The child's preference is obviously much more relevant to secondary choice than primary. My daughter started secondary this year and to be fair moving with her peer group was quite important for her and has proved a settling influence.
Yeah, I appreciate for most it will be all those things, but interested to focus on the main one. In retrospect 'quality of the head' could have been a good option to add.
That and variety of curriculum are probably close choices in that regard. It was during visits I was always keen to see how creative the learning was, what was on the walls, how expressive and joyful it all was. similar to the overall atmosphere in real terms I guess.
This is a key factor Ofsted seems to fail to deal with. A school in an affluent location will no doubt have better grades than one that isn't - but that doesn't make it a better learning establishment. It means it's intake will have far more parental involvement in pushing for success.