Choosing a secondary school - what to look for and how to find out?

[choosestress]

Looking for advice from teachers and experienced parents. We are preparing to move house in the next 1-2 years and want to move into the catchment of a secondary school we are happy with. We will be moving 2-3 miles from our current home, but flexible on exact location, which gives us the option of about 5 secondary schools.

I'm feeling at a loss as to what to look for, and how to find out the information. I feel that Open Days, Ofsted etc can only tell you so much about what it's like to actually attend the school.

Things that seem to be important to us are -

• Staff turnover. I can see this is a huge issue nationally. How can I find out what a school's staff turnover is, and what % of lessons are staffed by cover teachers? Would a school tell me the answer to this? Would I need to do an FOI request?

• Behaviour. Our DD is very well behaved and finds excessive classroom noise stressful. How can I find out what behaviour is like, and whether the behaviour policies are actually followed?

• Phone policy - we are very anti phone in the classroom as it's clearly as distraction and affects behaviour. How can I find out what the phone policy is?

• Sexual harassment - I want a school that take a very firm line / zero tolerance stance on sexual harassment of girls, whether that's in person or via social media. How can I find out girl's experiences at the schools? Could I request data on how many instances have been reported at each school?

Can anyone advise?

Go and stand outside the school at the start and end of the day for a few days. You will get a feel for how kids behave. You should also see staff on duty hopefully.
Ask for a walk round tour during the school day. Look at the behaviour policy. Ask about practical stuff like how they sanction poor behaviour, no hwk etc. If they have strong policies then this is a good sign.
Ask other parents locally.
Some of the stuff you want to know such as policy on phones etc will be on the website. I think sending FOI requests abut cover teachers etc is a waste of everyone's time. You would also need context to know the relevance of such data. They may also tell you they don't collect such data.

Some of the things on your list, you won't know until she starts. You could ask about setting. If your dd is bright and they set, she will perhaps escape some of the disruption. However, I think that all schools have disruptive students and they do of course disrupt learning and cause issues for other students and staff. This is inevitable. The staff turnover is also difficult. Some schools have long standing staff who will of course retire. Some will have younger teachers who will move on for promotion. All schools are struggling to recruit because teachers are leaving the profession due to poor behaviour and workload.