would SATS results influence your choice of primary school ?

thegirlintheattic

No, SATS results are meaningless. I'd be looking for a friendly, caring school with a varied curriculum that met the needs of my child.

suki1001

I chose my daughter's primary school because it stated how much the parents and pupils loved the school, that was the clincher for me. It was in the village we wanted to move to and was a feeder school to the very good secondary school.

I didn't want to send my children to a school that just concentrated academically. For a start, I didn't want her to go to the local grammar school (unless she wanted to) and felt the local secondary school which has an amazing art department, brilliant facilities, a great pastoral side and focused on helping children achieve what they are good at, plus they do get good results - this was important to us before she started primary school.

In our area we were almost spoilt for choice for good primary schools, but I was wary of sending her to the top one as my daughter's a bit of a free spirit and thrives on being creative rather than academic.

I would have hated to send her to the top school. They cut out a PE lesson a week when practising sats and they had loads of practice papers.

My daughters school were very low key with the sats. The only thing I would have known about her doing it was one homework where they had to do the BBC's bitesized games on the computer - I had a go with them too, they were fun!

She's just had her sats results through and she got level 5 for all the English and level 4 for the maths - I feel it's a true result because she didn't spend her whole time doing practice papers. As long as she's confident in maths I'm happy.
Anyhow, they do seem a bit pointless, because they're being retested at secondary school.

If she's anything like her dad and me - we came into our own in secondary school anyway.

The other thing that was also important to us was the feeling we got from the school when we were looking round.

cottonhead

I wouldnt take too much notice of SATS results no. Our school is such a kind and caring school and I have not come across a single child yet who is unhappy there. There is always a waiting list to get in. The school always do such lovely things with the kids and they learn in a very fun and stimulating way whilst always keeping parents in the loop. They also have a great emphasis on good behaviour and are very very good at praise and feedback to the kids.
When the 11+ results came out only 4 kids in the school passed. So that might put you off if you just looked at that. However I am so happy with our school and wouldnt change it. Going there and speaking to parents is the best way to chose. Also read the ofsted resports but dont take them as 100% way to decide either. A lot can change for the good or worse in between reports! A local school where I live was awarded outstanding for years on end and everyone was trying to get there it was the place to be. Then suddenly they are inspected and are now in special measures and parents who were perfectly happy are now trying to pull their kids out! Just use common sense and a wide range of criteria when making the choice.