I agree, giving the input and taking them to the school with you wehn you go is a good idea, but I won't necessarily send him to the school he chooses.

If we decide to go to private school for primary, its going to come down to $$ vs travel. Both are P-12, the closer school is $7k/yr for prep, the further (and my preferred) is $1k, but a 40minute drive away, with only a few students coming from our local area, so it would mean a lot of his friends would live further away.

DH doesn't like that where I do, I think its good to have more than one group of firends (school, sport etc) not that they can't cross over, but just to enable more socialsing with different people.

anyway back on topic, if we go for public schools, he won''t be going to the schools closest to us unless there are significant changes in the next 3-4 years. There are 3 that I would consider, 1 of which has been specifcally recommended by an ex-principal (not from that school).

We will take him with us to look at them, and take his opinions on board, but ultimiately it will only be one of a number of deciding factors. If he truly hated it or seemed in any way frightened compared with other schools, it will get crossed off the list.