How to choose a secondary school in 12 hours?

Op you can look at and compare school results at GCSE on a gov.uk page. Progress 8 should ideally be a positive figure - it details progrsss made by dc so factors in if they arrive at school with good attainment. +1 would be excellent, +0.3 is still good.

Also numbers achieving GCSE passes - this is a blunter tool imho as it doesn’t account for brighter dc but again, gives an idea of how well kids do.

How many slots do you have? It’s vital to put your local school on there somewhere, even if you are not keen, or you may be allocated somewhere miles away. Remember you are expressing a preference. Still put your fave at number 1 tho.

I second the idea of asking your child’s teacher or head - could you go in tomorrow and have a chat, where do dc usually go?

Welcome to the UK 🙃

Tonight, go on locrating.com and set the filter to find secondary schools near you.

Google the name of each school plus “Ofsted report” and read each Ofsted report. I find them very accurate. Put schools in rough order of preference then tomorrow call each school to ask if a child at your address is likely to get in.

Join as many local facebook groups as you can find, explain the situation and ask people to send you messages with their frank opinions of local secondary schools.

(I have noticed on my local fb that when someone posts “Which local schools do you recommend” parents at the worst school pile on to say their school is wonderful, and this can five new omers a real false impression. But all you need is one honest message from someone who knows the area well.)

Also beg your school office receptionist for their personal opinion.

In many areas you don’t have as many choices as you think, which may actually help with the stress!

If you have to decide in nothing except the Ofsted reports that will still be enough information to help you work out which schools are best.

Most applicants will list their closest, higher performing schools. There should be league tables available with stats for gcse like % at 8/9, achieving minimum of 5 above including grade 4 in English and Maths

This evening, look at your local authority's schools admission pages (and those of neighbouring borough, if you're close to a boundary) and make a list of all the schools with a reasonable journey for your DS.

Then look at the entrance criteria - there will be a priority list. You should be able to work out which category your DS would fall in to (ask again here if not sure, remember they can vary between schools).

Then you need to drill down a bit. If the school is over subscribed, you need to find out in which category was the cut off, and (assuming distance is the tie-breaker) what the greatest distance offered was (this should be published on school or LA website)

This is so you can see what schools your DS might qualify for. Distances can vary between years, though. So you need to fill all the slots on the form, in genuine order of preference.

Fine to put a long-shot school first, then a maybe second, but in the last slot you need a school that's as near-as-dammit a certainty. Because even if you don't like the look of it much, better that than to get none of your preferences and be allocated a school that is just as iffy and not even convenient.

Do ask any other parents about where the primary pupils go, and why they chose it (does DS have any friends with older siblings?) People are usually helpful

You can get a certain amount from websites but word of mouth will be more useful if you can access it. If distances are mentioned a lot, it sounds like you don’t have a catchment school but have a look on the local authority’s website to make sure.

Have a look at their Ofsted reports but also look at the date of them - some will be very old by now and not hugely reliable, which is where local reputation comes in. Have a look at the curriculum in each option if there are things you think your child would particularly like to do at GCSE - specific language maybe? - and also the extra curricular offerings.

Look at the schools website and social media.

read the ofsted reports.

post on any local Facebook sites to ask for opinions on the schools.

if you can phone the schools tomorrow morning and explain and ask if you can look around tomorrow

Firstly, take a deep breath. Things could be considerably worse (you've noticed a day before, not a day after the deadline)

Is it half term for you this week? If not, then see if you can get hold of DS's teacher (OK, usually a bad idea, but as this is unusually pressing and as a new arrival you have few others to turn to) and ask which schools pupils usually move on to, and if they have any thoughts they can share on where might suit him (answer to that might be "no", but I'd hope they can tell you leavers' destinations even if unwilling to make a personal recommendation)

Or yes, as PP said, just ask here with URGENT in the title!

Do you know anyone locally with similar age kids to ask? Even if they’re just an acquaintance, I’m sure people would be happy to give you a steer.

Go and talk to the school office.
Find out which school kids go to from their primary.
Ask for any informal feedback they have.

Find out which is your closest school, make sure that goes on the list somewhere.

Does your child have any additional needs? What are they like socially, confident? What are their stronger and weaker subjects? Do you think they need an academic place or not so much?

The most obvious question, if you’re willing to answer, is where you are? Is it an area with catchments (if you know that)? Is there a local Facebook group you could join and see what the chat about schools is?