How many schools did you go and visit? Before deciding?

[tressdate]

Just curious?

0, just applied to the school where they attend nursery.
Plus, in Scotland, it doesn't seem to be what people do. You just apply to your catchment school.

2 for primary. The closest one and one a little further away I had heard really good things about just to have something to compare it too.

I'm glad I did as well, as I loved our local school and really didn't like the other one as much.

Primary: 0
The one at the end of the road was fine.

Secondary:
Dd1 1
Dd2 2
Ds 1
Dd3 4

None. Live across the road from a decent school (and my mum went there!)

Primary 3. DS & Dd2 then followed Dd1 into it.

Secondary dd1 2. We were pretty sure.
Ds1, interesting thought he would follow Dd1 into the local state secondary, but he wanted to look around. He wanted to look at the v local boys super selective grammar. Had never considered it, he asked to look around. We did & he loved it. Applied, sat the exam, we thought he didn't have a chance. Got offered a place, been there a couple of years & loves it. Would never have even visited it if he hadn't insisted.

0 (primary) have heard nothing but great things about the school over road, it's the consortium head school and is OFSTED outstanding... DS will start there next Sept

We didn't get into any of our closest non faith schools and were allocated a catholic school. I looked at all 6 non faith schools that are walking distance and to be honest wish I hadn't bothered wasting my time as it's just depressed me that she's not going to any of them. Wish they didn't even pretend you had a choice near me!

Primary - 2 before applying - the two good ones out of 3 we had a chance of getting into. Got assigned a different school I'd thought we were too far from, visited it, liked it better than our second choice, child happily settled.

Secondary - I know people nearby who have visited over 20! The kids from this primary are going to over 30 different secondaries. That's London on the edge of grammar boroughs for you.

1. Closest school was 1.5 miles away so we looked at that one first. It was good and the others would have been almost impossible to get to so we picked that one. Nearest secondary is 2.5 miles away so we will do the same when the time comes.

Primary where we used to live - didn't look round.

Then moved and looked round about 12 schools I think but that influenced where we were going to live and needed a school where both DC would get places.

Looked round one school for DS for secondary and DD will also go there

For my foster children I didn't look around any. I knew (after a year of up to 4 hours total travel by bus for me each day to get them to and from their original school) that I wanted the children to go to a school I could walk to with them. There were 2 within easy walking distance but someone I knew had a relative working in one of them and said they really didn't rate the school. Plus, I looked at the websites for both of them and my first preference had a much better website and the activities etc the site showed looked great. I am very happy with my choice and the children are thriving there.

For secondary I will take them to all of the open days they have for Year 6 children and let them have some say. That said, unless I really don't like it once I get there I will probably push for the one that I prefer at the moment, which is where most of their school will go and where I have known other children go and be happy. But there are 4 that they could easily get to so we will look around all of them.

None- excellent reputation, we lived across the road so why complicate matters and I don't believe you know if a school is a true fit for your child until they start

I won't go looking.

I will apply (in November) for the 3 nearest schools in our cachment and avoid the ones I've heard bad reports from friends and family

3 for primary.

3 primaries. I didn't expect to like the one we chose (it's c of e, not great profile locally) but just really loved the vibe, the teachers, the head.

Now 4 years on I occasionally get buyers regret and wonder if we shouldn't have sent DD to the ofsted outstanding one I assumed I'd love but didn't.

She's still very happy though.

There were only the two we could realistically get to without moving or changing jobs. One was rated outstanding, the other satisfactory. Before looking we would have chosen the outstanding one, afterwards we chose the satisfactory one. We got a good feeling from the place and thought DD would be happier there. Time will tell.

Primary school - 3 for DC1, 2 for DC2.
Seondary school (just DC1 so far) - 6, some of them twice over a 2 year period.

5 primary, 9 secondary (although across years 5 and 6
So we'd already decided which ones we didn't want to see again near decision time).

Primary - none. I sent them to my old school so already knew what it was like.

Secondary - four. We got our 3rd choice but got 1st choice after one term. One of our least favourites was very popular with other parents. Now the children are going into Year 9 quite a few have moved schools from there.

We applied to the nearest school and got in. Yay!

0, we sent them to the nearest primary, no transport and walking in the winter makes you pick by distance I find.

For secondary, they just went to the only one in the town.

For DD2, she had additional needs so we were guided by the therapists as to where they thought she should go. That meant taxi's for Nursery and Primary, school bus for secondary. I felt much more involved with the closer schools, because I could speak to the teachers as needed, more difficult when you are relying on the home/school diary.

Same as redskyatnight
Infants - 1 (didn't have a realistic choice)
Juniors - 1 (didn't have a realistic choice)
Secondary - 2 (didn't have a realistic choice, but felt some point of comparison would be good!)

1. Our catchment one and one other. They are both small schools so we wanted to see how they organised the classes

In surprised at how few people looked at. I looked at 6. Got our second choice.

Visited 3 First Schools (we have First, Middle and High), but knew that we wanted the first one. The others just helped confirm this.