Too early to attend an independent school open day when son is in year 5?

[OneDayIWillLearn]

It isn’t unusual to attend an open day for an independent secondary school for year 7 entry when your child is in year 5 is it?!

I ‘signed up’ online for an open event in October at one of the potential (independent) schools we’re thinking of for my son - who is just starting year 5 - and just got an email from them to say basically ‘no thanks, come back next year.’

I was planning to look around by myself - and then come with my son next year when he’s in year 6 if it’s in the running. It’s one of a few options and would logistically require more effort than others but if it felt like the best fit for him then I’d consider it worth it.

Not sure what to do now though! Do I just persist in saying I want to look around this year or take this as a sign it’s not a very welcoming place and leave it there?! Or am I just thinking too far ahead and should chill out?

It's not a strange thing to do, however I can understand that these open days get very busy and they like to reserve spaces for those about to apply. We have grammar schools near us that are very clear you should not visit until July in year 5. On one hand I get it, on the other hand it means starting 11+ prep before seeing the school. The independent schools here are more flexible, but might depend how oversubscribed they are.

In my area it would be too early. They have limited places as it is so there is no way they could accommodate someone outside of the year group.

No, perfectly normal. I get a bit pissed off on open day when the child is in year 4 or even 3 but I think beauty parading and then whittling down to a couple of choices is a good idea.

Local high school encourages it. We went in yr5. So did lots of other yr5 kids and their parents.

I think it's weird to say no.

We looked around all the schools in autumn of year 5.

Then registered for exams in autumn of year 6.

Very normal.

No not early.

Totally normal and exactly what I did. I did prelimary visits to all the schools we were interested in in Y5, then sent DH round with DC in Y6 to the ones I'd shortlisted.

Ok, thank you for the reassurance! They ask for applications in October the year before entry with admissions tests in November, so if I waited until their main event in October 2027 there would be barely any time between attending and applying.

The school has a good reputation but I don’t know it well (we are fairly new to the area), and I just don’t feel comfortable about the idea of seeing the school for the first time and applying/ doing the entrance test a couple of weeks later.

I’ve emailed back to say that so I’ll see what they say.

For context, I did used to teach at an independent secondary in another part of the country and we had at least as many parents of year 5s as parents of year 6s come to the main autumn open event. That was pre-covid though (and before I had my own children) so I wondered if things have changed.

We did. We went in year 5 and again in year 6 to the school we thought would be most suitable. It was as good as we remembered.

I never understand why people spend less time checking out things they spend a fortune on (houses; cars; education) than they do on things that cost a few pounds, like clothes.

Our local private schools encourage visiting for year 7 from year 4

I went to a few when mine were in year 4, then in year 5 i took them along to those i thought were a decent fit. Exams are at the start of year 6.

we visited in the summer of year 4, to see what would be a good fit for our child. We then did repeat visits in year 5. He took the entrance exams in yr 6 so that would have been way too late.

I think this is normal. I canvassed potential schools myself in the Autumn of Y5, and then took DC along to open events in the summer of Y5 for which ever ones I had shortlisted.
If it is a massively popular school that they are worried about numbers for open events, they are very lucky - I’d have thought most independent schools would be actively encouraging as much interest as possible, in the current climate!

The problem is this leaves fewer places for those who are applying this year.

There will also be a round of spring/summer open days which are ideal to attend in year 5.

No, ds had several taster days in year 5. The schools didn't mind at all. Choosing a school isn't a decision to be rushed.

I get that. This appears to be their main/ only open day though. Most schools would surely design such an event so there was room for prospective parents from year 5 and year 6 wouldn’t they?? There are no spring events advertised and the registrar who emailed me back didn’t mention any spring events (in fact she specifically said, come in October 2027!).

I’m taking DC in year 5 to some. All parents have the option to reserve a place and it’s not my problem if it fills up- perhaps it’s not helpful for much younger DC to go but that’s up to their parents.

I feel yr5 is a good time to see what the schools are like so you can know what the preparation would be for entry.

We started in year 5. Actually started looking at state schools in year 4 because there are so many options and very limited open days (especially for the very popular schools) that often overlap.
I think you really need to book in year 5 as you need to have your applications in the autumn of year 6.
If you don't do it years before, you'll never get in to see many of the schools in time.

We did them all in year 5, that’s who they were advertised at. I guess it depends on the school though.

There is usually a round of open days in Sep/Oct and another round in May/June. If schools have limited spaces they often prefer to keep the Sep/Oct ones for year 6 families who will be making decisions about wheee to apply imminently so it’s their last chance. May/June of year 5 is fine though. Or some schools will do an informal look around if they’re not doing anotjer open day that year.

Well they’ve held the line! Apparently the head wants to reserve all the spaces at this autumn’s open event for parents who are less than 12 months away from their admission date. Which would be fine, apart from the fact that their website says, for entry into year 7, they want applications in the October the previous year and then entrance exams to be sat in November. So it does seem like they think a parent would be ok seeing the school for the first time and then putting their application in a week or two later. I find it a bit baffling but their choice I guess.

I can only think either they are so confident of filling their places that they can make people wait, or that they are just very focused on getting their bums on seats for September 2027. Unfortunately I don’t know the school well enough to know which of the two is true (hence why I wanted to look around it!). They didn’t really offer me another alternative date.

I’ll focus my attention on the other options for now anyway - who do seem happy to let me come and look around this autumn. This particular school would require more logistical effort from us so it wouldn’t be the top choice unless it really seemed like a great fit for my son, and this experience isn’t giving me good vibes.

@OneDayIWillLearn astonishing. I work in private and DC just finished private. I know the pressure on numbers.

I started looking in year 4. For us private education is absolutely a considered purchase and we wanted a long run-in-both to understand the assessment process and also to work out which schools we were targeting and which ones I didn’t like.

There was only one school whose website was as less encouraging about going before year 6 and it was my least favourite. That school in general put much less effort into the open day and was basically of the attitude ‘we get to pick you, not you pick us’.

In year 4 I went to the state comprehensive, 2 schools I hated, 2 I loved and the 1 above that on paper was ‘the best’ but I didn’t really like. I ended up moving my child to the school I loved in year 5 rather than year 7 so it is really in the school’s own interest to facilitate younger age tours if they have a prep.

I think it is extremely unfair of schools who expect registration by October to not allow year 5s. That is totally bonkers to me.

Does seem bonkers not to offer an alternative or at least say “there will be a spring open day so keep checking back”.

Perfectly natural to want to view before though as a parent - we went to various in year 4 and 5 to see if worthwhile going into the 11+ process .

However my DC’s school will only let you tour in year 6 and have the open events early in Autumn term. It isn’t that they don’t want to per se - it is pure logistics for them - the two large events are already fully booked for y6 family before term starts. This a highly academic and very selective school with no shortage of keen parents who would view it as their top choice. If you’re a school further down the pecking order you probably can’t afford to take that approach these days.