When to visit secondary schools?

I've looked at one already, and dd1 is only Y4. I wanted to be able to go back in a year's time and see it again, as it has a lot of building work going on and is changing rapidly (improving).

The rest dh and I will look at early in Y5, so we can then take dd to see the ones that we consider possible in plenty of time.

The open day and evening of the school we chose were completely different to each other.

Open day - head's speech, Y7 head speech, taken round school in groups of 10 (by a head of department) to see each department in turn, visit to library, food hall, sports hall and generally see the kids in class interacting.

Open evening, - head's speech, taken round in groups of 4 families by Y11 children - general free for all, see a little bit of not a lot - more "activities" for the kids to make the school seem like fun, but not a lot of information really and sooooooooooooo crowded it was unbelievable.

Much preferred the open day.

Open evenings are great but are set up to showcase the school. For your top preferences I would recommend booking a personal tour during school hours as well.

BTW most schools operate 'turn up on the night' events and no-one is bothered whether you are Yr 5, Yr 4 or Yr 6. It's worth catching the headteacher's speech, gives a massive clue to the ethos of the school.

We went round all the schools we were interested in in Y5 and then visited again in Y6. I found all the Open Day dates from their websites or by calling.

We went round a few in Y5 and then targeted the ones ds wanted to have a second look at again in Y6. We had to put six on our application but I have to say that as he decided he wanted to go to our local feeder school I ended up putting that first, his second choice second then 4 on the list that I knew we wouldn't get if we put our feeder first and which we actually didn't bother to see given no one living where we live has ever not got the feeder which cut down quite how many we traipsed round last September.

Depends how many schools that you have a realistic choice of getting in to that you have. Where we live, I looked at 6 for my eldest, and went on my own, when he was in Yr5, to get a real feel for the school without getting distracted by all the "engage the child" activities on the way round, and also to try to narrow it down. If you only realistically have a choice of two, then it's perfectly do-able in Yr6.
By my 3rd, I just took her to a couple once she was in Yr6.
Here, all pupils get a booklet at the end of Yr5, listing all the open days and a snapshot of information about each school. Open evenings are all in the last two weeks of September.
Of course, if you have to work shifts or are committed to being other places, in the evenings, then it's probably best to try to get to some a year early.

Our catchment secondary sometimes runs sports events for the feeder primaries which is an opportunity to see how the secondary pupils (as youth leaders) interact with the young ones.

I went in Y5 and Y6.

The open evening dates were all listed on the councils' websites and/or in the application guide (although we're in a different part of the world to you).

We also recieved invitations to open evenings via the primary, from a couple of local secondaries.

You also want to go and see the schools on a normal day not just an open day, if at all possible. That is normally done without your children.

I visited 1 school at the end of year 4, then went to open evenings with DH or by myself at the start of year 5, I also visited some private schools and talked to the primary school head. Once we'd made up our minds pretty much, I took my DC to the open evenings, and took their opinion into consideration.

For DC2 I just took them to open evenings of the real possibilities, and we discussed their views.

I went around a few in year 5 to show my sons what they looked liked and got a general feel of the place. Then in year 6 they are less daunting, and you can focus on key elements.

the timing of the y6 open days is far too near the date the application form has to be in so y5 is most what most people I know have always done.

We went last year before Dd started in Year 5. I wanted time to make the right decision. They are usually July and then September/October here. Applications have to be in end of October.