine all either started and stayed f/t, or started mornings and stayed f/t quite soon. But some schools do 2 weeks of mornings, followed by 2 weeks of afternoons, followed by 2 weeks of mornings plus lunch, followed by 2 weeks of lunch plus afternoons - or some such complex arrangements. How working parents get around that I've never been quite sure!

Oldernotwiser

Mimi_Arc_en_ciel wrote: »

]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! [/FONT][/COLOR]

I know that your parents may pick her up sometimes but you seem to be far too worried about their opinion. She's your daughter and it's your (and your husband/partner's?) decision to make and nothing to do with them.

Spendless

Savvy_Sue wrote: »

I still think you shouldn't underestimate the difference between 'nursery' and 'Reception' on a young child. Your DD may be used to being in nursery all day, as were some of the children coming to our afterschool club. They'd coped with that, they found the transition to Reception VERY tiring.

Another thing to check - with any school - is how they start children, and whether nursery can work around the initial arrangements. I've heard of some strange (to me) arrangements in my time! Mine all either started and stayed f/t, or started mornings and stayed f/t quite soon. But some schools do 2 weeks of mornings, followed by 2 weeks of afternoons, followed by 2 weeks of mornings plus lunch, followed by 2 weeks of lunch plus afternoons - or some such complex arrangements. How working parents get around that I've never been quite sure!

This about how they feed in is very true. There's 4 schools between mine and the next 2 villages, 1 does 2 weeks of half days, 1 they go f-time the 1st week and the other 2 feed in with some arrangement of eldest/youngest and middle feeding in in drabs and then doing half days right up until the end of September and even into October. WHen DS went (we're the 2 weeks of half days school) there was nothing for it if you worked then to take the time off or ask people to help out, by the time DD went 3 years later, there was a notice on the nearby local private nursery doors advertising that they could help parents out with the transition to Reception.

Molly41

How about letting your DD have some choice in the matter? I did that with mine. We looked at two local schools and spent time there. I then asked my DS's opinion and he said which one he preferred. At the time I went against the general opinion and chose the school that felt comfortable to him. Less emphasis on academic achievement but very good at learning through play and inclusive policies. All my children had a choice in the matter. Education is something that cant be imposed on a child. Even in the very early years the saying "you can lead a horse to water but you cant make it drink" runs very true. Your child needs to be comfortable and happy in the school environment and its so much more than academic learning. Social learning and interaction makes a hige difference.