Which School should i pick? I only have 5 days to decide.....

Cherish999

I need help on deciding which primary school should i send my second child to? I only have 5 days left before i have to send the form in.
Any opinions much appreciated? as my family and friends are sick of me asking which school.....

School One is Red School.

• This School is 3 mins away from my home.
• My First child goes to this school already.
• The highest score a primary school can acheive is 300, 100 for each subject maths, english and science. The highest acheived to date at this school is around 213, 4 years ago at the moment its more like 179. Placing them well in the bottom 30 out of 270 schools.
• This school achieves below the national and below the LEA average.
• This school is a big school, with 3 classes of 30 pupils.
• It has a separate dining hall.
• It’s very new and modern, infant and junior’s buildings are located separately.

School Two is Green School

• This school is 12-15 mins away from my home
• The highest score this school achieved to date is 249 out of 300. It’s consistently around this mark. Placing them at around 100 out of 270 schools.
• This school achieves above the national and LEA average
• This school is small, with 2 classes of 30 pupils
• It hasn’t got a separate dining hall. Less time spent on activities as they have to clear up!
• Its the opposite of Red School, very old, Infant and juniors are together.

Green school opens first at 8:40-8:50 and Red school opens at 8:45-8:55. This means i have to take eldest child with me to green school if second child gets in. Then he has to walk all the way back with me to his Red school. He will have to walk 25-30mins everyday and it’d be a rush to get him there on time as there is only 15mins difference between the schools.

Green school closes at 3:00 and Red school closes at 3:15. I would rely on green school to be punctual at sending second child out, so i can make it on time to pick up eldest child.

Green school may never have a space for eldest child. Hes have been on waiting list for 6months, he’s number 3 on the list. Juggling two different schools is hard! They have different training days and i may not be able to attend assemblies or plays or other workshop activities as can only be in one place at one time!.

Does primary school matter? Surely its secondary school that counts as they sit there GCSEs here? Which school should i choose? Which would you choose if you were me?

Thanks for reading.....

Kimitatsu

Is your eldest happy at his school? If so send both children there, if not then place your second child in the alternative school and appeal for a place on the grounds of a sibling.

IMO having moved my children as we moved house, I would not have entertained splitting them, for both of them it is a natural support network, and it makes a lot more work for you. I would have said the most important thing is that they are HAPPY. All of the league tables in the world mean absolutely nothing if your child is miserable, they will hate school and will not learn.

The school my boys are in now, technically according to the league tables is nowhere near as good as the one they left, but you know they have excelled because they feel safe and happy. DS1 goes up to secondary school next year and to me that is more important BUT the same still applies, if he is not happy he will not learn.

Go with your gut instinct rather than the league tables, I assume that you have looked around both, which do you think would suit your kids best?

Hope this help

x

beefcarrot

Right. SATs results are not the be-all and end-all when it comes to a primary school. I would be looking in to how the school deals with the "whole child" - are the children happy, well taught, well behaved, etc. Sometimes small is good for your children, but can the bigger school offer more to the children in terms of clubs, etc.
Chat to the parents of both schools if possible, look at the OFSTED report (with a pinch of salt and paying attention to how recently they were "got" -a lot can happen in a couple of years).

beefcarrot

Why do you only have 5 days to decide?

louidog

I agree with what has already been said.
Go with your instincts.....a happy child is one that will learn and get on no matter what school they go to!

Good luck with your choice!

Cherish999

Thank you for your reply.

Yes eldest is happy there, however he is unable to name 5 friends. Which means he hasnt connected with any of his class mates. The teacher just says he gets along with everyone.

The Red school failed the ofsted report! Quite a few parents have popped their childrens names onto the Green school waiting list. If i dont choose Green school now i will not get another chance as its oversubscribed. Red School usually has a space or two.

redmel1621

I one hundred per-cent agree that in primary schools league tables mean very little, I moved into an area and put both my kids into a school with very good sats results, we are having a nightmare with eldest child and another two boys in his class at the moment. He is not happy and doesn't want to go into school in the mornings.....no matter how good the results are if they don't want to be there they won't want to learn. If you alrady have one son in a school you are happy with I would stick with it.

Also just my personal opinion I would never seperate them into different schools.
1, because it would be to much on my nerves if i had to rely on a teacher to open the doors on time so I could get to my other son..no way.
2, there may be some unwanted rivalry arising between the kids as one may believe he will be smarter, or whatever because he is at a 'better' school.
3, they love the fact that they see each other in the lunch room and playground..it seems to really highlight there day.

Mel x

Cherish999

beefcarrot wrote: »

Why do you only have 5 days to decide?

I have to send the forms in, with my choices.....If i pop Green school down as first choice i will get in as i live close enough.

If i have one child at Green school the eldest have a chance of getting in as he will have more piority as a one child already there.

If i dont, and want to move at a later date, i will need 2 spaces, which isnt going to happen.

redmel1621

Having said all that, go with your instincts.....

Mel x

Cherish999

redmel1621 wrote: »

3, they love the fact that they see each other in the lunch room and playground..it seems to really highlight there day.

Mel x

This will only happen for one year as eldest child will be year 2 when youngest is Reception. Red school has separate buildings for Infant and Juniors (yr3+).

Whilst Green school its together. They have more chance of seeing each other even if eldest takes a year or 2 to get over there.

Cherish999

Kimitatsu wrote: »

Is your eldest happy at his school? If so send both children there, if not then place your second child in the alternative school and appeal for a place on the grounds of a sibling.

x

Can you appeal? even if the school class size is 30. and they already have 60 children for 2 classes.

He seems happy. But not got no best friends, never been invited to a party. Cant even name a handful of friends.