Reception New Starter Visits - Going Round In Circles.

[RoundInACircle]

I wasn't sure the best way to word this but hopefully it makes sense.

DS will start school next September so I know around now I should be looking into visiting the schools we are considering applying for and that they will hopefully be hosting open days of some kind but apparently I live in some sort of Bermuda triangle area where not one of the schools are actually advertising when these days/evenings are, nothing on their websites or social media platforms etc.

So two weeks ago I emailed all the schools a generic email asking for more information...none of them replied.

This morning I've called 3 of the schools, the ones I want to look around most to ask if they have anything planned and all 3 have said they're not sure so took my name and number and said they will call me back.

I don't want to come across as over the top and I know term only started back a month ago but schools around have 2 weeks off in October and if I don't know the dates soon then I can't guarantee I can get the time off to actually visit.

Just wondering when your schools had these visits I'm guessing it will be before Christmas? Also how did you find out about them, I feel like I'm missing some secret insider knowledge.

It's still quite early days. Usually these visits are in November. It's only just the start of term. They are still catching up on admin and settling in new students. Applications are due in January, so you have plenty of time. My eldest is applying for secondary school (due 31st of Oct) and open days only announced 2 weeks ago - one is today and one is next week. Just give it time and check back towards end of October. We had dates circulated to us by our nursery. Or just look on the school website.

Be very careful with this, if it’s anything like our area if you don’t take the catchment school and your chosen school turns out to be oversubscribed when any younger siblings are ready to start school, they will send your children to different schools without a 2nd thought.

We fell foul of this and ended up with our two placed in schools 14 miles apart and the appeal panel takes absolutely no interest in any mitigating circumstances or reasons for your school choice I’m afraid.

Just had a look at our local school website ... 3 dates advertised this side of half term.

I come from that kind of area so entirely sympathise. The pay off is having to live in the arse end of nowhere so very much swings and roundabouts!

All of the schools around us had open days, they started in early October and each gave a choice of a few different dates and times up until mid December. I saw the first one advertised in our local community newsletter/newspaper then checked the school websites and they were all mentioned on their homepages. We had to sign up to a tour in advance by emailing the school. Can you scroll back through their social media to this time last year and see if they were advertised then?

No younger siblings to worry about thankfully but even so I think we would have hopefully been ok due to the small distance and 2 form entry. Sorry you had such a tricky time with it.

I've scrolled back as suggested, a great suggestion I might add, and 2 of them had open days last year in the first week of October so hopefully this means when they get back to me the dates won't be too far away.

Schools around here hold their "open days" October/November but it's essentially an hour after school rather than a day. They send flyers to local pre schools and nurseries usually.

If be quite happy with that to be honest. I don't need to see the children although that would be a nice bonus but I would definitely like to see the classrooms, outdoor space and speak to some of the staff.

YANBU to be looking. We contacted my son's school last September and had a tour with the head. The other 3 had open days at the end of September. All this info was on the websites! We'd picked the school by 1st week in October.

We had trouble 2 years ago sorting out primary school visits (admittedly was tail end of pandemic). Agree with pp, ring after half term (don't bother emailing, they probably won't reply). If they haven't got any dates organized by then, ask for a meeting and tour with the Head. I think mostly we did visits in November so there's still lots of time.

We did find a couple of the more over subscribed schools just didn't seem to bother offering a look round though!

I didn't go to an open day and I didn't send her to the local one, I just read the ofsted report and looked at the website and decided that way

Round here you only get into the school you are in the catchment for. Most school therefore don't have Open Days but you can book and they'll give you a tour often with some other parents but honestly school are so busy right now with the start of term. Our half term is last week of October and first week of November

I think the whole 1 week/ 2 week October break depends on agriculture. It was 1 week when I lived in a city but 2 weeks where I am now. Local kids would have spent the time tattie picking back in the day.

I personally would email the schools as it’s harder to ignore with a paper trail.

I don't think it's anything to do with agriculture our areas anything but rural hence having so many schools in close proximity. It started about 10 years ago with a handful of schools doing a 'Christmas shopping week' and now it's quite widespread here and a school would definitely be in the minority to only have a week.

I've tried emailing but as I said I've had no reply. I figured calling might be better because they couldn't ignore a call. Hopefully I get a call back at some point soon and can plan visits.

I'd check the school callendar. It's normally published online for parents evenings and school plays and such and open days are normally listed just so the staff can prepare fancy wall displays

Try following the schools on Facebook, sometimes they post open days on there. I found most of the schools local to me didn’t have open days until late November/ early December and one wasn’t until January. Your nursery might know, they often get details of open days to hand out to parents.

The reality is its only an illusion of choice - unless schools are surprisingly undersubscribed near where you live, you are likely to get your catchment school or nearest school.if your nearest school is very popular and you don't live close to it, you'll get a less popular school. Look at the allocation statistics for the last few years, see where you would realistically usually get in and plan accordingly.