How early can you take a look around a potential secondary school?

[CarlaTheGnome]

We're hoping to move house next year and we don't want to have to move again. This is hopefully going to be our 'forever' home. So DS who has only just started primary will be going to secondary school in the area we're about to move to. We have quite a wide area in mind covering several catchment areas. Would I be completely mad to view a few of the secondary schools now before we make a decision on our final location? Would they even let me view when DS isn't due to start secondary for another 5-6 years?! I realise a lot can change within a school during that time, but I feel like school is such a big consideration in this moving plan that I need to do what research I can.

Like others have suggested, I went to quite a few open days in the September when dc1 was in Yr 5. We live in a City and could potentially apply for quite a lot of schools and I wanted to narrow it down and just take dc1 to a few, in Yr6.

So I went on my own. I don't ever recall being asked where my dc was, but would just have said 'not well' or 'at cubs' or whatever. So no issue with you going to the open evenings.

That said, a HUGE amount can change in 6 years. I'm not convinced it would be that helpful, or worth your time.

For DS I had to do it all in year 6 due to Covid, but a year earlier would've been good as some of them clashed. But a lot of the schools had changed massively since he was in reception. I'll probably look in year 4 for DD as she has SEN and the process and timescales are different, don't see any point before that.

I wouldn’t visit before year 5 and I certainly wouldn’t 6 or 7 years ahead. There might be two inspections during that time, if you place a lot of emphasis on Ofsted. I’d decide where you want to live, focusing on your other criteria too and then do your research nearer the time you need it.

I don't think you're mad to be factoring in local secondary schools when choosing your 'forever' home. Of course schools can change quickly, but it makes sense to bear it in mind.

If you know parents of students at the schools, a chat might be sufficient, but if you have the time and interest, of course you (parents only) could attend the open days. I think people are being rude to call you mad for considering it at this stage (though other factors such as whether you love the house, commute to work etc are also important!)

We visited our two local comprehensive schools a year early (when our DC was in Y4) because some local grammars had introduced catchment areas which reduced our DC's chance of a grammar place. We would then have had time to move house if we were not keen on the comprehensive schools.

We were very glad we did this, because Covid hit several months later, and that turned out to be our only chance to visit those two schools before filling out the CAF. We weren't able to visit any other schools at all.

You can go to Open days. No one checks. Although it would be odd to see a parent without a 10/11 year old in tow at our local school open days.

I suspect you may get little value out of it, not just because the school may change, but because your child definitely will. If they are 5/6 now, you have absolutely no idea about specific things that might be key for them when they get to secondary stage.

If it helps I went to one secondary open day when my child was 7, I was planning to move to the area and it was the most likely school, my son is now starting there this september. I got a general feel of the school, basically already knew it had good results but wanted to see if it was formal or pressured- could tell by the visit it was quite relaxed.