Secondary School Open Evenings

[Jaijai38]

Hi

We have a ds in year 6 and the secondary school open evenings start tonight. We live in a city where schools are very oversubscribed and we have a catchment of one school which is considered "the bad" school.

In previous years people have managed to avoid it with appeals and such but there is no guarantee that we would succeed so we have decided to view as many school as possible - and then make an educated gamble on our application form! And then appeal etc.

But what am really asking is apart from OFSTED and the general feel what should we be asking?

Thanks

[Jaijai38]

Thanks - that is very helpful !

Sadly no one want our catchment school as it is mainly pulls from a the" Bad Estate" and the rest from areas that are now mainly student residents so there are not enough kids. So it is now an academy and shiny and new - but still the same pool of students! And not really similar to my son at all

[Badbadbunny]

Go to the open evenings and gauge how the teachers engage with you and your child.

It's a bad sign if you walk into a classroom and the teachers continue talking to eachother, trying to avoid eye contact with you, and appear to try to avoid talking to you and your child. We had that at a couple - almost made to feel we were intruding! There were activities laid out on tables and on computer screens, but we were left to ourselves to try them out. The teachers really were trying to leave it to the pupils to do the tours and answer our questions.

For us, two schools were very good in that the teachers would pro-actively walk over and engage with our son, show him things, talk to him, some played board games with him, some sat with him on a computer to get him started. A much better atmosphere and my son really liked the way the teachers treated him.

For us, bright new shiny buildings and classrooms full of new kit were just no substitute for the human touch of the teachers he'll be with for the next 7 years!

[Jaijai38]

Thanks ! I am not sure it is the same area as we have no 11 plus near us! Today's view is a school we have little chance of getting and am out of area so we can go from there! We are on the south coast and they are proposing a free school meal percentage of pupils in each school. Which where we are means it will be like a lottery system in the more deprived areas as to whether you get a good school - no plan it seems to improve the school

[smellylittleorange]

Hi Jaijai I am south coast know a bit about local schools pm me if you like. Dd goes to a school 11 miles away..we visited during school day . A school with a good vibe etc and good range of students and subjects was what we looked for and found it . She is very happy and pastorally the school has been more supportive than I could have imagined

[charlestrenet]

I agree with unlockable that the best way to judge a school is to see it outside of open evenings. When ds1 was moving up his chronic health condition flared up around the time of open evenings so we had to go and look around most of the schools at other times, which was quite different to all the bells and whistles tours and in the end we plumped for a school I'd barely considered before but that we looked round on a Friday afternoon (ie the time when things tend to fall apart if they're going to) and completely changed our minds about it. So it may be worth you saying you can't make it to the open evenings and getting your own little tour at another time. The primary allowed us time away for this purpose with no quibbles.

[Jaijai38]

Thanks all - we had a good evening seeing two schools - still five more to see!

I could see instantly where my son felt more comfortable - the out of area school. Both open evenings started at 5.30 but we did not get to the first till near seven and the second about 8 which was good as crowds had thinned a lot.

Was very interesting as Badbabbunny said - some teachers avoided conversation and some where so please to see you there and so enthusiastic about their subjects

What I can't get my head round is it all a gamble because of catchments - I like to know everything and we won't - how many kids, how many places, what school is currently fashionable in each part of town!

[BackforGood]

Also, don't get fixated on one detail "they offer 2 MFLs at GCSE" or "All dc get the chance to do separate sciences at GCSE" etc. - the curriculum will change several times before your dc get there, and it's also perfectly possible the member of staff who teaches - say - Spanish will leave and they won't be able to replace them. Pick up on several of these things and count them as only one part of the decision.

If at all possible, get shown round by an older pupil - we've been to schools where they've used Yr7s, 2 weeks into term - totally ridiculoous and can't answer anything except if they felt welcome

When they offer things that sound good, as 'extra curricular', find out how many can do it. DofE, for example is something schools like to talk about, but some schools only sign up 25 people from the whole year group

Think of your child when hearing facts and figures. If the school holds the champions cup for the County at football, that's lovely, but what opportunities are there for your dc if they aren't the in best 16 in the year for football. What about music? They may have the Young Musician of the year at school, but how many dc actually go to choir / band practice / orchestra / drama performances?

Travel? You driving them there on a light September evening is one thing, but how will they travel back after band practice at 5pm on a dark January night?