Viewing a school tonight

"Ask a probing question. Ask how many teachers educate or are willing to educate their kids in the school.

If the answer is zero... you have your answer. If it's not good enough for ghe it kids, why should it be good enough for yours?"

There could be a million reasons why teacher's own children are not educated in that school.

Personally my DS did not attend any school I worked at due to
a) not living any where near the schools I worked at
b) if I leave for a new job does that mean my DS changes schools?
c) I would be a nightmare - my DS deserves some time away from his nosey mother!

That does not mean that my current school isn't any good

Giles great thread am on my second ever tour this pm,. Great tips here. Just been to two grammar one on bucks and one over the border couldn't have been more different. One was so impressive, jazz hands, fun enthusiastic teachers, great pupils, jaw dropping arts, Sewing etc. Tons of food. Piles of food being pushed by friendly teachers all engaging with dd.

T. Other Tonight, wow... Plate of biscuits out on show , dd eyes them up and snarling French teacher glares at her and asks her if she's very very hungry and then with great point, reluctantly gives her one now I'm not going to base educational choices on this but... Yesterday French department Had a table stacked high with croissant, cheese, pain au chocolate, loads of interaction... Please takes... Rating food and matching names in French..

Such a shame.

I am also asking the tour guides about bullying, do they feel safe, do they feel school takes bullying seriously, do they feel comfortable going to canteen alone, how did they find 11+ did they do much tutoring, do they find work hard, is atmosphere relaxed or pressured, are they glad to be there! Do they like teachers, does head know them by name or ever spoken to them. Do they enjoy the arts , drama etc.. Art..

If you have a middle achiever it is always worth asking how they cater to them. Lots of schools focus on the top achievers (boost results) and the lower bands (bolster progress 8) and those in the middle can be left to coast.

Just been to one tonight and have another tomorrow, wish I'd read this before. We didn't take the tour but went round to the areas we were particularly interested in (maths, science, languages, DT, learning support). Some teachers really made an effort to talk to DS, others were too busy talking to each other or too quick to show us the games rather than engage (I felt).

Ha ha Camper. It's funny the things that can make you warm to a school. I remember when we were looking at schools for dd1 and i looked at the school newsletter for the one she now attends. There was a photo of some boys on a school trip/event doing funny poses/silly expressions for the camera and it appealed to me because it reminded me of the sort of sense of humour me and my friends had at school!

I wouldn't bother with clever clever questions supposedly designed to catch a school out.

Ask if they do triple science and double science as separate choices. How many MFLs on offer. What subjects are set and streamed.

Factual stuff that will affect what and how your child learns.

We saw a school that did Open Days on school teaching days. Went into one class and the students all went into this melodramatic horror film act, yelling 'don't send your children here'. The teacher looked both mortified and as if they could barely stop laughing.

We immediately put the school top of our list.

We went round one school that did nothing to 'sell' itself it was quite interesting to see it in comparison to another school that seemed to 'oversell' to the point it made me wonder if they were hiding anything.

The former mentioned school covers quite a geographical area and is pretty much the only choice for some people coupled with fairly good results and so it was very much 'this is us'

Thanks for that viques.

Not sure which of my questions you objected to and you think made me sound like a snarky prick but I think it's helpful to know what worries a HT has. Is it funding? Is it concerns over exam changes? Is it concerns that every head has or specific to that school?

I also think it's helpful to know where pupils go to after they leave the school. Is going to uni "expected" of the pupils? Does the school encourage apprenticeships?

I always ask the pupils "if you could change one thing about the school, what would it be?"
Their responses can be quite revealing. Good luck.

All of the above but also as you're wandering around consider if you'd like to go there

I matter, that's a waste of a question and just makes you sound snarky (believe me, I've been asked it and thought the parent sounded like a prick,which indeed he turned out to be) Ask a more specific question, eg How have recent funding changes affected the school budget?

Ask what happens at wet lunchtimes if students are showing you around.

Look at displays, are they well displayed, mounted, looking fresh, it's the beginning of the year so would not expect everything to be complete, but would not want to see stuff left over from last year.

Their kids*

Ask a probing quesion. Ask how many teachers educate or are willing to educate their kids in the school.

If the answer is zero... you have your answer. If it's not good enough for ghe it kids, why should it be good enough for yours?

Ask the head what his biggest concern is at the school/what keeps him awake at night. If he says he hasn't got any concerns then you know he's a liar.

Ask where the pupils go to next when they've finished school. Uni? Apprenticeships? College? Employment? Nothing?

Ask the students doing the fancy experiments if they have done them before in class. A significant number of schools put on brilliant shows with science and art but fail to tell potential parents it only happens in year 10 and on open evenings.

Ask if your childs preferred sport has a team thats open to year 7s. DD started high school expecting to join several clubs only to find theyre for years 8/9+ and not 7. That made her first year at high school really crap.

The Headteacher will always beef up the school. Take it all with a pinch of salt and decide if you're happy with only 50% of what theyre offering as thats about how much turns out to be true in many instances.

They will not be able to give you accurate exam results as theres nothing yet to compare them to. Ask about historical results and ask if they have changed the teaching with the new curriculum. If the answers no and they seem reasonable then thats fine. If they have changed teaching methods that suggests they were expecting better and are now trying to fix issues that have cropped up.

No other advice than what's been given apart from keep your eyes peeled on the way to and from the event. When I was walking DS to an open evening yesterday we saw 3 older boys in the school uniform beating up a smaller boy and it was only when a man and his dog started to get near them they left him and ran away. Very eye opening!

oh yes re languages, ask what's on offer and how they get decided. many want spanish but get french or german

Unless your DC are absolutely superb at sports, you will want to ask how many teams the school have in each age group for each sport.

If it's only the netball A team that gets fixtures, if you're not in the top 9 in the year (of 80? 100? 120?) you're not going to get much match play.

It can be a big problem for kids who shone at their primary school, but are just below the A team cut off at secondary.

The fact that my DC's schools had regular fixtures for C and D teams was a big plus for me, and has proved fantastic for them and kept their enthusiasm.

Changes to skirts are usually a response to the perennial problem of skirts being rolled up and male teachers feeling embarassed about seeming to look at girls legs. So Kilts are popular as they look awful rolled up, or logos so a teacher just has to ask to "see the logo" which shows the skirt is not rolled.

definitely grill your guide. We went to our first choice school last week and guides were either yr 8's or 6th form. We had a 6th form boy who had been at the school for 3 weeks (it is a girls school up to yr 11) and so got some really interesting opinions from him. He was lovely and said that the teachers had been more supportive and offered more guidance in 3 weeks than his previous school (the local boys school) had been in 5 years and he said he wished he could have come to the school from year 7 which I thought was nice. Gave me a nice feeling about the school, even though they are ruthless in their drive for results.