How to choose primary schools

[minigirl]

We have 3 schools close to where we live and I'm pretty much decided which one would be our first choice, but my information is mainly from people at playgroup, so is probably biased towards their tastes and requirements.

So is there usually any official way to get information on schools, like open days etc? I've looked on our council website and it doesn't mention anything.

[Roo]

You can go and look round the schools whenever - just phone them direct and they'll 'book you in' so you can go and have a look round. Some schools do have open days but ours doesn't, but they're happy to show prospective parents around with prior arrangement. We never actually looked at Laura's before she started but it's our nearest and catchment school, and we heard a lot of good things from people with children there (which is a good way of finding stuff out ) so it was a bit of a no-brainer really. I also looked at the Ofsted reports online of that school plus the next nearest.
Oh, and also google the school itself and see if it has its own website - lots of schools do these days, and it's another way of seeing how the school presents itself, might have details of curriculum, past work, events etc. We also went along to the summer fair at Laura's school before she joined - I was a bit worried they'd not let us in as we weren't actually at the school at the time, but they were lovely and it was a chance for us all to have an informal nose and to see the children/parents/teachers 'at play' sort-of thing, which was a different view again.

[minigirl]

Thanks Roo, I have looked at the schools websites and one of them is having a summer fair soon so I'll see if we're allowed to go to that. It would be nice to check them all out properly to make sure I make the right choice.

[Micah]

Read all your Ofsted reports, but nothing is better than going round the school itself. Also check your council website for last years admissions stats- bear in mind there's no point applying for 4 schools you don't stand a chance of getting into .

I had 7 schools all within reasonable walking distance. Have to say the one everybody raved about and that had "outstanding" ofsted reports I hated- It was big, smelled of school dinners and just seemed totally chaotic.

It very much depends on what you want from a school, I wanted a small school, and wasn't bothered about the academics so much, I went for a school with outstanding pastoral care and only a "good" academic record- after all, if she's not happy she's not going to learn.

Go visit Like I said the school I *thought* was my top choice didn't make it on my list at all, my top choices were two schools I hadn't even considered- I went to visit just to make sure I wasn't missing something (I was )

Open days etc you'll have to phone the school and ask Even there I found I much preferred the schools that booked us individual appts and had older children show us round, rather than ones who had formal open days.