To want to look around a school before making a decision?

[Greentriangle82]

Just in the middle of putting our three choices of schools on council admissions form for dd to start school next September. The school we were thinking of putting 1st doesn't have an open day. I have asked would it be possible to look around and they've said they don't have an open day or allow prospective parents to look around but we are welcome to look around if we get offered a place. Is this the norm? In our area all the other schools have had open days/ evenings which we've been to. The school we are thinking of putting 1st is rated 'good' by ofsted and has a fairly good reputation within the area. When I approached the school asking would it be possible to have a look around at a convenient time to them they said they don't have viewings as they don't need to because they 'fill the places' every year, aibu to be out off by this? Should schools have open days/ evenings or is reading ofsted reports and local opinion enough to go on when choosing schools?

YANBU. The best schools I've worked in (including one that was hugely oversubscribed) would happily show parents around on a normal school day, take them into classrooms, have a general chat etc. Most of the time the headteachers would do these, sometimes a deputy headteacher. It would ring serious alarm bells for me if they won't show you around, and would affect my decision personally.

I would think that the school, for the most part, benefits from having conscientious parents who care about where they are sending their children. So maybe the school will be ok, but the children may not be all that you would wish for.

Yes, tobysmum, we visited a school and felt it is terrible, not knowing much about schools. It compared so badly with the others we saw, we dropped it from our list even though it was OFSTED outstanding and madly oversubscribed. The next inspection, barely a year later, returned it as "requires improvement".

I would therefore be cautious to add a non-visited school to my list, unless it was the only one we had a realistic chance at.

YANBU. It sounds snobbish ("we don't need your approval"), lazy and uncommunicative. Surely they should want parents to find the school approachable and ensure they're happy with it before they decide to name it on a form. And to have pupils attending who are the best "fit" with the school having chosen it (with their parents) on the most information possible.

I'm in two minds. The outstanding school offering an open day and guided tour seemed very accommodating. Sadly they appeared to be resting on their laurels (or all the nice middle class parents doing the actual teaching at home). We were put off by witnessing little teaching taking place, extremely noisy environment, children jumping over tables, and a surprising number of disengaged children wandering around aimlessly looking bored.

The other school is not rated well and doesn't do open days. They did arrange a tour for interested parents but didn't advertise it well. The head is a no nonsense person who likes a quiet school during lesson time with actual teaching taking place and the atmosphere was bright and friendly and busy.

I know which I preferred for my child.

DS's school doesn't have open days/evenings. The head teacher was quite happy for me to book an appointment for him to show me round though.

Got to love the comments about the OFSTED rating: "Outstanding is what they should be getting." Well if every school was outstanding, they wouldn't be outstanding would they? How would they stand out?

You sound like the apocryphal minister for education who was shocked that 50% of children were below average...

Anyway, a school should be letting you look round as they are going to be taking your child. But there is always the point that they fill there spaces anyway, why would they want to have lots of people coming round? Why make the effort? I can see that point of view too.

Also, please don't mistake the "choice" element of this like so many others, if this is your catchment school put it down, you may not get into the others. The choice isn't real, you take what they give you, if you don't put down your catchment you could end up with a school miles away that nobody was keen to send their children to.

So many on MN think that schools should pander to them, I can actually see why some schools will only show round people who have got in.

please don't mistake the "choice" element of this like so many others, if this is your catchment school put it down, you may not get into the others

This is true, you must put your catchment school somewhere, but it can obviously (although this isn't obvious to everyone) be number 6 on the list as the number doesn't affect whether you get in at all.

I work in an OFSTED rated outstanding school with almost 600 children, our head takes parents on individual tours of the school throughout the year, often several times a week.

Our local (small village primary) school has a great policy for prospective parents. It has an open afternoon for new reception, and it also offers tours in school time for parents of children who would be new to the school year, led by two of the year 6 children, followed by a chat with the head teacher.
This goes down really well with parents and they get a child's view of the school.

I would never send my child to a school I couldn't look around first. It is not about whether they can fill they can fill their places but whether it is the right school for my child. Ds has sn so looking around is particularly important in his case. I would wonder about their attitude towards children who are at all different.

"Ds has sn so looking around is particularly important in his case."

Exactly this. I wonder what the OP's school would say if she rang and said 'I have a child with SEN and would like to visit the school to discuss how these needs might be met in your school?'

The response would tell you a LOT. 'Of course, do come in, I will arrange for our SENCo to be available' ... or 'No, that's not necessary, we don't arrange tours. Have you thought of school X, I believe they are very good with SEN?'

It has brought back memories of moving DS when we moved house - he was in KS1 at the time. 'I need a school place for DS. He is currently a school-induced selective mute, and I am temporarily home educating him. We are moving to your area, please could I visit your school?' The response from different schools, just from telephone contact, told me an enormous amount - and there was quite a lot of 'Have you thought of ....[insert name of school less high in league table rankings here]'

(The best response, by the way, was 'Of course. Why don't you bring him in with you for a first visit, which will be led by the head? If that goes well, he could join a class for a lesson or two on another morning while you meet the head and SENCo to discuss his particular needs.' What with that, and the fact the head, on that first visit, was the first adult DS spoke to outside the home for months, we were sold!)

I didn't look around dd's primary school before choosing it as we lived far away (at that point) and I didn't feel the need. However, I would be very suspicious if a school wouldn't let me look around. Firstly I would think that they might be hiding something. Secondly if they can't be bothered to show parents around it makes you wonder what else they can't be bothered to do...

Thank you all for your responses. I think my main concern is what marynary has said if it's because they can't be bothered what else can't they be bothered to do? Every other school in our area has open evenings so was wondering if that was the norm, it seems a mixed response but on the whole that the school should offer to show us around. I don't think we will be putting it as first choice now.

Local primary has had major issues due to bulge classes in previous years last year and this year look at being close to 95% sibling. This year they are only allowing one morning requesting parents to be in catchment and without siblings already attending school to keep the numbers down. The panic is awful already. Have to admit I relied on personal recommendation as tours seem so false with so many other parents and very over subscribed school not allowing personal tours. Never known a school offer nothing though.