Where do I start looking for a school?

[kolakube]

Sorry for my ignorance everyone. My DD is 18 months old and I have heard mutterings that she needs to on the waiting list already for some of the more sought after schools. We want to educate her privately from the start so where do we find out about our local private schools and how they compare?

ISC - try this website. Do a search for your town (address)and it will list all the accredited schools in your area.

Also listed here

You can join the Good Schools Guide online and search their database.

The best private schools in most areas don't have waiting lists (although that's not universally the case so do check) because they want to see the child at 3 or 4 and assess how they are so they get the right children. Those that take anyone if they put their name down first are usually to be avoided in my view although have a few down just in case. I think we registered for about 4 or 5 just in case our children didn't get in anywhere. Also ours went to a nursery school from 3 which helped get used to school and was a nice transition.
Also decide where ultimately they might go. My daughter's senior schools had their own junior bits and I thought it would be easier go get in at 5 in those schools than at 11 when all the state school parents pile in and I think that plan worked. So you look at "feeder schools" to see where people went from to go to the one you're aiming for. Depends also which part of the country you live in too.

You could also try gov site

Hmmm. In Sheffield the private schools do have waiting lists. We had DD's name down on three of them from age 1, and she was not the first on the lists for her year group (this year). Those just held her a place for assessment inearer the time. They called the girls on this waiting list, up to the number of places available, first, assessed them, and then filled any spare places up from the reserve list. We did not have to pay anything at that time.

Last Novemeber, when she was still 3, she was called for an assessement at 2 of the schools; the other was non selective so we knew she had a place if we wanted it. We sent her for assessment at one of the others last November; we had decided against the other school beforehand. A few days after that we got the letter offering her a place and then had 2 weeks to accept and pay an admission fee for this September.