Secondary School Open Days – how many to visit?

[BettySundaes]

Just that really. I want to visit the schools with my DD during a working day to get a good feel for them, see how kids behave etc but conscious it means time out of school, fatigue and them all blurring into one if we overdo it. I’ve visited websites, seen a few online presentations that happened last year but not really much nearer to making decisions. At least we are fortunate to be able to do in person visits this year. Hoping something stands out/feels right.

I have narrowed down to eight possible to view – too many?? We get to express six preferences for our CAF.

8 is a lot - would you stand a reasonable chance of getting into all 8? We looked at 4. Open days tended to not be during the school day but an evening or weekend with current students taking us on a tour and classrooms set up with a few activities and teachers available to chat plus a talk by the head teacher in the hall. Only one school also offered to tour you around on a normal school morning as well.

Yes, all eight have possibility of entry either based on historical distance data or specialist places. All are doing morning, school day visits.

If you have time/stamina I would go to all those you have a realistic chance of gaining a place. If you were buying a house you wouldn't just visit six. Also sometimes you need to make decisions quickly, e.g. you don't get any of your offers but you are allocated a place at school A but there is also a place at school B, which one do you choose?

We are visiting two to decide which order to put them in... catchment school and the lottery entry school. Unlikely to get a place at the out of catchment schools, but that's the way the local system works.

(I'm guessing London so you have more schools in the area?)

is she year 6?

I think 8 is a lot, and she will just end up with a blur.
For secondary a good rule of thumb is to say that parents make the decision with input from the kids, rather than that the kids make the decision.
Kids tend to be influenced by things like the new computer lab/cool drum kit.
Parents tend to be influenced by things like the GCSE results.

Do remember that you are looking for a school for GCSE and age 14/15/16 as much as for year 7 and age 11.
I heard loads fo stuff at open evenings about how much time they spend settling in the year 7s and I always wanted to ask - so that is the first 3 months, what about the next 7 years?

What I would say is that YOU go to all 8, but select your best bets and take her to about 4/5 max.

We went to the 3 we stood a chance of getting into - but they were all evening events.
With DS2 this autumn, we are hoping to go to the 2 I'd be prepared to let him go to - the third we visited with DS1 is an absolute no go.

@Aroundtheworldin80moves

We are visiting two to decide which order to put them in... catchment school and the lottery entry school. Unlikely to get a place at the out of catchment schools, but that's the way the local system works.

(I'm guessing London so you have more schools in the area?)

actually I think out of London is often like this. In our town, and the surrounding area, the secondaries are not over suscribed and you are likely to get a place at any of them, although maybe on second round. That is about 14 schools.

Unfortunately I would only actually want 2-4 of them, the rest wouldn't even make my long list never mind the short list

Yes, London, I do appreciate its a different scenario to many other parts, doesn't make it easier though.

It won't be DD's decision but her buy in is important - I know she will get distracted by things that are periphery on the visits.

Perhaps I should narrow to the six places available on the CAF and just concentrate on ordering them??

Have any of them still got videos from last year's virtual open days up on their websites? We've been screening based on these to narrow a big list down to something more manageable. We're probably going to visit 4 or 5 in person.

I'd view progress 8 and ofsted get the better progress 8 and ofsteds
View the schools with better results of the above

If you feel that all 8 are schools you think you would be happy with (based on the info you have) then I would suggest you visit and then take DD to max 3-4 once you have whittled it down. She doesn’t need to see 8 schools. We are also London and looked at 3 and then said we were happy with 2.

I'm agog at people having 8 genuine options! (I'm in an area where the choice is catchment school or failing unpopular school).

I'd suggest picking your top 2 or 3 favourites (on paper) and visiting them. If you've a genuine chance of getting all of them, it's unlikely you'll go down to your lower choices. If you have the concept of a catchment or "banker" school, I'd probably also visit that, if it's not in your top ones.

@Christmasfairy2020

I'd view progress 8 and ofsted get the better progress 8 and ofsteds View the schools with better results of the above

On the basis this information is at best 2 years out of date; I would not absolutely not do this.

Eight is the number I've narrowed to - there were plenty more we would have a chance at. It's a weird area - there's a few highly desirable schools and then very many under-subscribed ones inc some that are OFSTED "Outstanding" so that's no indicator.

I feel I've done all I can on desk research/asking local parent opinions - I just need to suck it up and see them.

I’d knock 2-3 off. Have you viewed all catchment data and history and what you’d be on the edge of? You sound like you’ve put a lot of work in so I assume so!

It’s a complete slog and good luck! What edged DDs school for me was the behaviour and enthusiasm of the girls showing us around. I did throw in questions like ‘what do you like best/least about your school?’, ‘what would you change?’. We did get some interesting and very honest answers from some of the kids!

@SJaneS49 - that's exactly the sort of thing I'm looking for from visits - that really helps. Just got to get on with the slog.

We only looked at 1. But then our 2 "choices" were catchment school (2 miles away) and extremely oversubscribed and popular school (6 miles away).

We looked at six for DD1 and three for DD2. We only looked at so many for DD1 because we visited one when she was in Y4, a couple during Y5 and the others during Y6. She only saw two in school time because both DH and I are teachers so were limited to only being able to visit on the day I wasn't teaching. Another parent took her to look round one of the schools. By the time we applied for DD1, the home to school distances had changed so much that there was no way she'd stand a chance of getting in to three of the schools we looked at for DD1 five years earlier.

I'd suggest you look at the online/virtual tour videos for all eight then prioritise visits to the closest school your DD is eligible for, the school everyone gets into but that on paper is likely to be your last choice and the school your DD has heard lots of good things about/claims everyone is going to etc. Take her with you to visit the nearby eligible one and the 'everyone is going to' school. If you can visit another one with her on an evening, do so.

She doesn't need to visit every school but do consider practicalities such as how she'll get to each school (and the back up plan during the snow or train strikes), whether or not she'll be able to continue with favourite hobbies if she has a long journey home, if the school offers opportunities that are important to her e.g. cricket, cheerleading, chess club.

I have a BIG spreadsheet with all the relevant (and more) criteria from journey times, extra curricular, school day, homework, ethos, etc etc for each school.

Children really do scatter to the wind, when our primary details where kids have gone each year there's probably 20 or so different schools, even the nearest local school probably has no more than six kids going to it each year.

We looked at 6 (we were also London), all of which dc1 had a good chance of admission to (varying factors including exam, distance, religious affiliation etc. Their primary school year group of 25 children went on to 9 different schools). It felt a lot but it also felt important. In our heads before we visited we had a tough "order of preference" - it totally changed after we visited.

Rough not tough