What to consider when applying for primary school...? Post Reply

[imalocal]

Parents with older primary-school-aged children - what do you wish you had considered when applying for schools?

Anything?

We will be applying this year for our little one to start reception in 2016 and I'm conscious that things I'm looking for now in a school may not be so important in 3 years time.

Just wondering if any of you wise parents out there could share how your views of what is important for primary school has changed as your kids have gotten older? Have any of the following become more or less important?

- specialist teachers for sports, music, language, and art
lessons
- outdoor space
- breakfast / after school care
- secondary school admissions and exam preparation
- number of entry forms (is 1 too small? 3 too big)
- ofsted rating / ks1 and ks2 results
- the "feel" of the school
- school clubs
- reputation
- staff turnover
- stretching bright kids / supporting those who need extra help
- distance from home (or whether school is on route to work)

Is there anything else to consider?

Thank you!

[LidoLady]

Our children went to two infant and two primary schools and in my experience two things that make a crucial difference are the age of the teachers and the mix of children. Our children did better with beefy, middle aged class teachers than with young inexperienced ones. Also they did better at the schools that had a mix of ability, including special needs children, because these schools were experienced at problem solving.

A lot of parents think the main problem they are likely to have is that their bright child will not be sufficiently challenged. But all children, however bright, are likely run into problems at some point such as friendship group issues, illness, death or a grandparent, bullying or whatever and in that situation you want a school that is used to dealing with these things. Both my children who moved schools were very bright and both did very well academically at all their infant/primary schools. But they were much happier at the ones that could help them with issues when they arose, rather than the ones that left them (and us) to flounder!