Where we used to live I had an idea of which secondary school we would send DS and kinda knew where he'd go for primary if we were going to stay in the area. I didn't think about it too much because we were working on not needing this plan!
Now we're in a country town - well, just outside of it, actually - so a few things had to be considered.
Transport - turns out, the Catholic and State school use the same bus service (all the neighbours kids use the same bus stop at the end of the road...I reckon I could get DS there on his pony some mornings )
LOTE - the State school doesn't have one, but I met a teacher through a friend who said that if the teacher knows some Italian they will teach it and if I pester enough, it could get taught. Great!
Music - need a school with a good music focus. The State school wins on that count.
I have yet to do a school tour, but so far, from what everyone I know here tells me, the State school looks like the winner. My neighbours' kids love school, the local paper write ups are all positive, a lot of the neighbours are ex-pupils.
It's funny, because where we used to live I would never have sent my children to that state school because of the not-so-good vibes I got from various angles (teacher and student alike!). So, a State school is not a State school.
DS's method for choosing? The one with the best-looking playground! He thought the Catholic school didn't have one because you can't see it from the main road. Turns out that the one they have isn't as nice as the one at the state school, so he was onto something.
Oh, and some lovely Edwardian architecture doesn't go astray, either...
So, a drastic reduction is school choice has influenced us, but in a good way