What should you think about when choosing a secondary school?

[Liveonyournerves]

I will soon be thinking about secondary schools for our DC. Granted, i won't have much choice in local ones, but I intend to see a few, and some private ones.

I want to make sure I'm asking and looking for the right things. In retrospect, i went blindly into primary school, following the herds liking a particular school. In reality, another school would have been much better for DC.

I realise I can read the Ofsted report, but I know now it's just one window onto the situation. What sorts of questions should I be asking of school, staff, teaching - what should I be looking for generally?

Thanks so much.

Definitely what others have said re subject choices at GCSE (some schools are extremely rigid about this), extra curricular activities, homework policy etc, but also:

• what are the arrangements for break/lunch times (e.g do you have to queue for 40 minutes to get a hot lunch? are there a range of different places to go/things to do at lunch, in normal times?)
• what is their policy on mobile phone use? I have 1 where it has to be in bag switched off, and 1 where they encourage use in lessons, and allow it at break/lunch.
• what is their pastoral care like? And is it built into school's general operation, or is it kept separate? How do they deal with mental health issues, bullying, illness etc?
• how strict are they on uniform etc? Some schools want to give the kids the ability to personalise their uniform, others are more ridid. How expensive is it? Do they insist on a specific supplier or can you wear supermarket uniform?

But it will all depend on what is important to you and where your child will fit. When looking for my DD, the critical things for us were the flexibility of GCSE choices and the supportiveness of the school's SEN provision. We have been pleased with both of those things. With DS1, the choice was all about academic achievement and extracurricular music, and with DS2 it was about academic choices and sporting options. So will be very different for each child.