Timing for school open days for reception 2026

[wishIwasonholiday10]

Just wondering when schools normally have their open days for parents of children starting reception next year? I’m a bit worried it will overlap with the birth of our 2nd child and C-section recovery and newborn sleep deprivation.

If you have a child with additional needs how do you go about discussing this with prospective schools? Who do you contact and when is the best time to do this? Mine has a physical disability which might affect some aspects of school but probably doesn’t qualify her for an ECHP.

Most of them.where I live are October-ish (DD's school is 2xOctober), but some have weekly tours over a longer period.

The school I work at would offer you a private tour if you explained the circumstances. Given many schools are competing for pupils as the birthrate falls, I'd be surprised if this is particularly unusual.

October to December here, usually 2 to 3 open days.
You'd always get chance to talk to the head at the end so we'd always ask our health questions then (epipens so nothing unusual) and then you could always request a follow up separately if needed.

Usually there’s a few different ones, or book a private tour if none work

Most schools offer multiple open sessions (some ask you to pre-book, others are happy for anyone to drop in). October seems to be the most popular month, but some schools will run them into November and beyond. Some even offer evening or weekend tours for working parents, although obviously you'll only get to see the facilities and hear what they have to say, rather than seeing the school truly in action with children.

The information should be on their website (maybe not yet but it will be from early September). Get organised in advance by checking out the information from all the schools you're interested in and noting down all the possible dates. If when the time comes it's not convenient, due to clashing with the birth/recovery, just contact the schools explaining and asking if you can book a look round at a more convenient time (maybe December, to give you time to recover but still enough time to make a decision before the application needs to be in in January). There is no rush, applications are not first come first served.

Most schools will be happy to accommodate such requests. They run open sessions to avoid having to do 50+ individual show rounds but, at the end of the day, they want as many children on roll as possible each year so they're highly unlikely to turn down a show round request, especially if you explain the situation.

Edit - regarding SEN, I would mention it to whoever shows you around (likely the headteacher or deputy head) but you could also ask to speak to the SENCO at a mutually convenient time. Most would be happy to ring you, if they're not available to speak at the time of your visit.

The school I work in have an open morning one Saturday late October time but have a policy of “every day is an open day” and will show families around at a time to suit them as much as possible.

With additional needs involved I would phone and arrange to look around then ask for a meeting with the SENCO and/or Early years lead of the schools your interested in to discuss specific needs.

We don't have open mornings. All of our perspectives parents and children do individual meetings and tours arranged for when is suitable. In your case it would be with our Sendco.

Thanks all for the advice. Hopefully then we can get visits done in October which should be OK as long as I don’t get an early arrival or end up hospitalised before the birth (I have a few risk factors that mean this is a possibility).

I will also look at contacting the SENCO at the schools we are considering once term is underway. Do they deal with physical disabilities as well as autism/ADHD? It’s hard to know exactly what my daughters needs will be in a year time but I guess it’s still worth chatting with them, eg at the moment she can’t walk up or down stairs and is not potty trained due to her medical condition but it’s possible these things will be less of an issue in a year (or not).

Our 2 nearest schools were massively oversubscribed last year so I imagine they are not that desperate for pupils.

Yes the SENCO deals with both.