Last week I submitted Lydia’s Reception place application, for the September 2017 intake. I can’t quite believe it has come around so fast! Lydia will be four in February, which also seems to be slightly surreal.
This year our decision was easy and I would be astounded if she doesn’t get a place at our first choice school; we live close by and Georgie is there already so we will have sibling priority.
Even though it was easy this year I can still remember how difficult it was two years ago to make those decisions and choose between the several local primary schools that we can walk to. We spent time visiting the schools and checking their websites, ofsted reports, and even read their newsletters when we could find them online.
We were easily able to rule out one school that, among several big problems, had quite bad numeracy results for several years, with no visible improvement since being put on special measures. Georgie enjoys playing with numbers and we wanted that strength of hers supported well, and it didn’t seem like that school had a handle on things.
In the end, we chose the school that was closest to us because when we toured the school on the open day it just felt right to us. The kids who did the tour were really enthusiastic about everything, and you could see the pride they had in their work and their school shine through as they took us around and pointed out different things around the building.
The school that was better “on paper” and only a few minutes more walk away felt uncomfortable to us as we walked around – just not a good fit for us and our girls. The children who led our tour – both prefects and therefore presumably the best of their year – were so bored looking, unenthusiastic, and mumbled their way around the school.
At the end of the day, I am delighted with the choice we made, Georgie has really enjoyed her time at primary school so far – and Lydia cannot wait to join her. We went along to the open morning on Friday and Lydia got to look around the Reception classroom – she was really excited about it and was telling my parents about “seeing her classroom” on FaceTime later that day.
My biggest bit of advice for choosing primary schools would be to physically go and check them out, and then choose which one feels like the best fit for you and your child.
Don’t rely on the overall rating they achieve in their Ofsted report, but instead read the whole report to get a better idea of the school’s good & bad points, and also make sure you check out the ParentView site to get an idea of feedback from current parents at the school.
