How to pick a school without being able to view?

[Annon12345]

Ds starts school reception September 2022 and the application process is now open until January. There's about 5 local schools which are potentials and obviously we need to pick 3. None of the local schools though are offering open days or even a virtual open day due to covid restrictions. Of 3 I've looked at so far 2 provided a very short and not particularly informative YouTube video and 1 a pdf file on what to expect from school life
I would have loved the chance to visit, just even to find the very basics such as where to go. Lo has a speech delay and so wanted to speak to staff regarding concerns should it still be an issue. I'm sure I can email the schools directly but surely they are going to have a lot of parents email and would be easier to discuss in person? Does anyone have any tips on what I should be asking? Annoyingly the 2 next nearest council areas have school open days but ours don't

I never went to open days, my DD has some SN which were just emerging when she started school so I booked an appointment with the schools SENCO and/or Headteacher (if they were different people) most were happy to show me round and chat to me about DDs needs.

I am very happy with my choice. So maybe try that?

Hi thanks for the reply. Nearest school have provided a 2 minute YouTube video only and will not be holding appointments I emailed them this morning and they replied saying we hope you find our video useful. That was it, Very frustrating!

@NumberNineTwo

We started by ruling out academies because we don’t want to send DC to a school that doesn’t follow the national curriculum and is allowed to employ unqualified teachers. God knows what crap they’ll teach them if they don’t have to follow the national curriculum!

After that we looked at Ofsted reports. We ruled out any schools that had a rating less than Good, and which hadn’t reliably maintained that Good rating for at least the past 10 years. We also looked at the reasons why they weren’t rated Outstanding - some had pretty serious failures like not supporting the more able pupils and dishing out worksheets instead of teaching properly, while others had minor failures like not giving kids enough time to respond to teacher feedback.

The Ofsted report also tells you how many pupils are in the school (your child will probably get taught better in a smaller class), and how many children are eligible for pupil premium (which tells you how many kids are from deprived backgrounds and likely to have disinterested parents or be disruptive). It also tells you whether they have an average number of pupils with SEN - above average number of pupils with SEN means the support is more thinly spread, below average number of pupils with SEN means they will get more support. It also often tells you whether the new starters are average or below average in terms of their progression when starting school - below average is bad because the teacher will teach at a lower level and it will drag your child down.

We did all of this before we even considered viewing a school. We narrowed it right down and then rang the schools and asked for an individual meeting to look around.

Agree with this apart from small classes. If small classes 2 or more form entry is better for SN I find, my DDs in a class of 22 which is lovely for inside the classroom when they weren't allowed to mix with the other classes in the year it caused massive friendship issues, they're much better now they're in year groups again for some things as there's another 24 children to mix with and make friends.

Just my personal opinion.

Wow NumberNineTwo you must have a lot of good schools near you if you were able to disregard for all those points! Most of the schools where we are, including DD's school, are academies and so far seem to be sticking to the National Curriculum! Plus the only schools with less than 30 in a class are the unpopular ones due to their Ofsted rating.

OP that is frustrating when they won't respond to your email asking about additional support. Do you have any way of asking local parents e.g. at nursery, groups you attend, local Facebook groups, NextDoor etc? Also have you checked you are likely to get a place at all the schools? Sometimes you can disregard one or two as being almost impossible to get a place at. As NumberNineTwo says, it's worth looking at Ofsted reports in detail to see what they say about supporting those with additional needs etc.

We were similar, with a child starting school this September and had no opportunities to view before effectively deciding which house to buy in which catchment!

There was a few things I looked at:

1. Academic results on the government compare schools site: This wasn’t the be all and end all, but my son seemed to be academic at a young age and I wanted a fairly academic school as I thought he would flourish in one.

1. After school childcare and clubs: Some offer more than others

1. The social-economic make up: I made sure to walk past the schools at pickup time. I immediately discounted those that had f’ing and blinding parents as the norm.

1. Religion: We didn’t want a religious school.

1. Facilities: Some schools had much more outdoor space than others, some had a new building etc.

1. Uniform: Possibly the silliest reason, but I hated the uniform of a couple of the local schools!

Good luck choosing!

Wow NumberNineTwo you must have a lot of good schools near you if you were able to disregard for all those points!
There are 10 schools within 3 miles of us. We disregarded 3 academies, and 4 schools which are Good now but merely Satisfactory in the past. That left us with 3 schools and we chose based on class sizes and lowest numbers of SEN/pupil premium.

Our school has a hugely higher number of SEN children than surrounding schools as the SEN provision is excellent. Round here, if your kid has SEN you move heaven and earth to get them in this school. So I wouldn’t discount a school on that basis- low numbers of SEN kids can simply mean those kids are taken out of that school because they are unhelpful.

We weren’t allowed to view the school. My daughter is in year one now and I’ve never stepped foot in the school, nor spoke to a teacher other than via email or on the phone. That’s not to say they haven’t been excellent however, dd loves it there and we get a daily photo on seesaw of what they have been doing that day.

We already knew other families in the school, her childminder had done drop offs here for years and the reports were all good. All of her friends from nursery were going to this school too.

Ultimately though we didn’t get a choice unless we went private. It’s very clear that if you live outside of catchment in our area you wouldn’t get in and the catchments are set for each school very tightly. We actually bought this house when dd was 1 and school catchment played a huge part in which houses we viewed as we wanted her in this particular primary. Looking at the statistics online there were no offers outside of catchment in recent history and no appeals successful for the school.

'how many children are eligible for pupil premium (which tells you how many kids are from deprived backgrounds and likely to have disinterested parents or be disruptive)'
Please don't believe comments like these my dc are pupil premium they are not disruptive, I am far from disinterested (I'm educated to degree standard but unfortunately became disabled and unable to work, I have high expectations of my dc and support them to achieve this). Infact my eldest passed all gcses and currently on target to pass 3 alevels, my younger two are in top sets for all set subjects. None of my children have ever been disciplined at school for poor behaviour and I'm told are always polite and well behaved. This is a very stereotypical belief and not how the majority of children/parents on pupil premium behave.
Regards your search look on local Facebook groups what are people saying about the schools, if you go to local toddler groups ask around, local childminders /nursery staff often have good insight, ask your neighbours.
See if you can speak to senco teachers.
Size of school has positives and negatives although my dc with sen needs were more confident in a small school my other child in hindsight would have probably preferred a larger school as more friends to make.
Walk past the schools at break and lunch times are the children happy? Are the staff interacting with the children? Does your child have any professionals in their life presently do they have an opinion of type of school dc would be best at?
Look at ofstead but don't think that's the only factor that counts my dc were happier at the good school than the outstanding school.
Distance to school is also important - for friendships, convenience, ability for parents working and ability to walk when older.

Are schools still pulling the covid excuse? Really?

My DD started this time & I was able to look round all 6 local schools no problem. We could only visit after school when the kids had gone home but better than nothing!

The school we are in are conducting visits at the moment & the high school I live next door too are having a massive open day tomorrow (we had an apologetic letter through the door warning us about parking 😂)

Honestly, call these schools & query why you can’t visit after the kids have gone home? It’s ludicrous. You can go to a nightclub but you can’t look round an empty school building?! 🤨

Frankly as Chair of Governors at a school I would be very concerned by any school that is not appearing to make any effort to show prospective parents what is possible in their school. I am not saying that has to be in person, though that is clearly the preferred option. Every primary school should have been doing a level of work over the last 12 months virtually, so they should with minimum problem be able to produce a video of the school and what parents and pupils can expect.
If the school is not doing this and there is nothing on their website then they deserve for parents not to express a preference for their school. If they pay so little attention to ensuring that they receive enough preferences up to their admission level then I question how much attention they are going to pay to any of their parents and pupils when they have them registered at the school.