When to take my DS to open day or evening?

I should add, we had 11 secondaries that we could have included on the state form (some much more likely than others), so it felt like a difficult choice (plus the independent that we eventually went for). Other people literally have a choice between two feasible schools, so it's simply a case of picking the preferred option to list first. It can be a very different process depending where you live.

I went to a few in Y4 just to narrow things down, then DH took DD to my shortlist in Y5. We were lucky we did it all so early, as covid meant noone saw any schools in Y6. In normal times though, I'd happily do the legwork in Y5, and then take DC round the ones we liked best in Y6.

If Wales works the same as England, then applications close around end of October. So lots of people just do Open Days in the Sept/Oct of Y6, then decide. But as the PP said, if you've got lots of options (and particularly if you're deciding whether to enter for 11+), then going in Y5 can start to narrow things down. We did go to one in Y4, but only because it did its open day in the summer, and we were making 11+ decisions, and summer of Y5 felt like too long to wait.

I’m not in Wales, but our local secondaries hold their open evenings and invite years 5&6 to come. I took DS3 in year 5, which turned out to be a good thing as CV restrictions meant we couldn’t take him this year. No one is going to ask you on the evening. Most schools will have an open evening in the period that applications for secondary are open.

I think it depends on how many realistic choices you have.

If you are looking at 6 or 7 schools, then it probably isn't a bad idea to look at a couple at the start of Yr5.

Certainly when I was taking my dc (not Swansea) some years ago, it was quite an intense fortnight of trying to pack all the schools in, around the rest of your life. If you happened to not be well or something (or something unforeseen like the pandemic means they don't happen) then you'll be glad you've looked in Yr 5 and not put all eggs into one basket in Yr6.

However if it is pretty likely they will go to one particular school, or, if it is between 2 schools, then I'd just go at the start of Yr6