would you bring your child to view a primary school?

[fluffymouse]

I thought it was standard practice to bring them along, but I viewed my first primary school recently, and all the parents there were childless.

I felt like I had missed some kind of 'no child' memo. What is the done thing?

We had to take our son along as we had no one to look after him and open days didn't match with pre school days. We did check with all the schools first and they were all fine with it. It was helpful for us as one school we were going to list he absolutely hated so we discounted it. It was also helpful for us to see how the teachers interacted with him in the classroom portion of the tour.
We were not the only ones who took children with them on visits but we were in the minority.

I wouldn't. Just because my DDs would take against a place or love it for totally irrational reasons and then I wouldn't be able to take their views into account. Also - it depends where you live but here it's hard to "choose" a school - you have to get lucky. So I wouldn't want them to be disappointed but would rather present it as a fait accompli when the decision is made.

no, because DD would have got her hopes up on the first one she saw, regardless of if it was any good or there was likely to be a place for her, I wouldn't want to deal with that.

I had to because we went round specifically to see which schools could cope with her disability.

No we tried not to and the only time we did was a nightmare. She was bored during the speech and I couldn't concentrate. During the tour she was always going here and there but not where we were supposed to be.

Totally distracting.

We checked with the school who was ok but asked to remove her if she would be too loud or disrupting.

During each visit we only saw babies or young toddlers mainly causing some problems as the corridors are not buggy friendly.

Yes because I would want to see how the adults interacted with my child, and actually if my child hated a school it would make me think twice (and investigate what they didn't like and if I could persuade them).

WE did because we had no childcare. We just made an appointment with the head teacher and looked round the school with DD in tow. It was no big deal.

We kept dd off preschool to take her as we thought it was the done thing.. and then were surprised everyone was childless.

It's really interesting to hear the replies here, something I never knew about.

I know me may not get an offer to the school (likely not as its hugely competitive) but we thought involving dd would be a good thing, as in case she gets a place she would have some idea about the school. Like mummytime I thought seeing dd and the teachers/school together was important.

I wasn't sure if this was because the school we saw was private, but maybe not.

I'll ask specifically about bringing her before the next tour.

Out of interest are posters here referring to private/state school tours?

State school. We had private appointments because the schools didn't have open days. I think they do nowadays, but they didn't back then (10 years ago)

I did. We had individual daytime visits so I took then 3yo DS along with me, he was kind of oblivious to it being a big deal and happily tootled along looking at things. But I went alone to the evening sessions with other parents.

It gave me a chance to see how the staff interacted with him. I'm glad I took him and chose the school where the head paid as much attention to him as to me. He's coming to the end of Y2 now and my gut instinct was right, she's a great head.

Ah, state schools. Individual visits nearly 4yrs ago.

I didn't take mine.

That was quite a while ago though.

Mainly becauseI wanted to pay attention to the school and what I thought was important not what the DC lit on. And also, although I went to look round 4, I knew we were only likely to get places at 2 of them and I didn't want to explain all that to a small child.

I was referring to private, definitely check because some of the ones we visited said no children on the appointment letters, don't know if that was because I booked an appointment to go in rather than open days which always seem a bit staged.

At DDs school the gave the children that had been offered places their own tour before we had to decide if we were accepting the place , so she did get some say in the decision later on in the process.

Yes, because we knew that DC would get a place at the school and was unlikely to get a place at any other one! So the visit was part of getting them used to the idea of starting school. Not sure I would have taken them round a school that we weren't guaranteed to get into.

Not sure if it is different in Scotland but we have the choice of 3 schools in local catchment area and arranged to go along and see all of them in making our choice. We took DD along - to see how she reacted, what she thought and to be part of it. She didnt create any hassle and had her own set of questions she wanted to ask the head teachers, as well as us having our own ones.

We sat and talked about all 3 of them and made our decision. Now i know we made the right one and yes - it was the one she choose because she liked he head teacher and staff, she liked all the eco committee, pupil council groups and also because it only had 140 pupils in total.

i know that is different from situations described above but for us - on the type of visits we were doing - of course she had to be there.

yes I would because it helps me see the school environment thru their eyes.

State here. I don't think DD would have been able to give any indication how well she liked a school. She found it great that one school had lots of musical instruments and a library. Good but hardly an indicator how good a school is.

Another factor for us, she was just over 3, a Summer born, so that also makes a difference. If she would have been Autumn born and 4 already it would have been a lot different and I may would have taken her to the most likely school.

See a school in October and starting the next year September also means she would forget everything she saw. We also sat in the middle of a cluster of schools with no idea which one we would get.

I asked at our local school, and they sounded a bit shocked that I wouldn't!

Before we had a place. After we head a place at a school we hadn't seen before ds came.

I remember going on the school tour for my primary school and the headteacher saying we put our packed lunches in baskets. I took this to mean picnic style wicker baskets and was very excited. Of course in the first day it transpired she meant metal baskets/trolley that held lunch boxes until lunch time. I was really disappointed.

We viewed lots of schools (moved areas) and i didn't want Dd to get an idea in her head and be really disappointed if it wasn't the school she wanted. We always viewed on teaching days si there wasn't much teacher/child interaction.

we were told no children to be taken.

Primarys here don't do open days. So as it was a tour with the head we took DD (and DS who was a baby). Head was great with DD, lovely to DH and rude to me. So that was interesting. Wouldn't take small children to a formal open day through usless they were invited.

State - I didn't because I looked at four which she had mixed chances of getting in - inc the one where she was at nursery. Two were morning show rounds and two were individual appts. I wanted to focus on looking and listening not be distracted. I wanted to decide what order to put my preferences etc I didn't see the point of confusing her. I may have taken her if I was sure we were going to get in tho

If it was an open day I would avoid it unless the child can stay quiet etc. we had a reception open eve for parents recently and there were toddlers screaming all the way through. It was a nightmare and no one could hear. I was annoyed as I had made sure my OH could have the DC etc

Bucket I'm sure lots of those parents thought like me: that bringing children was the done thing.

I have a tour at another school next week, maybe I'll leave dd in preschool!