Choosing secondary schools - the start of the journey

So Monkey is now in Year 5 (and Missy in Year 4) and we started the job of visiting secondary school open evenings in the area. Some people have expressed surprise at this but I am not alone.

The window of opportunity is narrow - applications open in September as the open evenings start, then close at the end of October. We've only just been to the last open evening although there are some next week. Had we been starting in Year 6, that would give us two weeks to make a final decision. If you want to arrange revisits, half term is last week of October so you only have a week to go back. A friend of mine is in this position - they only looked at a couple last year and is feeling the pressure a bit this year, no firm decision made and hurriedly trying to look at all the options and come to a conclusion.

Perhaps if you live in a town with only one choice of school, there might be no need to rush and you can do it all in Year 6. What I can't get over is the fact that although a school can look great from the outside, visiting it can be a completely different proposition and what if you don't like it when you do finally look? I know from when we looked at primary schools, the school I thought I'd love, I didn't. And one I thought I wouldn't, I loved. And that's what we chose. Our instincts proved right.

Where we live, there's an embarrassment of choice. In the district, we have 6 secondaries, all rated good or outstanding by Ofsted (I'll come back to Ofsted later). One is too far away, and two are faith schools, with one offering no chance of a place unless we had been regularly attending church since LAST year - yes, at the start of Year 4 - and could prove it. In the neighbouring town, there are 4 more, one outstanding, the rest good or heading that way. Three other neighbouring smaller areas have a school each and there are four others I could consider if I felt I needed to but are probably too far away. Oh my - that's seventeen! That's even before, as some are considering, private schools (which are not for us), or schools further afield - like a private school that became a free school last September.

Obviously, we have to consider if we have a chance of getting places, which is why the field is much narrower than all seventeen. There are so many faith schools here - I can rule out five immediately on that basis because we wouldn't meet the criteria and three more where we would have a chance but may not want to. Take away the ones we think are too far and we got down to five - two in the local town, two in the next and one other, all less a 5 mile journey from home.

The difficulty compared to primary is that dammit, the child has an opinion this time! The worry is that they will just try to choose the one that their friends go to. I understand that, I really do, but I know from talking to parents of older children, that although they don't realise this, they will probably have a totally different set of friends at 16 as they will at 11.

So, off we trekked to five open evenings. I've tried to keep Monkey on track and asked him to think about what he wants a school to be what the school would be like on a normal day, not when they are offering food in nearly every room. We went to one school where he ate sweets (lots), paella, shortbread, three different types of cheese, bockwurst, pain au chocolat (apparently seven bits, just to be sure), pretzel, stollen (two bits), croissant, orange squash, shortbread and lasagne. After tea!

I've tried to go with an open mind and have got better at planning our trips after our first when we unexpectedly arrived late due to traffic forcing a detour, listened to the speeches then only had about an hour to see round a large school (impossible, don't try it - allow at least 2-3 hours to see everything, especially if you want to hear the speeches). I'm very much into the "feel" of a place. This article, by a teacher, confirms I'm right to consider that. It's also why I don't just look at the schools at the top of the league tables or rated outstanding. Why? Although results tables are a guide, basing our choice next year solely on the results that will be published soon from summer 2014 doesn't seem right when Monkey will not be taking GCSEs until the summer of 2021, some seven years later. Schools can change a lot, for good or bad, in that time. And Ofsted? Well, I have my own views but it's hard to compare apples with apples when some were inspected recently and others not inspected for five years - again, a lot can happen in that time. It is just a snapshot of what the inspectors found on those two days. They are a guide but I won't let it put me off until I've seen it with my own eyes.

Getting a general feel for a place can be hard to do when there's a lot of people there at open evenings (and trust me, there can be LOADS; one was so popular, it created traffic jams) but we've been talking to the teachers, pupils and observing how the two appear to get on. We've also caught up with a few former pupils from the children's primary school when we've seen them to see how they're enjoying it.

The first school we went to see is our favourite. And you know what? We went to see an "outstanding" school last that I thought I'd like and I didn't like it that much, just like last time. Nor did the husband and neither did Missy, who has come to all but one. However, Monkey decided, having agreed with us, that the last might be his favourite after all! I think it was because there were an awful lot of people visiting who he knew. A lot of his friends are likely to choose there because of where they live. It's our nearest school but we are outside the priority area (for which read catchment) so our chances aren't as good.

We are planning a trip back to the first school (which we saw a month ago) to remind him what it was like, see it in the daytime and see the parts we missed on open evening. I'm certainly glad we are not doing this next year. Our second favourite looks like being a currently unfashionable school but was lovely, friendly and welcoming to visit. Monkey has also been there in the daytime on a school trip. We only went to the open evening because of this and were pleasantly surprised.

I think I'm coming to two conclusions - the first is to go to see schools, even if on paper they don't seem like the best choice and the second is to start at least a year early. If you're not happy after open evening season, you have time to cast the net wider before crunch time. Most schools are happy to show you around on a normal day. I'd ask why not if they don't.

And I've just thought of a third conclusion - you can definitely get open evening fatigue! I'm very glad they're all over but I least I have an idea of what's coming next year. I was going to say "know" but a lot can happen in that time.

PS If you are looking at grammar schools, you might want to start even earlier; some schools have open days in the summer term because of the need to take tests etc. At least check the school's website (and the local authority) for details so you don't miss out.

Choosing a school - an experience

A couple of weeks ago, I had a really great moment with Monkey. I was driving to collect Missy Woo from her last day at nursery. Monkey was with me as he wanted to come and say goodbye to them as well.

We got talking.

Me: "Do you miss nursery?"
Monkey: "Yes, Mummy."
Me: "Did you like it a lot then?"
Monkey: "Yes, Mummy."
Me: "But you like school as well though?"
Monkey: "Oh yes, even MORE, a lot MORE!"

He then went on to catalogue all the things he loves about school.

You can't begin to imagine how great that made me feel. You see, choosing a school was a bit of a nightmare for me and I ended up pretty obsessed with choosing the right one.

It should have been simple. I lived here for 6 years before I had children and there's a lovely school within walking distance. I had assumed my children would go to that one. Then I found out two years ago that our neighbour failed to get her son into the school. It was massively oversubscribed, thanks to a huge new estate being built nearby (houses first built 2001, school due 2011!) and more to the point, it was a faith school where you got priority if you attended church regularly. Now, I just don't do that kind of thing so we were faced with the prospect that we might not get a place. Worse, the local authority only allowed one choice and if you didn't get it, they allocated you the nearest school with a place. My neighbours were initially offered a school 4 miles away.

This forced me to look further afield. There are lots of primary schools in the immediate area, luckily all pretty good. I researched hordes of information about all of them, then started visiting. The first school we visited is the school that Monkey now goes to. I guess you could say we only needed to visit one. It wasn't meant to be like that - it just happened to be the first one we visited but from the second we walked in, it felt right. We loved the place, the teachers, the setting, the children, everything about it. Nothing seemed to match up to it - we looked at four as a family and I went to the open day at a fifth. When went to see the school nearby, I wasn't convinced that it was right for us anyway, plus I wasn't convinced we would even get a place, although the head tried to convince us we would be fine.

I still don't know if we would have got Monkey a place there. From what I know, it would have been touch and go. Occasionally, Monkey asks why he doesn't go there as a couple of his pre-school friends do. To add insult to injury, they have red uniforms - his favourite colour - whereas he has to wear green which rankles with him but they are minor niggles.

So, you can understand how vindicated I felt at that moment in the car. He has never once hated school, he didn't miss a day last year and virtually runs into school every morning. It's not just him - when they open the doors at school even on a dry day, the kids come running from all corners of the playground. I love that. If you visit the school, you never see anything other than happy faces.

September is the time of year when parents everywhere start to think about which school to choose for their child as applications for places open. What I learnt going through that process was that the most important thing was to do what feels right for your child (and you) and look for a school that suits them. Visiting a few schools really helped me realise they were all so, so different. Read the Ofsted reports and look at the league tables by all means but they should inform your thinking rather than make the final decision for you.

It also makes me sad that people assume that faith schools are automatically better because it has created a big rush towards them by parents from certain social classes which, in turn, makes the school appear better. If those parents had rushed towards a non-denominational school, the same thing would've happened. It's not the school what did it in other words.

A good school is a good school because it provides an all round education. It's not about numbers, league tables and Ofsted reports (although they provide a useful independent check). It cares for the children in their care as well as teaches them. If it doesn't do the first job, it might not do the second. If your child isn't happy at a school, is it really going to learn well, even if it is the top school in the area?

If you are applying this year for your child's school place, good luck with making your decision and I really hope I haven't scared you!

If you have experience to share relating to choosing and applying for a school, please feel free to leave a comment below (or link to it if you've blogged about it). Likewise, feel free to comment or ask questions if you have that joy to come.