"Auditioning" a primary school

I was reading the updates about the original Oh Baby! babies and noticed a couple of you talking about how you chose schools for your soon to be school-kids. What steps did you go through before making your final decision?

For Nat's (and mine) sanity sake we're looking to move at the end of this year (or the end of next at the latest). I didn't have much to worry about when it came to enrolling Kiya at the primary school here - we decided to send her to Ohakune Primary so I enrolled her the November before her 5th birthday (which was end of the following March) and they were surprised I was doing it so early!

I don't know where we will be moving to, except I want Nat working at a bigger school where he is NOT the only full-time science teacher, so it will probably be a bigger place than Ohakune!

Just a quick question as we are in the process of buying our first house... Do you have to send your child to the nearest school to your home or can you send your child to any school in your town??

If you aren't in zone you can try for "Out of Zone Enrolement". Most schools will have a few places available for out of zoners. But if there are alot of children applying for a place it turns into a ballot situation.

Some schools don't work on the basis of the sibling of an out of zoner automatically getting in when they turn 5 either. My school is like this as it is so popular with our catchment zone and with out of zone children.

I think an important question to ask prospective schools is what their class numbers are like. Obviously the smaller number the better.

I just went in to Russell Street Primary today and yeah we r not zoned for the school but the reception lady is still putting X into their database and come term 1 next yr will be when i find out for definate if he gets in thru the ballot thingy(she did say that for this yrs enrollments no one from the out of zone area could get a spot as there were so many kids from zoned area going there this yr :( I hope my boy gets a spot there otherwise its Milson(which im not keen on as much as Russell St).I cant move either as we have just moved and we r in a family owned rental(;p ;p) which is why we moved in the first place hehe ( cheaper rent has its bonuses).Could i still put his name down at milson even tho his names on RS database??? i no he would def get into Milson but i really wanna keep RSP option open.

Nic, Roslyn school is great. I did one of my teaching practices there and the staff were so supportive and the kids loved the things that went on there. I know a few teachers personally up there (the principal rocks ,Joanna How is wonderful with the children) and they love the environment the school has.