What are you looking for in a secondary school?

[Nena7]

Hi, I'm interested in finding out what qualities parents are looking for when choosing a secondary school? Would be grateful if you could let me know what you rate the most important factors. Thank you!

[MarjorieMelon]

Somewhere where I can imagine my dc's and a place that they will be happy attending.

In no particular order my criteria included:

• friendly welcoming atmosphere
  
• high standards
  
• confidence in the head teacher and leadership team
  
• variety of clubs and activities
  
• good academic results and a high proportion of pupils moving onto good universities
  
• opportunities for pupils to get involved in leadership activities

[PastSellByDate]

Nena7:

I think it ends up being a balance between parental desires for good educational outcomes and respecting your child's desires (staying with friendship group/ sports opportunities/ support of educational interests/ etc...)

For us:

Stability (we just left a primary in constant revolutionary change - new initiative after new initiative introduced & abandoned).

Good results (GCSE/ A-Level/ OFSTED report)

Good reputation locally (friends with kids there think it's a good school)

and then MarjorieMelon's list...

[foxdongle]

Great teaching/interesting teachers that engage and like working with teenagers of all abilities and encouraging progression.

Good results.

Good communication. Our primary was lacking.

Strong leadership.

[Notinaminutenow]

What Marjorie listed.

Also, most importantly for us, a relatively stable teaching staff that actually seem to like teenagers.

[TeenAndTween]

Good Pastoral support.

Good results achieved for my type of child.

Flexible GCSE options.

Care about whole child, not just results.

Good communication with parents.

[holmessweetholmes]

A realistic rather than slavish attitude to Ofsted's requirements. Regarding students as individuals, not numbers on a graph. Setting in as many subjects as possible. Good staff retention. A generally well-behaved and motivated cohort of kids (I'd put that pretty much at the top of the list actually).