we have a four year old due to start school in Sept / Jan. We really like Dalmain but have missed out - we live just too far away. So now the options are Kilmorie (where we have a place) or Perrymount.

We have been round both schools, and to my mind there are pros and cons to each:

- Kilmore is expanding to three form entry (ie. 90 children per year), which makes it a very large school, on a par with Stillness. The current head is on sick leave with stress, and may or may not be coming back. The Exec head of Fairlawn has taken over and is trying to improve the school by identified sub-standard teaching and rectifying this. The school is quite liberal in its philosophy, the kids call the teachers by their first names, and there is no school uniform. Despite the poor Ofsted and dire KS2 results, we know lots of people whose children go there and are perfectly happy.

- Perrymount is a much smaller school with a high number of ethnic minority children (which I mention as a fact rather than a criticism). The KS2 results at level 4 are excellent (ie. the level children are expected to attain) but for level 5 they are not so good. Generally Perrymount gets a better Ofsted and gets better results, but it is a small school and if your child doesnt like some of the other children in the class, there are fewer options to get away from them. Also I have heard that there are fewer after-school activities at Perrymount than Kilmorie but I dont know whether this is true.

From what I hear, both schools are ok. They are certainly not bad schools. I would be interested to hear of others who have failed to get into Dalmain and then opted for Perrymount / Kilmorie. How did it work out for you?