Secondary school open days/evenings

Do you actually believe that taking your child out of school for 3 mornings will damage her academically?

Or is it just that you don't want to spoil her perfect record?

I think it is more important to focus on what actually matters. Her perfect record doesn't matter, her future secondary school choice does. She should be a part of that decision.

We are going to both. Someone did say that if you are going to a few then either do all mornings or all evenings (or both), don't mix and match as the atmosphere is very different. It goes down as educated off site. I think that it is important for the parent to narrow the options a little, but the child should also have a say. One DHT said that when buying a house you would visit a number of times at different times of the day so why not a school. I did like that DHT, would be top choice if we were closer.

You see, I happen to think it's a bit strange to tell a 10 year old that they can choose whichever school they go to. Takes all sorts!

But then when I sold my house it was to a family whose 9 year old decided he liked the garden, so there are lots of kids making massive decisions. My old neighbour told me they moved a year later - I often wondered if their 10 year old tired of the garden!

cauliflower you have a very strange attitude for a teacher, it was definitely my DDs choice which school they went to, just as I remember it being my choice when I went.

I offered guidance but that's all, same went for 6th form and university.

Nope I didn't say that. I said I think they should be at open evenings definitely. This gives them a good chance to talk to teachers and try out activities and get an idea of the environment and talk to lots of different students.

And I believe that their view should be taken into account when parents make their decision.

All our local schools do one afternoon, so straight after school and one evening, except one that does a Saturday. Generally you go to lots in Y5 to narrow down your choice and then to your selected one or 2 in Y6.

I took both DD with me when DD1 was in Y6 and they agreed on a school together. Can't imagine going without the DC in our family it was definitely their choice.

I've been on the other side and always seen families looking around never just parents, younger siblings are fine, older ones are not.

And YY to the head's speech being boring, Ive sat through too many and knew the words by the end of my time.

I took my kids with me to open evenings and day visits, their primary school encourages it and happily gives the time off. Secondaries are all geared up for a few weeks of individual visits on top of their open evening, and by the nature of the tours offered, they also expect the pupils to attend. As
they will be spending most of their days in the new school so they really need to be involved in the decision, at least have some idea of the school during normal hours. Luckily my kids agreed about the options, and also how the visits went. Hmm Cauliflower so you don't want any fellow pupils that take an active interests in their education, just those that do as they're told...

I can't imagine either the secondary schools being too impressed with hoardes of visitors when they are trying to teach (I realise they put on an open morning for the odd family who need to do this for some reason)

It's not fabulous. It can be quite disruptive and some parents are actually ridiculous enough to try and ask you questions when you're right in the middle of teaching. A dad once joined in with the lesson and called out an answer. It's not the "odd family" it's quite a lot. I don't particularly mind the parents coming round - I think it's probably useful for them to see a school in operation if they are worried. I did think one couple who came to all 3 open mornings were particularly ridiculous. But I don't like seeing kids at the open mornings as I said.

I expect children to attend the open evening.

I do not expect them to attend open mornings - I always have a good look at those children who are wandering around when they should be at school, and hope they aren't coming to our school.

I feel parents should make the final decision. Kids will pick a school because they like the uniform or their best friend is going there. They're 10 years old - their point of view should be taken into account but they should not have the final say in my opinion.

Yes of course DD came with us to open evenings - the final choice was hers. And its a good idea to see the school during normal operations too, can give a very different impression.(the one we all ended up preferring was horribly overcrowded on open evening, but lovely in reality).

Will primary schools not authorise absences for a couple of schooltime tours nowadays? DDs was perfectly happy with it. But getting the right secondary school is way more important than 100% attendance record anyway.

At our school if they goto the secondary school with you it is classed as an authorised day off as a visit to another school. Not sure if all schools do this but I checked this morning as i don't want my sons attendance affected.

I think it is important for a child to see a potential new school as he/she will be spending so much time there.

Younger DD is 6 (in year 2) so unlikely to climb or puke on other people

nickEcave that was a similar situation to us, two boroughs plus edge of Kent and grammar, comps and indies so we had a long list we needed to whittle down. We did see lots take younger children and many were well behaved but I always managed to sit near the one who was making such a racquet or were climbing over me or puking over me or loudly watching some film on an ipad that it did make me rather fed up and feeling rather uncharitable to the parents who had caused me to miss some or most of the talk.

nickE - it's fine to take the younger sibling if it's a big open evening. I'd bear in mind thought that if the evening features a headteacher's talk, they are likely to find it very dull. also they might find the whole "big school" thing quite overwhelming - my DD was reduced to tears when we took her to a school open day and she was 8!

A high school my dd could potentially go to is holding a 'taster day' for Y6 pupils next week, they get to spend the whole day there doing lessons. The open evening for prospective parents (and children) is the following week.

I'm going to go to one. My DD has just started Y6. It's our first choice. It's a all girls state school and a 15 min walk. It is under subscribed. It's new only 5 years old . She has been there in Y5 a few times. I'm worrying more about the other 2 picks we have to make.

My daughter is in Yr5 of a London school and we are starting to do open evenings and saturday open days this year. We are on the boundary of 3 boroughs and will probably need to look at 10 schools to narrow the list down to 6 and it will probably still be a lottery which one she actually gets! Can I ask people who've done this already, is it OK to take a younger sibling (age 6) to the open days/evenings? Both DH and I want to see the schools and we don't have anyone to leave DD2 with.

Forgot to add that we took dd with us to all school visits.

Day time tours are common where I live. Our primary marked it as an educational activity or educated off site so DD's attendance was not affected. When we were looking for a school for DD last year we went to both the open evenings and day time tours and I would highly recommend it if you can go to both. I found that you get a very different view of the school when the children are in lessons. The open evenings are very crowded and hectic and the school is showing you what they want you to see. However, the day time tours give you a different perspective on the school. There was one school that I wasn't sure of after the open evening but, after the tour and seeing the lessons in progress I was really impressed. Likewise, there was a school that I really liked on the open evening but, after visiting during the day, I realised it really wasn't a good fit for dd.

I took DS (and will take DD) as I think it's important for the child to see their potential future school as well. Round here the open days are all evenings or Saturdays - I'd find it very odd (and probably impossible to manage from a space perspective) to walk round a school during the school day (and I also wouldn't want to take my child out of their current school).

As others have said, the school is set up to give you a flavor of what happens in school.

We took DD to the afternoon and evening sessions for our local schools - for the afternoon session she was collected after the register was taken. We then took her out to visit the main contender during their open morning (which is limited to a set number of people). We got an authorised absence from her Primary school for this.

We did both.

Some schools we visited put on an open evening (with headmasters speech etc) plus tour of the school by older pupils where exciting 'events' took place within certain rooms - e.g. Drama in the drama room, a small orchestra in the music room, touch and feel historical artifacts for history and science experiments etc. All very designed for prospective students to join in.

Other schools had a separate open evening with headmasters speech and then designated open mornings where a few pupils took us on a school tour for about an hour. These were very much quieter affairs obviously (as the children were learning!).

My dd's primary were more than happy for my dd to go on an open morning and it was put down as 'attending elsewhere' for a morning.

I went with DS to open evenings, then me or DH went back to the morning ones if it was a school we were considering The ones during the day are really useful as you see the school in session. Even though there's an element of everyone on best behaviour you still get a sense of what the school's like in terms of calm (or not!)

My DC's secondary runs tours on a weekly basis except during application season when it has two mornings where it takes pretty much everyone through on group tours. (Outside of this it is often taking groups of: visiting dignitaries, teachers from other schools, trainee teachers, prospective teachers etc. Around the school). Teachers are well used to being observed at random points through the day.