What to look for when choosing a secondary school

[HarryRug]

Just that really. When considering schools what should we be looking out for/thinking about.

What we looked for was subject specialties (dc school is v big in STEM), GCSE pass rates, extra curricular opportunities, reputation of 6th form. Also ethos, which is quite hard to pin down but it was quite clear when we visited that the schools we looked at all had a quite different ethos, despite the official spiel all being about bringing out the best from the kids in their care.

Thank you @barbariansmum. They’re all good suggestions.

• are results for your type of child OK
• how much homework
• feel of school eg pushy academic, relaxed and arty, caring, strict etc
• behaviour & uniform policy
• who gets to do triple science (if you care)
• do they offer 2 MFL to GCSE
• options at KS4 for the less academic
• extra curricular activities you care about - sport, music, drama etc
• do you want your child to turn out like the current y11s
• if you ask a pupil what they like/dislike about the school what do they say
• what do current pupils say when you ask them about behaviour and bullying
• if you ask school about bullying what do they say
• what is their pastoral support like

What is my realistic chance of getting into this school? That will colour what you are looking for.
In our case, we were guaranteed a place at our catchment school (barring bizarre statistical anomaly) and highly unlikely to get a place at any other school we might have chosen. So looking round the catchment school was not a case of "is this the best school for my child" but "is this school so awful that I definitely wouldn't send my child here and I need a plan B urgently".

Oh yes "what is the realistic chance of getting a place at this school" is the first question you should answer. Check you understand how the admissions for each school are, and what category your child is in. Dont listen to playground rumours.

Look at the young people and decide whether you would be happy if your children turned out like them.
Maybe progress 8 score.

No choice here for us really only one in our town! Not unless we want to drive 20-25 mins to the city. But it’s a good school (so I’ve heard)

Gut instinct when visiting a school - does it feel right or wrong?

Choose the school that feels right for your dc, not everyone else’s.

Reputation - listen to them, but make your own opinion

Ousted - use as a guide, and read the bits relevant to you. Ie. If it says the school as a poor sports provision, and your son isn’t sporty, that’s irrelevant

Consider how you would get to a school

Thank you everyone for your helpful suggestions. I really appreciate them.

Hello everyone . If anyone knows about the following secondary schools and could give us some " insider " or " user " information on them we would be so grateful. Our position is that we are seeking a Year 7 place at secondry school in September 2020 for our daughter who is Dyslexici
( mild to moderate) and has an EHCP So our choice of school
can go outside where we live ( Weybridge) . The choices we are thinking of are , Howard of Effingham, Gordon's school ( West end ), Heathside Weybridge and Cobham Free School . Our daughter enjoys art, making things ( clothes, etc ) cookery , science so likes practical things . She has normal comprehension and reasoning and is very articulate . She has no behaviour problems at all and makes friends .
We are looking for a school that will offer her good support and of course, one she likes as she had always loved being at her current primary school. Most of the children in her primary are going onn to a high achieving Catholic feeder school , but as we are not Catholic , we were told ( not in so many actual words ) but we were given the strong impression that , that secondary is none to keen to have her there. Whereas the other schools have been all been more welcoming . Howard of Effingham seems really nice but is so much further away from us then Heathside which is so close our daughter could walk there and gain more locally living friends . So it's a real dilemma for us particularly when we add Gordon's into the mix which some say is the best State school .. So we are looking at those . So any further knowledge about any of these school would be so helpful. Thank you for reading this . Fingers crossed !

Holly

It might be better to start a new thread titled 'Which school in Weybridge for dyslexic child' as that might get more traction.

So you are looking for what?

• a school with a good SEN department and flexibility of teachers with dyslexic pupils
• what else?

Hi Holly, I would highly recommend the Cobham Free School. I have a child with a similar profile and it is definitely the right fit for us. Send the SENDCO a message and see if you can have a chat/meeting to discuss.

Thank you . I will start another thread as you suggested .

Thank you senaroundtheworld. Have just emailed CFS Senco .

I visited 2 schools with my Ds one felt like the very wrong kind of school for my Ds , one felt right.

I asked how they motivate pupils , asked children at open evening best and worst thing.

How they deal with behaviours .

I spoke to Senco but then my Ds has specific needs.

I asked teachers how they felt about uniform policy - one was strict.

Would you send your child to this school and why?

Thanks everyone most helpful.

One thing that really stood out for us was how the pupils interacted with each other. At one school the year 11's showing us round didn't acknowledge each other, hold doors open or use basic manners. Another school they all smiled at each other as they walked past (and they can't all have been part of the same friendship circle), they were polite to each other and respectful. That spoke volumes about the behaviour taught, as well as academia.

First and mostimportant - will I actually be able to get the school? There is no point in loving a school outside all possiblities of getting a space.

We looked for good pastoral care and liked the fact that they didn’t put all children straight into sets based on SATS result in the school DD got in the end. It was also a reason for putting it as first choice,

How to the teacher interact with the children who guide you around? In most of our schools you get a brand new Y7 as your guide and it says a lot about the climate how a child just being at a school for 4-6 weeks interacts with the teaching staff. Our guide lost her way and was happy to approach the head teacher who walked past and asked her for help. In another school the child would have never dared to do this as the head was similar to Mrs. Trunchball in Mathilda.

When you listen to the head teacher talk what is their main focus? How do they see the children and their future in the school? How to they stretch or help? What are they proud of? While obviously being proud of very good exam results and the percentage of children going to Oxbridge and RG universities one head impressed me with examples of pupils being outstanding outside typical academics and highlighting achievements not book driven or sporty.

We asked questions about homework, content of lessons, languages, extra curricular activities and the move to sixth form works. Ask for a typical timetable in Y7 or 8, I was surprised that in DD’s school drama, dance, arts have an equal standing to typical academic subjects.

When are the GCSE subjects choosen, how many are compulsory?

Take your child’s view into account and ask him/her beforehand to talk to the guide and approach the teachers as well. They often ask very different but for them important questions.

Our primary school talked to the Y6 about the open days and encouraged them to be curious. DD came equipped with quite a list of things she wanted to know.

Can you get a place?
What is the journey like?
Languages, which, how many does each take, how are they allocated, is it free choice?
Triple science?
How does setting or streaming work? (Any, none, all subjects, from day one, later? How easy is it to move up and down if needed? Set by SATs, in-school tests or differently?)
Length of school day
Extracurricular music (cost, availability) and sports
Ask your year 7 guide about the older kids.
Watch how kids interact with each other and the teachers.
How do the kids and teachers interact with your year 6 child?
Does school pay attention to "frills"? (Many exam-factory academies really ignore arts, drama etc.)
Evidence of love/ pride in the place? (All plants dead? Nowhere to sit? Water available, corridors lit, toilets you would dare visit?)
How is bullying dealt with? ("We have no bullying issues"= we do not deal with it at all)
What about drugs and alcohol? ("Never had any drugs here"= same as bullying, they look after 1000 teens, of course drugs will turn up sometimes)

Thanks everyone this has been really helpful.

We wanted to get a sense of where we could imagine our child being happy but I appreciate that's very subjective and not easy on an open day.
The objective things I looked for were:
How did the pupils interact with each other when they weren't on show?
How did older pupils talk to younger ones?
How did the teachers talk to the pupils?
Some schools felt very relaxed and as though there was good camaraderie. Others felt very rigid and hierarchical.
We felt our children would get on better in a more relaxed environment.