Choosing a state primary school

Janepig

bossymoo wrote: »

Lightbulb! I had no idea they do that! DS is in a 3 form reception and had a mad mass of parties from Jan to Easter but nothing since! I wonder if they have separated them all by term birthdays!

Actually, I hope they do, DD is sept 4th so will be the eldest in her year and is a smart cookie. Had she not been 5 days overdue she would start school this sept, but we have to wait another year. It's reassuring to know that she could be grouped with the eldest third of pupils in the year.

Could be!! Sounds a bit like us, except DD's class had all the parties from about mid March to August, and DS's parties are September to Mid March (although he seems to have a particular cluster in October!). Later on in the school though, when they're older, they are put in ability groups for maths (not sure about anything else) so they'll be split into two groups and the teachers will take a group each.

With the siblings v catchment thing though, there'll be no pleasing everyone because of course for your first/only child you may want to get them into your nearest school but find you can't because siblings have had priority, but then if you already have a child at that school you really don't want to have to take a younger brother or sister to another school and do two drop offs/pick ups. My friend moved after her first three children had gone to DD/DS's school (not far away, just out of catchment) and like I said, her youngest child was turned down for a place, but eventually that was overturned and she was accepted.

Jx

grey_lady

I can't believe that no-one has suggested the OP look at the keystage results and how the schools on her shortlist compare.

jackyann

Loads of good ideas here! My tips:
Indeed, walk past the schools, and if you are wandering by with your chid in tow, no-one will worry!
Call in personally to make an appointment to view, or ask about open days. unreasonable to expect a viewing without an appointment, but simply walking in gives you a feel of the school.
Go for what feels comfortable to you. At this stage, feeling good about school is the most important.

Do keep an open mind when listening the other parents, and take the most notice of parents who seem reasonable & sensible to you. Eg: when a parent complains about school discipline, is this the real problem, or are they foisting their own inadequacies on to the school?

I did have one friend who used the state of the toilets as her main guide!

GobbledyGook

One of the best ways to judge a school, imo, is to ask them about how they deal with pupils who have extra educational needs and those pupils who are gifted.

Obviously just my own opinion, but I believe you can tell if a HT or the teaching staff in general are somewhat over enthusiastic about G&T kids and don't mention lower achieving children that those lower achieving children can be lost somewhat. Likewise a school that has a whole host of schemes to help low achieving children can be guilty of not pushing top achieving children to their full potential. Ones that do both very well are also, imo, good at ensuring the 'average' (for want of a better word) children fulfil their potential as well.

maman

susancs wrote: »

You can also look at the Dept Of Education League tables SATS results but bear in mind that some schools overcoach children in year 6 to achieve these and some schools may have more special needs children, so the added measure score showing how the pupils have progressed gives a better indication.

maman wrote: »

League tables of test results at age 11 and Ofsted reports are a very rough indicator. It's a bit like football clubs. We all know that just because one team is at the top of the Premier league and another at the bottom it's not just about the quality of the manager and coaching staff. It will depend on what sort of players he has and how much money he has to spend.


So it's much the same with schools. Good headteachers and teachers will be able to get the best from their pupils and move them forward but they won't be able to compete with schools where pupils have private tutors and every advantage in terms of out of school experiences. All these pupils take the same tests so I don't need to tell you which come out on top.


So you need to start with looking at schools closest to where you live, talk to local parents and don't just consider the test results.

It seems that no-one, including me, thinks they are a particularly good indicator. Plus if it's an infant school that OP chooses it wouldn't apply.

JimmyTheWig

honeypop wrote: »

Yes, there is a concept of catchment here. But catchment is defined by distance from school so they can't be different (can they...?).

I think catchment only actually refers to last years admissions. So (roughly speaking) if the furthest away child admitted was 290m from the school, their catchment area is 290m. It won't be that again the following year but gives an estimate if you look at previous years too.

To me distance from school is distance from school but catchment is something a little different. A catchment area, to me, means that people in such-and-such a town or village will get priority to go to such-and-such a school. There may be people outside the catchment area who actually live closer to the school than some people in the catchment area.
For example, near the top of page two of this document...
http://www.kingston.gov.uk/download/downloads/id/971/community_schools_admissions_arrangements_for_september_2015
... it says that children living in Malden Rushett are given priority when applying for Ellingham Primary School. This is because Malden Rushett is a village without its own school. If the criteria was simply on distance, these children would find it hard to get a school place anywhere.
[I know that I'm slightly arguing against myself here, though, as the document I'm linking to doesn't mention catchment!]