Questions to ask during secondary school visit

[doglover]

We are going to be looking around 3 prospective local comprehensives in the next few days and I would really appreciate any searching questions/areas to mention that fellow MN's consider valuable. I'm sure there have been other threads on this topic....... if anyone can do links, I'd be really grateful. (We're going to look at Noadswood, Hardley and St. Anne's Catholic School just in case anyone is interested!)

bump

anyone?

Don't know if this helps:

class size
staff turnover rate
% of SEN students
GCSE results
leavers' destinations
no. of exclusions
subjects available
clubs/extra-curricular activities
why you should make this your first choice

All the questions that wombat1 are obviously important, but the school will be selling itself to you and will have all those answers in their prospectus. The people you need to speak to are the kids. Watch them, see how they are dressed, ask them if they like the school, who their favourite teacher is etc. I know it sounds daft, but they are best people to give you an honest answer! Also, if you can, use a toilet!! You can tell an awful lot about a school, by the graffitti on the walls!!! Good luck!

Are you taking the child concerned with you? I ask, because we went through this last October, and our daughter's perceptions of the schools we visited were very different from ours - and we ended up changing our first choice because she made such a good case for her favourite! We visited during a normal school day as well as the open days (a revelation!) and we completely ruled out the school that wouldn't let us do this. We chose a school that felt right. Yes, it had good exam results - but so did several others. It just felt a happy place, and we could imagine our daughter spending 7 happy years there. Ask about streaming - whether you can move up and down the streams. Ask about homework. Ask about punishments. Ask about the dinners. Think about the home-school journey - even if your child can't do it alone now, would it be possible when they are older? ANd would you be happy leaving your precious child in these people's hands.

Many, many thanks! You have restored my faith in MN! These are just the sort of prompts that we needed to kickstart our brains into gear. In answer to your question, no we won't be taking dd with us at this stage because she is only y4. We have reached the painful decision that we very possibly will need to move house, hence our somewhat early school investigations.