How do school visits work?

[QuantumWeatherButterfly]

DD will be starting primary school next year. She's my eldest, so I haven't done an application before. I know we have until January, so I don't envisage any massive rush right now, but I do want to get organised.

How do school visits generally work? Do you literally just call them and ask for an appointment? Or are there typically open days/open evenings? If the latter, how do you find out about them? And finally - do people usually visit all the schools they put on their form? We can name up to 6 schools on our admissions form and are advised to do so (there is a place shortage in our LEA so we risk getting a place at a school miles away if we don't), but that seems like a lot of schools to visit!

Just look on all the school websites you're interested in - there should be information about visits. If not just email or call and ask.

I would definitely visit any school that I might send my child to. For me there were two as I was pretty much guaranteed a place at either and wouldn't have considered any others.

Are there six obvious choices of school nearby or do you have some your choosing between on your application? If the latter you'll obviously want to visit before doing the application to make your choice. If not you could wait and see the school you're offered.

I would do quite a lot of homework on which school(s) you are actually likely to get into. With a shortage of spaces, it will not be all six.

You can start by looking at the admissions criteria, and any catchment maps, on the school websites and working out if you are in catchment or meet other criteria. If the school fills up from within catchment, how do they decide who does not get a place? Is it distance from scchool? Are you likely to get a place? The Local Authority should also have information on each school (look under school admissions) where you can see if all children who applied got a place or if they had to eliminate applicants, how they did it - its often by distance. Where I live, the LA always advises putting down the catchment school. This is often the one you are most likely to get into. However, if you like a school that is a bit further away and it never fills up from catchment (or however it decides) you can reasonably expect to get a place at that one. If all non catchment schools are iffy , (eg you have not been the required Church) apart from your catchment school, do not put them as a higher priority than your catchment school unless you really believe you stand a very good chance of getting in.

What you do not want to do is choose ones where you just do not qualify for a place and no-one from your street would get a place in a million years. Then the LA will then allocate you a school and it won't be what you want or where you want it to be! Your catchment school place will be taken by others who preferred it.

So just do a bit of homework: make a list of, say, the three most likely, and look for the school open days/evenings on their web sites. Sometimes parents do go and look again, by making an appointment, just to be sure about something. Of course, you can email queries too. but most schools accommodate a second visit. The guidelines are: apply for where you will most likely get a place, express a preference for another school if you really believe you will get a place, and do not fly kites.