How To Find A Good Primary School

Step 1: Start early

Getting your child into a good primary school can be a notoriously competitive process, so optimise your chances by moving into the catchment area of a good school before your child is even born.

"The key to finding a good school is – where do you live? Most are selective on a basis of geography. Good primary schools round here will have a radius of 300-400m within which they accept pupils… so choosing where you live is the absolute key to knowing whether or not you get a good primary.”

Step 2: Do your research

It's worth spending time researching which schools are available in your local area, and what admissions criteria they apply.

“First place you should go is the local education authority, who will publish a very useful, descriptive booklet which will not only tell you where the schools are, and where they are, but also tell you their admission criteria and give you some pretty good guidance on what your child's chances are of getting in…”

The Office for Standards in Education (OFSTED) regularly visit and review every school in the country. Their reports are often a great source of information about the quality of education a school offers. You can download reports of your local schools from their website. (www.ofsted.gov.uk)

“OFSTED reports give you a view on how a fellow professional sees that school operating. So they are looking at the quality of the management of the school, the way in which it is looking after its pupils, the quality of the teaching, the level of expectations that it has for its pupils, how it is really doing, what it should do to see these pupils through to a good future.
It's very much not a parent's eye view. There will be many things that parents what to know that just don't seem to come in the OFSTED report. But it tells you things that are fundamental to the operation of the school, and if you've got a school getting a bad OFSTED report, that is something to be careful of; if you've got a school getting a good OFSTED report, then that's at least half way to knowing that you like it. That is telling you that the school within its own lights is functioning well. It doesn't tell you whether it's the right school for your child, but it says if it is the right school for your child then it's a good school."

Step 3: Visit the school

When you've found a school that you would consider sending your child to, get in touch to arrange a visit. Many schools will have open days at various points throughout the year, or you might be able to arrange an individual appointment.

“…get in there. Ideally be shown round by someone other than the head (because people behave when the head comes round). Make sure you're watching what is going on around you. What are the children like? Is that how you want your child to turn out? Is that what you see your child being like in 11 years time? Get a feeling for the sort of ambition they have for the children – for the light in the eyes of the children.

This is your opportunity to make a real decision about the school. You will most likely meet other parents, members of staff and, importantly, the head.

“First thing to look out for is what the head is like. At a small school like a primary school the head can make a lot of difference. Their particular interests will set the tone for the whole school. You don't have to like the head, but you do have to respect them. If the head can't command your respect then they won't be running the school well. If they can command your respect then you have to be happy with the way they're running the school. And their attitudes to academic work or whole child development or the way children are taught will inform the way the whole school is run, and you've got to be comfortable with that."

Step 4: Speak to the parents

One of the best sources of information about a school are the parents who already send their children there. If possible, make time to speak with parents and ask them what they really think.

"People will chatter about schools, particularly if they are not selective schools and they don't feel that they're competing with you to get in.
There's always a lot of gossip on the street about what a school is like, and it's always worth paying attention to it.”

It's also worth finding out how involved parents are in the workings of the school:

"…If you've got a lot of parents involved in the school, then that process of socialisation, of working in well with the school, giving the school the support it needs to get things right, and giving the school the ambition that parents have - to do well by each child – will transmit itself to the school and will be part of that school's ethos.”

Once you've decided on a school for your child, you will need to apply to that school on your child's behalf. Watch Videojug's “How To Apply For A School” for more on this.