Viewing secondary schools - what do I need to ask/think about?

[PassTheTwiglets]

About to start the rounds of looking at secondary schools - will obviously look at Ofsted and results but what else should I be thinking about? Any particular questions to ask?

DD has had a tough old time at primary and she's a sensitive little soul, so pastoral care is my main concern. (You can find out all you need to know about how well the school performs by looking at their GCSE results, yes?)

Ask them how they teach evolution.

Not because it's terribly important, but because it's interesting to see if they start trying to figure out whether you mean "because I'm an evolutionary biologist and want to make sure you're up to speed" or "because I'm a headbanging creationist and what to keep Satan out of the classroom". Confident schools are confident, and will just tell you what they do. Schools that have a tendency to pander to noisy parents who represent only themselves will tend to start hemming and hawing.

A 'how to choose a school' website - brilliant!

Friday16, oh I dunno though, I quite like the sound of a school that panders to me :o

Blimey, so many things to ask - are they really going to let me stand there for half an hour and ask all this when there are hundreds of others parents too?

No!

Ask the kids who show you around all the "how does this feel to a child stuff" about homework, bullying etc. Ask staff about how teaching is organised (sets etc), choice of GCSEs, policy (much of this may be covered in HT talk anyway).

Passthetwiglets
DD is one of the people who shows prospective parents and teachers around her school.
She was coached a bit, but is basically trusted to not say anything too outrageous.
During the 25 minutes walking around you get quite a lot of time to chat.
Also, watch the reactions of other pupils to the one showing you round - do they look embarrassed or greet them as normal?

Yes, we were shown round one school by hand-picked prefect girls in year 11; round another by madly enthusiastic small boys in Year 7 who'd been there all of three weeks at that point.

The first were charming and well informed but somehow bland. We went with 'daft but keen' for DS and it's suited him very well.

Actually, one school offered no chance to talk to any staff at all. I found that interesting.

Indeed, what you don't see or hear is the most revealing - schools take note!

ask about staff turnover

but with the caveat that DCs school lost LOADS of staff last term, but it was all very amicable due to a change in strategy from a recruitment plan a few years ago.

having read a couple of other threads today, I'd say you need to ask the head whether they value uniform over education, or vice versa.

In fact, I'd steer clear of anyone who tells you that their super-strict uniform policy is Raising Standards Across the Board.

i asked a couple of pupils if they had ever had to play dumb (i had to as a survival.tactic) and was delighted at their horrified responses!

This list might add a couple of ideas

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/secondary/a1560040-List-of-questions-for-open-days