Do you take your children with you to Open Mornings?

[dairymoo]

As the title suggests....are parents expected to take their LOs to Open Mornings (for starting reception) or go alone? Am happy to do either - just wondered what the norm is!

Our primary school recommended that you go twice: the first time by yourself when your child is in year 5 and, if you like what you see, again with the child when he or she is in Year 6. The school would give time off for visits in year 6 but not in year 5. It seemed a sensible approach and worked well for us. I think that it is vital that your child sees the school before you apply.

Another thing that worked well for us is that, in addition to open mornings, we went to Founder's Days and similar, when they were open to the public (some are). This is a very good way of walking around the school at your leisure and observing the current pupils and parents.

It would be good for both of you to go to, to see if your child will like the school etc... maybe you could go and visit the school 1st yourself and call up for the visit and then come the open day bring your lo with you. hope that helps for reception year.

ours have sessions for parent & child, & sessions for just parents - with a creche provided for those who need it - where the head does a speech and Q&A session - older Y6 children help out - talking to them can give you a feel of the school

ask the school - if its OK to bring your DC - if theres a long formal talk, rather than a quick wander around and any questions, Dc might be better not going! You will be able to concentrate better too and take it all in without having to worry about the DC being bored/needing the loo

We didn't take our child as we wanted to form our own opinion and be able to concentrate and ask as many questions as we wanted.
Also was afraid that if the school by chance had something that she liked (e.g. a nice climbing frame) she would really want to go there while we had chosen a different school.
Some people had their children with them, there's not usually a ban, but I think without them it's easier to take longer to look around and ask any 'tricky' questions without having to pay attention to your child too.

For secondary it's probably different as it's more of a discussion with your child and you can explain more of why you think a certain school is better than another, but with a pre-schooler a nice climbing frame can often be more important than anything else!