What are you looking for in a secondary school?

[Nena7]

Hi, I'm interested in finding out what qualities parents are looking for when choosing a secondary school? Would be grateful if you could let me know what you rate the most important factors. Thank you!

Somewhere where I can imagine my dc's and a place that they will be happy attending.

In no particular order my criteria included:

• friendly welcoming atmosphere
• high standards
• confidence in the head teacher and leadership team
• variety of clubs and activities
• good academic results and a high proportion of pupils moving onto good universities
• opportunities for pupils to get involved in leadership activities

Nena7:

I think it ends up being a balance between parental desires for good educational outcomes and respecting your child's desires (staying with friendship group/ sports opportunities/ support of educational interests/ etc...)

For us:

Stability (we just left a primary in constant revolutionary change - new initiative after new initiative introduced & abandoned).

Good results (GCSE/ A-Level/ OFSTED report)

Good reputation locally (friends with kids there think it's a good school)

and then MarjorieMelon's list...

Great teaching/interesting teachers that engage and like working with teenagers of all abilities and encouraging progression.

Good results.

Good communication. Our primary was lacking.

Strong leadership.

What Marjorie listed.

Also, most importantly for us, a relatively stable teaching staff that actually seem to like teenagers.

Good Pastoral support.

Good results achieved for my type of child.

Flexible GCSE options.

Care about whole child, not just results.

Good communication with parents.

A realistic rather than slavish attitude to Ofsted's requirements. Regarding students as individuals, not numbers on a graph. Setting in as many subjects as possible. Good staff retention. A generally well-behaved and motivated cohort of kids (I'd put that pretty much at the top of the list actually).