Questions for a prospective school

[Foxinsocks90]

Hello! Hoping to draw on your experience.

I'm looking at three schools that are in our area to help inform decisions about a potential link we've had. Obviously a bit tough as we don't know the child well yet, we only have the profile which did not highlight any issues for consideration. We are looking at one larger school which has lots of resources available including a nuture room and trained staff, and two smaller village schools that offer lots of learning by play and outdoor activity and the best results and feedback in our immediate vicinity.

Obviously our choice will be mostly decided by the type of child we have and what we think they will thrive in best, but I wondered if anyone had any 'questions they wished they'd have asked' that they can share with me ahead of meeting the headteachers?

So far I'm thinking about questions around experience of LAC or previous LAC? Any help appreciated

Sorry- to clarify- this is Infants school, and not particularly concerned about academic achievement at this stage- my aims would be for them to feel safe, settled and be able to start building some good relationships.

I’d go with the school which has the most resources to support children who might struggle. In my experience village schools are lovely but don’t often understand the specific needs that adopted children might have just by virtue of being adopted.

In our case we went for a school that had a good number of children with additional needs - in my case the head teacher was just back from adoption leave so I knew she would get it, and indeed she does.

I’d be asking about their understanding of adopted children and their likely needs, the kinds of support they usually offer, and how they offer that support (eg is it obvious that your child is receiving support or is there a culture in the school of children generally being supported. I’d also be asking how they deal with behavioural issues and be very aware of shame based discipline systems.

Most of all, listen to how they speak about your child. When I enquired about a school place and nursery place the HT phoned me back immediately super enthusiastic about the prospect of them being in her school - that settled my mind more than any careful questions could.

I haven't adopted yet but work in an infant school and provide nurture support. I would ask about the specific class your child will be going in to and the level of need within that class and how much in class support they have. Also, the larger school might have a great nurture room but check your LO will be able to access it. Nurture rooms usually work with a limited number of pupils (small child to adult ratio is fundamental) and generally arent able to help as many children as they would like to.
I now work in a small country school and it is a lovely school but they definitely lack the resources to support children with additional needs although they try their best.
It is a mine field but I would say speak to the staff and see how you feel about them. They're the ones who will be helping your LO get through the day.

I'd ask if they ring fence ppp monies for your child once they are post-lac (it's always ring-fenced whilst they're a LAC) or if it goes into a general pot, what attachment training their staff have, what special arrangements they can put in place to ease the transition for your child, what their staff ratios are, whether they use reward/shame based discipline systems, how they maintain the relationship between teachers and parents and why they think they'd be the best choice for your adopted child.

This is a little bit random, but as well as all the adoption related reasons you’ll get advice on here, please don’t forget the basics.

Our DD recently started in pre-school, part of the school she’s supposed to go to. On Day 5, she was involved in an accident there, due to a pretty major safety breach and she had to be rushed to A&E and have an operation.

Now that I’ve looked into it, it seems like the school aren’t great on basic health and safety which is just something I’d have totally taken for granted. I was very focused on all the adoption related stuff and now I feel like I put my little girl at risk.

I know this seems a bit random and will not apply to most people but it’s just very much on my mind at the moment.

Gertruude All this. Do they recognise that PPP for post-lac kids may need to be spent differently thank for other types of PP? (eg. attachment training.)

In general, I would say steer clear of the 'tough on uniform, high achieving' super nice places full of middle class kids, unless you like doing the walk of shame to find out your child has bitten perfect Tabitha in year six, again.

Hope your DD gets well soon rainatnight.

Not adopted but my son has diagnosed SEN. We've just moved him from a large school (almost 700 at Primary level) in an affluent area which had an outstanding Ofsted and on paper a lot of resources to help him. The challenge was that they were so large he didn't get individual attention and as someone else mentioned, there were a lot of children across the large school who needed support. The school advertised themselves as 'adoption friendly' but all children needing extra focus had the same challenges.

His new school has

Foxinsocks90 I'd personally go for a school with a good robust policy on anti-bullying and one which sees interpersonal relationships etc as important.

I chose not to go to one school because the head (on a tour) basically said that some children kind of invite bullying by not really fitting in!

Rainatnight Hope little one is fine.

spinderella78 "Look for honesty as opposed to an outward gloss of perfection!" This X1,000 !!!!!!!!!!

For us, we really wish we'd probed further to see if the school had any understanding about attachment issues.

Our son is 7, came to us aged 6. It was really tough for him, and continues to be, although we are educating the school as we go along! Fortunately they are open to learning about how to help him in school, but their lack of LAC experience has made it harder all round.

One prospective school we visited had arranged for attachment training for all staff, and in hindsight we should have maybe gone with that one. We went with a smaller, cosier feeling school instead, but the disadvantage is that they haven't had much experience of adopted children, and even things like how to deal with the LA was a learning curve for them.

If they are not experienced in dealing with LAC, then question them on whether they have any staff training planned, or how open they are to the idea.

A good question would be what do they do when a child misbehaves? Watch out for the use of shaming methods, such as 'traffic light' charts on the wall, with children's names on, to monitor behaviour - not good for our children, who have internal shame in bucketloads to deal with already.

Similarly, it's important that our children are never sent out of class in a shaming way, and must never be isolated as a punishment. Does the school show any understanding of this, or know why it matters so much to adopted kids?

Other adoptive parents I've spoken to have said that generally looking for a school with good special needs provision is wise - they tend to be the larger schools, so it's a case of weighting things up once you know your LO's specific needs.

All the best with it.

Thanks everyone for your input- it was really helpful.
All three schools I visited were very good and really enthusiastic about the prospect of our LO's. One was a home away from home feel, where there was no reward charts, no ridiculous praise system and very calm feel with plenty of spaces for kids to have time out away from others with a trained adult. They had a school dog and the head had knowledge of the LAC system. Another was a bit bigger with a very enthusiastic head teacher who was actively engaged in offering suggestions of how they could support things like FASD and attachment difficulties, but the school was quite high achieving, there was a 'no rules' system and they did trips every week, which i'm wondering how LO would cope with. The last, largest school was manic in comparison to the previous two but had more resources and the positive that the kids just 'port' over to the neighbouring secondary school, which would reduce stress during transitions. They also had a breakfast club that would allow me to continue working full time.
It all depends on the kids we are matched I guess but its great to have options. I think I've decided I would rather go part time/quit work (we have that luxury) and put them in a school where they will flourish than have them struggle for the sake of a breakfast club. Who knows!

40chocolatebrioche you are very wise. I often forget the shame thing.

We chose a bigger school. Sid not want our little one to be the 'naughtiest' boy in a small school. Actually, he is very calm and well behaved but we didn't know as he came lotrrally weeks before we needed to select a school .

Working full time is hard for any parent. The holidays are very tough. I work part-time and sometimes from home.

Let us know which school you decide on.