Questions for potential primary schools

[Stinkyjellycat]

We will shortly be applying for primary for my DC (adopted as a baby). Is there anything anyone wishes they had asked a school before applying? I’ve already looked at numbers of post-LAC children the schools have and how the pupil premium is spent. I have a general question about how post-LAC kids are supported but it all feels a bit generic. What am I missing?

At present, my D.C. has no apparent ‘issues’ and is doing well socially and in terms of their overall development.

I was in a similar position last year. The only thing I'd add to what you've got is their behaviour policy. I quickly ruled out a newish school with a fairly backward behaviour policy where well behaved pupils have their names moved onto a rainbow and bad behaviour results in having your name placed on a rain cloud. My DS is not someone I think of as having bad behaviour but we can't know at age four how things are going to pan out over the next seven years, and I just couldn't stand the thought of DS's name being displayed on a rain cloud. I think more schools are looking towards a more therapeutic approach to behaviour management across the board and logical consequences. So I went for one such school. It also happened to have a really good programme of music and sports, which my DS is interested in, and very good word-of-mouth reviews from other parents. So far so good and DS loves going to school.

Like you, we asked about PP plus, numbers etc. and narrowed it down to three schools. (The ones who said ‘how lucky you adopted him as a baby so he won’t have any issues’ were immediately discarded!).

We ended up going for the one of the three with the worst Ofsted and lowest KS2 results as we felt it was the most nurturing and placed value on more than just academic achievement. We also liked their child centred behaviour policy. We really appreciated the fact that our chosen school was the only one who introduced us to the Reception teacher and TA (both of whom were lovely) and offered to do a home visit. I’d check what interventions are offered (Thrive, nature garden, Lego Theraoy etc) in case your son goes on to have difficulties later on .

It’s a decision we are so glad we took as the school is wonderful, brilliant with our son’s emerging issues and has a really good understanding of attachment issues.

One that appears to listen and understand that AC may have different needs.
One where in normal times there are easy communication routes between parents and class teachers.
One where they teach phonics properly.

Think about the ways your dc might struggle, and when talking to the head, and if possible the teacher, give concrete examples of challenging behaviour your dc might have, or difficulties, or struggles, and see how she/they react. A good experienced one will nod sagely with a wry smile, will not be shocked, and will give reassuring sensible examples of how they deal with things!

@UnderTheNameOfSanders have you had a bad experience with phonics?!

snow No bad experience, no. Just amazed at over the years the amount of parents on MN whose schools still encourage look and guess from the first letter of the word, or from the pictures. It seems a lot of schools are still teaching mixed methods which gets worse results than pure phonics .

Adult DD1 learned to read before she came to us aged 8. Her phonics is poor, and she struggles to read more complicated words she knows verbally but hasn't seen written down before.
DD2 learned 'properly' and when careful can read 'new' words fine (though her audio processing gets in the way a bit).

Thank you all for your answers. This has helped so much. I’m going to download the behaviour policies now and get writing!

@sunshineandskyscrapers
That rain cloud system is appalling! I can’t imagine what they were thinking.....

@snowcrystals
My DC doesn’t have any issues or challenging behaviour at this stage so I can’t really give concrete examples. I’ll have to ask more generally about managing transitions and hypothetical issues I think.

I’d also explore their understanding of the impact of early trauma - do they get how those very early experiences can impact as children grow and develop even if they’ve been placed for adoption in babyhood. I’d also look at the way the school staff interact with parents and how they respond to concerns raised by parents. Do they work with need as they see it in school or through discussion with parents or will they only make accommodations based on ECHP?

What nurture processes do they have in place and how are they accessed, what’s the classroom environment like. With my kids their head teacher was actively enthusiastic about them joining the school and could tell me where she saw them fitting in their respective classes and has clear rationale for choosing the teacher and class groups etc. That accommodation has been invaluable throughout their time in school and while there have been problems it’s been easier to resolve issues because the willingness to get it right has been there from the outset.

When I visited schools, I dropped in a few words associated with adoption, such as trauma, attachment (overused and over simplified, often I find), hyper vigilance and with regards to behaviour charts I asked about children feeling shame. I kept the questions short though as I didn’t want them to know what I wanted to hear. I let them answer. One school was had very rehearsed answers (almost like a google definition if you like), the other spoke widely around them demonstrating real understanding. My eldest’s teacher (yr 1) is brilliant with him. We do have quite an open and honest relationship with her (need to know stuff though, not warts and all)...and she gets him. She allows him to excel at what he’s good at whilst coaching him through the stuff he’s not that confident at. She even directs his hyper vigilance as a confidence booster when needed and they play ‘find the mystery object’...he always wins this game.