What are 'green flags' that you would look for when choosing a secondary school?

Just the local village school! They are lucky to have loads of land, it can't be built on so has no value to anyone really.

Breadth of subjects on offer.
Low staff turnover.
Extracurricular clubs/trips.
Green outdoors space.
Good pastoral care.
Good SEN provision.
Inclusive and welcoming atmosphere.

@PuttingDownRoots - that sounds amazing! Their own camping ground as well. What type of school is it?

Things I love about DDs school...

1. The head teacher teaches all the Yr7 and 8s for one term each year. She elected to teach Food Technology. So she meets them all in a relaxed environment. She might not remember all their names (there's 1000 pupils) but she has talked to them all individually.

1. Wide range of extracurricular.

1. Teaches vocational and academic subjects. This term DD has Music, Photography and Dance for example. (They rotate through a list of artistic and technical subjects)

1. Schoool camp. They have their own camp ground. But I concede thats a rural thing... inner city schools don't have enough fields going spare to set one aside just for camping on!!

I think that's a very good point. You can't see perhaps the most important green flags, but of course you can't - that's just the way of it.

Absolutely.

The question being asked here though is what green flags do you look for when considering a school. I can’t actually see Mr Jones doing 50 hours a week overtime at home so I can’t mark that as a green flag in this scenario can I?

I can only judge on what I actually see or hear of from the local parenting community. Which is why I have added it as just one thing in a list of positives to look for in a school ( and by no means a deal breaker on its own).

@PheobeBebe - I'm guessing you're talking about Primary Heads here? Where I teach there are 1,850 students... I can just about remember the names of the ones I teach 😉

I think that's amazing - it certainly is "over and above" giving the demands of the job.
I think most parents would understand why many teachers can't do that, though.

How the head interacts with the children.

The head sets the tone for the whole school IMO - thankfully the head at the kids school knows all of the kids names and manages to hit the sweet spot of commanding respect and discipline, whilst still being approachable and friendly.

Also on the list, teachers interactions with the children, extra curricular activities on offer (I.e. do they celebrate and invest time in things other than academics), facilities, travel options to and from, subject choices at gcse and beyond

If the teachers appear to actually like teenagers, that's good.

Totally this, the choice of school is an illusion in areas where schools are full or oversubscribed.

We could have had a choice of high school, but only to less desirable options further away from home.

(On top of excellent exam results I should add)

I didn’t mean that at all. Christ, if you’re a teacher at all you’re invested! But in my experience we have teachers at our (state) school forever supporting school productions, classics clubs, chess clubs etc on top of everything else. It shows an over and above approach to what they do which is what I think tips a school from good to outstanding. And we are being asked for green flags here.

If teachers don't run after school clubs, it doesn't mean they're not "invested". Maybe they're working hard on teaching and learning and continuing that work after hours.

Council data should show how many children of staff are offered a place. I think that says a lot.
As does staff turn over / number of vacancies in staff.

Local reputation speaks volumes.

Accessible head teacher.

lots of extra curricular clubs - it shows very invested teachers.

Schools will never please all parents.
This is why our inboxes are so full every morning!

@zaxxon fair enough. My experience round these parts is that the wishy washy on disciplinine schools are the failing ones.

I like a school that is strict, with zero tolerance of poor behaviour.

Tastes vary - this would be a red flag for me

Choose a school that’s right for your child, not your friend’s child.

Friend A may be raving about school x, its sports facilities, etc, but if you have a child that refers performing arts, then choose school Y.

I like a school that is strict, with zero tolerance of poor behaviour.

I want it to have a policy of no phones allowed on during the school day (and that if the rule is broken, the phone is removed from the child and a parent has to come to collect it)

High GCSE results.

Classes set on ability from year 7 onwards.

Low staff turnover.

OFSTED outstanding under the current head.

One of the things I really liked about my DC's school was the emphasis placed on art, music and drama. He has gone on to be very involved with drama and to choose two Music-related A-Levels and I am sure that would not have happened had he gone to another school. (That's not to say that other parts of his experience wouldn't have been better though!)

You're right, student work isn't displayed anymore. In any subject.

Excellent pastoral care, SEN provision, how the staff interact with pupils, a reasonable consequence system that enables standards to be upheld but allows tailoring for individual circumstances and not petty. Also stand outside at home time and observe. There will always be a bit of boisterous behaviour but if the exodus is generally calm with not too much swearing, evidence of bullying etc it's a good sign. Things like osfted reports and open events are for superficial information only in my experience, though looking round gives you a feel for the place and how your child might get on there. I didn't want something too big for DS.

As a secondary maths teacher, I disagree somewhat with “interesting displays of the students’ work”. I have basically no displays of their work in my classroom, because their work is mainly algebra/geometry/arithmetic/probability etc and I can’t see the point of making a display of it. Displays seem like a waste of my time and my students’ time.

My ds was at primary school where he was lonely because he didn't like football. He was bored in class and felt held back in year 6. Hated sport. He came out angry, miserable and frustrated. Being turned off school. I was very worried.

We found a (shabby, unfashionable) school that encouraged different kinds of sport, had a very strong maths department, lots of extra-curriculars to try, great pastoral care. Kind teachers who had the time to care. DS went for three taster days and was offered a 50% maths bursary. Classes of 23 so not tiny but better than most. A very happy vibe, no hot-housing.

Financially it has been a massive stretch for me but it's worked brilliantly. DS is happy, confident, sociable, enjoying sport. Suddenly a young man rather than a depressed child. Such a relief.