Choosing a high school.

[ItsNotButter]

I've got a daughter in year 5 and lots of the parents of other children in her year group are attending the high school open evenings in the area.

Are they all being a bit premature or is this something I need to do? There's not been any letters home about it so I'm not sure, I didn't think we'd need to do this until next year.

I've already missed the open days for most of the schools in the area so I'll have to arrange individual appointments if I'm going to visit them all.

Thanks

A lot do go in year 5 (A friend of mine even went in year 4 ) but we didn't, didn't see the need.

You have to apply pretty quickly once they are in Y6, so if you are undecided and need a while to mull over the options, it's a good idea to go in Y5. If OTOH you know where you want her to go, and are just attending the open days for information, then it's fine to just go in Y6.

tbh i think you should go in y5 unless you def know which school you want as when you are in y6 you only have a month to fill in the form and we found (boy in y7 now) some school had open evening on the same night plus we went in y5 and y6 and found that the school we liked in y5 we didnt like in y6. Its good to get a feel for school and it too much a rush in y6.

If you have anything like a real choice I would visit in year 5, but after the main open days is a better time. You usually get to see the schools operating in near normal conditions and get a more personal tour. Otherwise it is very very rushed in a few short weeks at the beginning of year 6. I would also suggest if you are going to look at any private options to look at at least 1 first, so you don't get swayed too much by the polish.

My DD is currently in Year 6 so I am midst whirl of school tours. I must say I am getting quite stressed with what feels like a rushed decision, I would recommend some visits prior to Autumn Term 2012.

yeah the real problem if you live somewhere with lots of options is the clog of open evenings - they are often on the same night or just too many in one week and you go a bit mad. We saw in Y5 and were able to discount some so were more focused in Y6, only considered 3 schools. I only go in the evenings but i think if you can a look around in the day can be more helpful. we are in London tho where it is a national sport.

Yes i did some of the evenings last year and now doing the mornings of the ones we liked.

Hmm, I'm going with DD (yr5) to an evening one tomorrow, but the daytime tour for the other local school is more of a problem as only yr 6s are invited (and thus allowed the time off school).

All our local-ish schools seem to be holding theirs tomorrow! Not great if you genuinely need to look at several.

I would definitely go round in year 5 especially if you have a wide choice as it's not a long time in year 6 to get the application in (end of October). Most schools have day visits as well as open evenings which are useful and you may find that there are still some you can get to. However some are on the same day or evening which can be a rush.
We didn't get any letters home via primary school apart from our catchment secondary as the children from yrs 5 and 6 go there on an experience day and then are invited to come back that evening with parents. We found out the other dates/times from the local paper/word of mouth/websites.

Oh and you also need to be aware that schools that are Foundation schools often require you to fill in paperwork just for them. Usually the deadline for this is much earlier than the deadline for the county application forms.

I think it depends on what you're looking at - grammar, comprehensive, independant?

If you're pretty sure you can narrow it down to a few choices then maybe you can wait till next year, but as many other posters have suggested, you might want to get a quick look in at some maybes this year.