Do most Secondary Schools let you visit.

[TinTinBanana]

Hi, I am just wondering if most secondary schools in Scotland do not allow parents to visit the school to see if they like it. I have previously read on here about parents visiting a school to see if they like it. But I phoned a school today who said they don't have time to show people around or see them to answer questions. The only visits are transition visits for children who have places for the following school year. I expected that this would be their response.

So how do other people manage to visit schools they are interested in? Or how do you decide on a school without visiting. I was allowed to visit the primary schools I was interested in.

I think it will be up to the individual schools. Our local high school does allow visits. I never did as it was our local catchment school and wasn’t planning on sending out or catchment.

I image if a school is full and they typically don’t have room for placement requests then they may simply not support visits.

Our local secondary school runs regular evening events for P7 children and their parents. Tours of the building, chats with teachers, presentations and so on.

It's generally assumed that you will go to your catchment secondary. If you are planning a placing request to another school then I'm sure they would be happy to accommodate extra parents on their induction evenings, on the understanding that a place on the induction evening doesn't mean a place at school.

Most parents in Scotland don't go round a variety of schools, look at each and then make applications. It doesn't really work like that. You might be desperately interested in St Ninian's in East Ren or Bearsden Academy in East Dunbartonshire. But unless you're already living in their catchment areas, you have a snowflake in hell's chance of getting in. So why would the staff welcome you in to have a wee look round?

Ours does not allow visits. Nobody goes to a school out of catchment so the thinking is that there is no need to view as this is the school you are going to have to go to regardless. Same with primary.

Ours would ask you to join the events set up for catchment P7 parents. However if timing didn't suit you could ask to attend an evening event e.g. CfE showcase and a prefect would show you around. Head of year or other member of staff might be available for questions. If not you could send questions by email.

My DD went out of catchment. Neither of us visited new school in advance. We felt there was sufficient information on the website plus asked around friends and colleagues.

Thank you very much for your replies. It is very much as I had thought it would be but had read about other people visiting schools. Ds goes to primary out of catchment. We have made contact with catchment high school and he will go to transition events at that school. In an ideal world world would be nice to visit catchment high school and high school his primary school classmates will go to and see what would be a better fit for him.

I should have said, I moved him in P2 to out of catchment school because my mum got ill and we had to stay with her to look after her. So ds is at school in my mum's catchment. I should probably continue with transition to catchment high school and do placing request for my mum's catchment and if it is successful ask if I can speak to someone to ask the things I really need to know.

It may depend in LA, ours allow people making placing requests to visit. A lot of DD1s friends did visit 2 schools when DD1 was transitioning to secondary.

A few were in other LAs too.

Where I work does visits and these are almost exclusively for placement requests as catchment area parents and DC have a very full transition program.

Can understand if a school which will not be taking placement requests refuses visits, most secondary schools are short staffed at present. Seems a bit curt but probably better having a blanket policy .

Also if you are a Scotsnet regular you will see many English posters who are considering relocating and don't know that it's not the norm to visit several schools and the nature of the Scottish system. They would expect tho visit several schools.

Perhaps phone and ask when there is a parents evening for P7/transition planned? The 2 high schools near me organise them nearer Easter.

Thank you everyone for your replies. It sounds like all schools are different. That's a good suggestion MrsAmaretto I will do that.

Support staff have been cut to the bone which has probably impacted. We didn't visit the school we were making a placing request to but were given details of parents information evenings to attend. It can depend who you speak to though. I called and was immediately given this info and the dates. Another parent also looking to make a placing request to the same school had called on a different day and wasn't given that information or given it as an option.

Also, don't feel that you need to explain your choice to request an out of catchment school place, people do this for all sorts of reasons and they are perfectly entitled to do so. I agree though that schools who are unlikely to be in the position to give any spaces to out of catchment pupils won't want to accommodate visits as it's a waste of everyone's time.

Thank you WaxOn. I will think about what I should do. I have a meeting at his primary school soon and will ask them more about what supports he will need at high school. He is a quiet boy who is not able to speak up when he is struggling so really need to find the right school for him.

Good point about not having to explain my reasons.

It's a good idea to contact as early as possible as you maybe able to join in transition events. Ds1 was similar to your ds and was also being bullied on top and the catchment school was just a bit too vibrant for him. He was better in the more academic quite environment. He is still really quite though so I wonder sometimes if we should have gone for the catchment and it might have given him more confidence to speak up? We'll never know though. Good luck with your decision.

Ds' old school (Shawlands Academy) was very welcoming and gave us a tour (dh and me) when ds was in P6 as we were considering a placing request. Later, they also helped us arrange for a wee tour for ds and a few of his friends at his primary school who were also considering placing requests.

I think it is probably down to individual schools and/or LA policy (Glasgow City Council gives schools a lot of autonomy).

By doing it in P6, you can then organise to join in transition events held in the first term of P7 (Shawlands, for example, organises special P7 After School Clubs).

Thank you WaxOn and PrettyBird