What do you wish you'd known before..

[Silver1]

Your child started at your chosen school.

Spam me with the good and the bad.

We are looking at prep and primaries, erring towards preps, but can see positives in both. There is a school I think I like, but have heard mixed reviews (which is probably healthy)
I suppose I want to know what questions I should ask-what I should look out for.
I am concerned about distance, and how tired he will be at four there and back, how far is too far.
Competition-what's healthy what's not

So what surprised you and angered you and left you feeling all warm and glowy.

I don't know because the things I know now almost all confirm that we made absolutely the right decision.

It is very useful to know at least 1 parent from the same school and it's probably worthwhile trying to arrange a get together for parents if the school doesn't do one already.

My kids go to a (private) school where children come from a huge catchment. This means making a network of friends for the children and to share school runs etc is really useful. THere's such a range of after school clubs and sports even at weekends that if you have more than one child it's hard to manage unless you know someone who can help. Espeically if you work which i do.

That just because a school is well thought of doesn't mean it will fit the particular needs of your child.

I wish I'd known that my son's problems would turn out to be Asperger's and how damaging school would be for him.

I wish I'd known that professionals often lie, and that once my child was behind school doors I'd know very little of what was happening to him each day. I thought I'd be able to rely the people I'd entrusted him to but it wasn't the case.

I wish I'd known about home education as I'd have done it from the start.

I have decided to pay more attention to how the staff speak to or not DS if he is with us when we look around, I realize the first schools we saw only the head said anything to us-at the school we saw last week though the teachers seemed very engaging with him, and the receptionist offered the winning bribe of cake and juice-now he is desperate to go there..

I wish I had known before that the prep school Head who was the person who greatly impressed me during Open Day, was to leave the school 12 months later.

I wish I had known before that once this happened, there were major instabilities in the school with staff coming and going.

I wish I had known that if problems arise, you must keep a diary with dates with any incidents/conversations/promises etc, because other people will not see things from your pov or remember what you remember. Also that SEN provision wasn't just "for other people".

Having said that, with the first school I chose (Infants), I was spot on: it appeared to be a lovely nurturing school and it was a lovely nurturing school.

I am going to ask about bullying- I suspect DS will be vulnerable given his adopted start.
Food-an issue for him-don't want them making that work
Respect for pupils- It is a two way street.

I second Streaky and Cory.

I also wish I'd known 11 years ago of the lies and corruption that education is built on.