Choosing a school

[bethj2001uk]

I’m just doing some research for my degree, could anyone answer these questions for my final dissertation?

When your child leaves nursery:

• what do you look for when choosing a school?
• how do you find out what each school around you has to offer?
• how would you like to get to know a school before choosing it?

Many thanks in advance

You are assuming parents/guardians have a choice. In some rural locations there is none.

TBH, wrap around provision was one of my driving factors.

I was looking for a school that I thought would be very caring. A school where I would think my dc was very safe.

I went to visit the schools in my area. One of them had an open day.

I think open days or evenings are a good idea. It is a good way of seeing a school for the first time and speaking to some of the staff

I put alot of thought into which school my dc should attend. I got it wrong and moved him out of that school very quickly. You don't really know what a school is like until your child is there.

You need to fully understand the admissions criteria and which schools you are likely to be eligible for.

I was trying to find out which school the DCs had a chance of getting in to. It's very difficult. Even more so because we hadn't lived in that city for long so didn't have lots of knowledge of different schools and areas.You have to make decisions without access to a lot of relevant facts and information.I often said you are just pissing in the dark.
My catchment school was in special measures at the time but had an ok reputation so put that 2nd choice. Ended up in the first choice C of E primary tho DC was baptised Church of Scotland so couldn't predict how many C of E applicants - and other admissions criteria- would be in front of him. Third choice was the Catholic primary - tho in retrospect, although I am Catholic, DC weren't... so we didn't stand a chance...
I set a lot of store by reputation , spoke to loads of other parents. Past SATs results etc weren't helpful to me... I didn't want a school that spent too much time on SATs and pressurised the children

There was only one school in the village, I didn't drive. This is the case for many people

We looked for:
Good destination schools
Good academics
Good sports opportunities
Good drama and arts opportunities
RE lessons (not that important but something we desired)
An individual driven ethos

How did we find out what each schoo had to offer:
We started with the tatler good schools guide
We then looked at each schools webite
We attended tours/open days
We asked around people we knew

How would you like to get to know a school:
A tour and a discussion with the head of preprep/headmaster/headmasters PA is essential
Settling sessions and taster days were also essential in ensuring the school suited out child.

Thanks so much for the responses so far, any more would be greatly appreciated!

Looked at the three local schools for which we might, possibly, get in, having first looked at the admissions criteria and previous years' data, which discounted two more. In truth only one of three turned out to be possible.