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Primary education

Join our Primary Education forum to discuss starting school and helping your child get the most out of it.

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Original poster

Do you take your children to school open days?

20 replies

Lucky13 · 19/10/2011 19:03

Is it usual to take your child with you or frowned upon? I can see that in many ways it would be interesting to see how DD reacts, but what if she misbehaves and distracts from our look round?
I've never set foot in a school for at least 20 years, so I have no idea of the format for an open day. Is it usually just a casual look round or will there be long talks etc?

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benandhollyandgaston · 19/10/2011 19:05

Yes.

Not DD1 as she was at pre school but had no choice but to take DD2, who is 15mo.

The first school were absolutely lovely about it and very friendly to all of us.

The other school were positively snotty and the headteacher made us feel really uncomfortable about it.

We're putting the first school down as our first choice

EssentialFattyAcid · 19/10/2011 19:06

Definitely take your child with you
Are you talking about secondary school? Why would you expect yourchild to misbehave
He/she will be very interested, surely?

EssentialFattyAcid · 19/10/2011 19:07

Sorry have just realised this is posted in the primary section
I didn't realise primary schools held open days!

benandhollyandgaston · 19/10/2011 19:07

She's posted this in primary education EFA.

Original poster

Lucky13 · 19/10/2011 19:16

Sorry I meant would you take a 3 year old to the school that you would like them to start next September.

OP posts:

benandhollyandgaston · 19/10/2011 19:22

Not if I could help it, no.

mummytime · 19/10/2011 19:36

Yes always! I took a 2 year old to some, when we were deciding which schools I liked and so which area I wanted to live in. I've also taken a 3 year old to senior school ones (even posh private ones).

howlingheadlessmunsters · 19/10/2011 19:50

I went to a junior school (from age8) one on Saturday and some had taken kids and some not. It was all very relaxed. You signed in and then were given a pupil guide to take you around. Teachers were stationed in each classroom for informal chats. Some pupils were demonstrating activities eg science, design, music, swimming. The head did a 20 min speech mid-morning but to be honest he didn't say anything I hadn't already read on their website.

I didn't take DS as we haven't yet talked to him about the possibility of changing schools because we're not certain yet.

dearheart · 19/10/2011 19:52

No definitely not. It's really hard to concentrate if you have a child with you and you can't get a real feel for the school. And if you and your child fall in love with a school and then don't get in, your child is unnecessarily disappointed. It's hard enough to deal with as an adult frankly.

I would go by yourself, make a decision based on your feelings and what you know about your child, and then be noncommital about what school s/he is going to until you get the offer of a place.

girliefriend · 19/10/2011 19:54

yes definately as like to see how the head interacts with her.

Iamnotminterested · 19/10/2011 19:57

Why wouldn't you?

Surely a real feel for a school comes down to how your DD/DS is or isn't spoken to by the teachers and pupils and how your child comes away from the school, quiet and non-commital vs. non-stop talking and enthusiasm and everything in-between?

howlingheadlessmunsters · 19/10/2011 19:59

Just coming back to say, the school suggests a appointment with head if parents decide they are seriously interested and that would be when I would take DS along....but again it was made clear that taking him along was optional.

grumplestilskin · 19/10/2011 19:59

no, did once, won't again. Didn't really get to look around properly and have proper time to ask questions and listen to and comment on the replies, DS just wanted to play in every classroom!

academyblues · 19/10/2011 21:19

Ds yes, dd no.

Because ds will happily look around chatting to other people and get involved in things, and dd will stand about 2 cms away from me shouting "mum, can we go now?" over and over again.

Depends on the child, I would say.

Sandalwood · 19/10/2011 23:03

No. My DD would probably get hung up on the school with the snakes and ladders on the playground, or a particular toy she caught a gimpse of. It'd be a nightmare then trying to get her in the door of one of the other schools come september.

Auroborea · 19/10/2011 23:21

Definitely yes. It is a school for them after all. And, as others already said, you can tell a lot about a school by how the head, the teachers and the kids interact with your child. If they are unhappy to see them, I wouldn't call it a great school.

Unadventurous · 20/10/2011 14:05

Definitely yes, from me too. Kids get a feel for a school as much as anything and it's nice to hear things from their perspective, seeing as they're the ones who'll be going,

roadkillbunny · 20/10/2011 16:56

When parents bring children who are looking for a reception place with them to our school the children play in the reception class while the parents look at the rest of the school and chat with the head, I would think that gives the best of both sides.
I didn't look round the school before dd joined as it was the only school she could go to being in a rural community but friends who did look round too the children and the above happened. Even when people are looking for places for older children the child is welcomed to come and spend time in the class they would be going into, dd has told me of children coming into her class like this a couple of times, both times the child did join the class.

Butkin · 21/10/2011 09:55

We took DD to a recent open day and most of the parents brought their children. Whilst the parents were given talks in the theatre (headmistress, pupils, parent of pupils etc) the children were taken away for an age appropriate "lesson". We were then taken round the school by older pupils (us round Senior but you could do Junior sections) and DD thoroughly enjoyed the experience and talked a lot about her likes and dislikes on the way home.

WhoKnowsWhereTheTimeGoes · 21/10/2011 10:05

Definitely, would never have occurred to me not to. We only looked at 3, one got some of their junior children to take DS off and show him round by himself, one provided toys and an adult in a classroom for them to play while we looked round, one wasn't an open day, just us visiting, we talked to the HT in the hall while DS climbed on the PE equipment and then he came round with us. I had a list of questions prepared beforehand so I wouldn't forget anything, but it was important to see how comfortable DS felt in each school too. Having said that, it was pretty well a foregone conclusion that we would be choosing our catchment school, so the others were only being seen as a backup.

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