How many schools did you/should you visit before deciding where your child goes?

[RedRobyn2021]

First time doing this; I have two schools locally to visit over the next couple of weeks, one is Ofsted outstanding and the other is good, I think as far as I know they are a good choice of schools to look at but not sure if I should look further as well.

Please can I have some guidance from more experienced parents? I feel out of my depth and quite anxious about doing the right thing for DD

Primary or secondary?

Look at previous admissions information and work out how many schools you have a reasonable likelihood of getting into.

In our case (for both primary and secondary) it was 1, so we went to see that school and for secondary we went to see one other for comparison purposes. (We didn't bother with looking at another school for primary as we'd already determined that we were only looking to see if it was absolutely dreadful in which case we were going to consider something drastic like going private or moving house).

If we'd had a genuine choice, I guess we would have perhaps gone to see all the choices (on the basis that it was unlikely to be a huge number). Are you going to see your catchment/closest/sure to get into school? You will want to put that on your admissions form somewhere so worth seeing it beforehand even if you think it's your last choice.

Primary -
We looked at 3 locally that we could get into based on location. You have to put 3 at least on the application from memory and I didn't want to put a school we hadn't visited down. We would have got into any of the three that we put as first choice - non oversubscribed and all good distance wise.

I'd take ofsted reports with a pinch of salt. Check the dates from the ofsted reports to see how long ago it was done. Both our schools were marked as outstanding and the one we chose actually got downgraded to requires improvement the first year we were in the school.

Some things to think about (that we thought about)

1. Are they all the same sort of setup? We had one with a 2 class intake and 2 with a 1 class intake - one of which was a mixed year group so mixed reception and year 1 class etc.
2. Does your DD go to nursery? Where do the majority of kids from there go if so? You can ask the nursery for a general idea.
3. What is the walk/drive like to each of the school? This was a factor for us. Is it close enough to walk even in bad weather. If not walkable what is parking like etc?
4. wrap around care provision / school holiday club provision - this was a must for us.
5. Extra Curricular activities - what is on offer/who provides etc?
6. SENCO provision - although we didn't have a child that shows any issues (borderline appearing in year 2 now though) it was important for us for the school to have a good SENCO provision as you don't know what will appear over the school lifetime.

The biggest thing for me is if I liked the school (layout, setup, staff etc) because it is a long time to be there as a parent if you dont like it.

Sorry I should have said this is for Primary

You should visit as many as you're in catchment for, and fill up your application form by listing them all in order of preference.

That's because, if you only list two and don't get into either, the LA will put your DC into any school that has a space, even if it's far away or unsuitable. You can hedge against this by having third, fourth, fifth, sixth choices.

DS has always just gone to the geographically nearest school, in the three places we’ve lived. Primary and secondary.

Do you have more than one catchment area school?

I thought it was just one? That's one of the ones we're going to look at

Am I right thinking your catchment area school has to make space for you if you want your child to go there?

Sadly it is an illusion of choice in many areas. We put down three, including what was our nominated catchment school according to the council website. We didn't get into any of the three and instead was sent to a school we actively wanted to avoid. I hear that happened again in our small town this year. The next town on seemed to put everyone in their first choice even when they were way out of catchment. Weird.

Geez this is stressful

For primary school, I didn't visit any, since there was no choice (rural village school).

For senior school, DS went to four open days and I did another two parents evenings. And then we agreed on the final choice which we good.

It can depend on the size of the birth year as well. DC1’s year was a low birth rate year and I think nearly everyone where we live got their first primary choice.

My understanding is that even if you do have a “catchment school”, they don’t have to take you. Each school has its own admission categories, which normally start with looked after children, those with EHCPs, and then often siblings and/or children of staff members. After that, it’s usually done on catchment or distance. Faith schools will have other criteria.

We visited our three nearest schools and listed them in order of preference plus a fourth just to fill the box.

Secondary is a different ball game! (Or at least it is where we are.)

We looked at everything we reasonably had a chance of getting in, for primary that was six and for secondary 8 ( although it was only so many as passing the 11+ doesn't guarantee a place in our area). I don't recommend that many, I was losing the will by the last one.

I was limited by open days booking up, I didn't realise numbers were limited and two out of the three catchment schools near me told me there were no spaces left for visits. Fortunately the one I could visit was our nearest anyway and probably the one I'd have chosen regardless.

Distance is pretty important at primary level, it's tiring and stressful to travel further than you need to. My philosophy was to go for the closest school unless I could see a strong justification to go elsewhere. We now have a 10 minute walk to school and it makes life a lot easier.

People use catchment to meantwo different things.

Some areas have fixed catchment zones. Usually you are just in one. Can be a very odd shape (DDs school sits on its own catchment border, but goes over 5 miles in other directions for example!)

Or used colloquially to mean a school you can usually get into based on distance.

CHECK YOUR LOCAL ADMISSIONS ARRANGEMENTS FIRST!

Visit all the schools you might feasibly get into, unless some are discarded at the online stage. And include the nearest or catchment school, even at last choice.

None - mine just went to the nearest primary (fairly normal in Scotland)

We looked at 2 schools because we live in a small village and neither of them were oversubscribed. If we lived in a big city with lots of small catchment areas then we would have looked at more.

We went for the one which was more established (the other had only been open a year or two) and had a nice vibe. It also happened to be our closest/catchment school too.

If you look up your council website a lot of information is given about schools and how many places they offered, the oversubscription criteria etc, which will give you an idea of how likely you are to get a place.

I'm currently looking at open days too as my son will be starting reception next year so I have no experience but what I've decided to do is go to the open days of the 2 nearest schools. Based on the admissions data from last year he would definitely get a place at either. Distance from home is really important to me and one of the schools is down the road (10 min walk or less), other is about a 15 min walk. All of the other schools that he might have a chance of getting into are a 30 min walk away which really doesn't appeal to me, so realistically it's very unlikely I would send him anywhere else. If both schools seem absolutely dreadful and I'm terrified of sending my child there, obviously I'll explore other options.

Really depends on your situation - we have 8 primaries within a mile of us, and we visited 5 of them. Where I am, you're usually in catchment for one school, but unusually there are two serving the catchment in which we live. DD would have got in to one of them but, ironically, not the one closer to us, as they had a lot of siblings in DD's year.

We ended up going for our closest school, which wasn't either of our catchment ones - we felt it was the best fit, and it did end up suiting DD well.

I investigated the nearest primary and liked it, amd i knew it wasnt full, so that was that.

Bear in mind that birth cohort numbers are dropping (can't remember when they drop sharply but it's either this year or next year) so you might find it's not as competitive as a few years ago.

None. Just went for the nearest.

You need to read the admission criteria for the schools, and look at the last couple of years of admissions, to understand what’s actually possible for you. You’re submitting a preference, not a choice, this isn’t the same thing. You might put a school first, but if you’re low down on the admission criteria that’s what will win if there’s oversubscription

Zero for primary and secondary.

Didn't even visit the ones they went too.

We looked at three - we were living in a village which bordered a larger town, so we looked at the village school, the faith school connected to the church we went to in town, and another school in town which was technically nearer to our house than the village school but not such a good reputation. Agonised over it, got DD into our first choice, and then ended up moving for work to a village in a completely different county and plonking her into the only school there without even looking at it, where she was very happy!

Secondary we only looked at one - everyone from the local primary goes there by default unless they go private, there’s a free bus etc so unless we hated it there seemed no reason to look elsewhere and we loved it so that was that…

Depends where you are - some have catchment schools, others don't. We were in the latter so we visited all the local schools - 5 in total (there were more - joys of London suburbs!) and then ranked them on our form in preference order. For us that was down to wraparound care but also because we didn't want to get a random school. We could put 6 total on our form.

Look at the admission criteria for each school and see whether you meet them.

If there are three spaces on the form, put three selections. Ditto however many spaces are on the form.

Visit the schools on open evenings and get a feel for them, as well as looking at the online information they provide.

Don't make the mistake of putting down only one or two options. The authority will not be blackmailed into offering a place if you don’t meet the criteria and if they’re over subscribed.

You aren’t choosing a school, you’re selecting a preference. If none of your preferences are possible, they are obliged to find a school place, but if you turn it down, they have fulfilled their obligation.

Hey @RedRobyn2021 lots of good advice here.

I echo the advice to put your catchment or nearest school on the form somewhere, even if not keen. No you are not guaranteed a space in theory, but in practice unless you live in a very unusual area (I mean they do exist) there will be space for you if you list it.

Those newspaper stories you see each year "my child was allocated a school place three miles away" are usually parents who listed three or four or five or six ridiculous and unfeasible preferences on their form and not their local school.

One last thing - it's not a choice. If you want a choice you have to pay. You are expressing a preference - there is no guarantee.