Secondary School Open Evenings

[LSKent]

Hi

I've recently started work at a secondary school and one of my responsibilities is to arrange the Year 6 Open Evening. I would be interested to hear what kinds of things you, as parents, would be looking to see addressed at an Open Evening, and also any particularly good/bad experiences you've had of these! I'm keen to make sure parents in the area get what they want out of the Open Evening, so any advice and ideas would be gratefully received!

One local school I went to only has it's prefects to show you around and you wonder what they are trying to hide, as it does not have a good reputation anyway. They like to show off their choir so we have to sit through two or three songs in the presentation when we really want to look round the school, last time by the time the presentation was over the school was closing up.
They also made the mistake of having a parent giving a talk on why she sent her child there, we were not impressed.
DCs school has lots of enthusiatic Year 7s and 8s as guides and helping out in the classrooms and it does give a nice reflection of the school.

What I am trying to say is you need to try and reflect the true atmosphere of the school. DCs school does seem to do it quite well. We have two DCs there now in Year 8 and 10 and the feeling we got about the school on open evening has turned out to be accurate.

I want to know what is in the academic curriculum especially for the first years before options for GCSEs are chosen. What options do the kids have for GCSEs and A Levels. What are the results like- what are the leavers destinations. How is homework delivered and managed and what are the expectations on parents to help with this. What is on offer from a non- academic point of view both within the curriculum and therefore taken by all and as optional after school activities. Is there any streaming and from what age and on what basis.What is the stated ethos of the school- what are you trying to achieve. I prefer to be shown around by pupils who are able to give hones but fair opinions - not trot out some stuff they have been told to say. I like to be able to meet some staff and talk to them. It is nice to see a couple of musical items, but we all know these are likely to be the top 2% of the school performers so not representative, but as long as it doesn't take up too much time it is nice. Good inspiring speech from the head is a must. Perhaps the chance to view some sample of best and worst levels of work in a year band.

IMO open evenings are a tricky business. You need to strike a balance - I think most parents will expect schools to pull out all the stops, and therefore will assume that open evening shows the "best of..." However, you don't want anyone to think that you're giving a unrealistic impression of the school. If you go for "this is how it is every day", though, then parents might still assume you're showing them the "best of..." and think that "normal" is a step or two down from that. Does that make any sense at all?

I'm a secondary teacher, who has recently experienced primary open days for my DTDs who will be starting in a couple of weeks What impressed me at open days was children showing parents around and being honest about what they like, and teachers chatting honestly but positively about the school. One school did its open day on a Saturday, which immediately made us suspicious. Unsurprisingly, we didn't put that one on our list. From a teaching perspective, I never force students to come back in for open evening, but always enjoy having genuinely interested or keen ones in (I teach drama, so it's easy to have something interesting and/or fun going on in the classroom) I dislike long presentations from head teachers, and would rather that parents were free to wander around (with plenty of people to offer help if directions are needed!) than have forced guided tours.

Good luck - you've got quite a tough job there!

The standard state school open evening is to have each department giving a show of some kind - something hands-on for the Year 5/6 pupils, as well as information hand-outs for the parents (the topics they will study in KS3).

There will be an address by the Headteacher - perhaps at two different times.

Current pupils will be the guides, possibly Year 8 pupils as they are the closest to the age group who actually know the school. Sixth formers may be involved.

If there is a Friends/PTA, they may offer refreshments, display the school uniform, or whatever they are responsible for.

The problem with these open evening is that they are so early in the term that it is difficult to organise choir, orchestra, drama to any level of impressive standard. But if you can, then do.

We did loads of Open Days and Evenings last year

TBH, the best were the ones during a normal school day, so you could see the kids and the teaching as you walked around. Often pupils took us round, and they were all fantastic, but it was generally better to have a teacher with the group so they could give you more academic, etc information.

Lots of the schools had examples of work and lovely displays up in the subject-focused classrooms, and all had relevant tutors on hand to talk to parents.

All did a HT speech at the start / end of the session, often with other staff speaking and children giving their accounts of starting at the school / further up the school.

One school did a FAQ booklet that was really useful. And we also wanted info on recent exam results.

Thank you so much everyone for your thoughts, they're all really useful!

Can I just add a small thing?

I know you need to say how wonderful the school is and how every single pupil is going to leave being the next einstein, but please dont forget those DCs who are not academic and will not acheive the 5 a* to c grades, through no fault of their own, their parents, or the schools.

Also I want to know what distinguishes your school from the other local schools. For example I know some schools have special programs in place for year 7s, eg try to limit the number of teachers and classrooms they have. Some don't force everyone to do a langauge and instead do extra english work with kids who would benefit more from that etc.

So things like that. All the great initiatives your school has implemented over the last few years which makes it better than it's near neighbours :)

I want to know what a typical day will be like for a year 7 child.

The extra-curricular like D of E, visits, charity work ('community involvement'!) and not just sports tours that are only going to be for the A team; help me see that the school is going for all-round skills - useful for CVs and helping develop other interests and also help those pupils who may not be A* academic. Also show that the staff have vision and enthusiasm outside the classroom. Grammars and indies all have lots of afterschool activities IMO.

The extra-curricular like D of E, visits, charity work ('community involvement') and not just sports tours that are only going to be for the A team; help me see that the school is going for all-round skills - useful for CVs and helping develop other interests and also help those pupils who may not be A* academic. Also show that the staff have vision and enthusiasm outside the classroom. Grammars and indies all have lots of afterschool activities IMO.

You could have a look at "Choosing a Secondary School and getting in", which was published on 16th August. It's a comprehensive, user friendly guide, that will really help parents to drill down to the important aspects of deciding on a school for their child.
Available from
www.capitaltalent.co.uk

Good luck!

we liked that the staff involved the younger DCs as well. FT did a great display/quiz of a kitchen with hazards to spot, and stickers for finding them all.
Also seeing how the staff interacted with existing pupils and vice versa. Lots of joking and teasing of the 6th formers failing at doing cool science experiments etc.

We seem as a school to have very successful open evenings with many of the things already mentioned. We always major on what all pupils can achieve. We are a comprehensive and have to fight for pupils against local grammar schools but in a different LA, so we are perceived as a "safe" school for those pupils that have not quite made the grammar school grade.

If you are organising the event I think you need to make sure that the "theme" is right. Where are your pupils coming from and are you addressing their needs? We do a lot of work with all our primary schools where our pupils come from (42 different schools last year, with 8 major ones) throughout the year and I think this is a major positive in convincing parents that this is the right school.

Our number 1 asset is our pastoral support via a house system, which means that even in a 1600 pupil school, none get ignored. Any number of questionnaires have shown this is the top priority for parents after standards. Because we track all students via the house system, we can and do push hard to ensure our students have targets that are attainable but challenging.

As a governor we always try and be there to offer any advice, words of comfort or whatever. It is actually quite interesting what some parents will tell you about other school's opendays, especially the negative bits and this can give you some clues on what not to do!

The other really irritating thing for many parents is car parking. You need to think through where are you going to accomodate 500 potential cars and that is not on all the local streets causing chaos!