How accurate was the impression you formed of senior school, before your kids started?

[Orangeinmybluelightcup]

With the power of hindsight, how accurate was your impression you formed of the senior school you chose for your dc? The impression you got from things like open days and local chat. If you had concerns, were they correct or misfounded? Or did it look great but actually it's not been?

@Orangeinmybluelightcup The key element is for DD to have a plan and that all teachers are aware of her needs. Lots of DC won’t have laptops but, again, knowing what she needs, or doesn’t need, is key.

Obviously I can't comment on every school, but lots of teachers leaving for any reason will mean the school will likely struggle to fill every vacancy- if more leave mid year next year, this will get even worse. It will be very hard to tell from the outside if a school is struggling to recruit, even current parents may not know. But when a particular department is short staffed it can cause all sorts of problems, and then more teachers leave etc- it likely will mean inconsistent SEN support because the teachers will be inconsistent. Becoming an academy can also cause more teachers to leave etc and lots of change.

I'd imagine other parents will be considering the small school, so it may not necessarily be no local friends. Small schools can have their downsides too, but I think it's your best bet for your oldest DD?

Assuming that they are objective. In my local school there is a some sort of club that keeps babbling " aaamazing school" as if they were Stepford wives. And when you mention frequent bullying and results below UK average they jump at you with their claws out.

I second this. There is a PTA in a local oversubscribed school that actually threatens legal action against negative comments on Facebook. It's a pretty insane bubble and you'd think the school is faultless reading anything online.
I would be very wary of a school where you can't seem to find anything negative. Every school will have negatives, you need to find them and decide whether that's something you can live with or not.

Exactly

I was terrified of dd1 going to our local comp as some kids were horrible to her at primary school. It was such a big improvement for her though. She made a lovely group of friends and the cool ones never bothered them. She's now at university

The state school place (1300 pupils) we were offered, DS went to the taster day and I went along at the end. It was a complete shambles, 300 10yos, kids in carparks, kids in the road, kids with no idea where they were going. Not impressed. And their exam results were mediocre although ofsted reckoned they were good. I thought they were terrible. That was in late 2018

The school ds finally chose, 3 taster days over a year for DS, one open day for me. It's been great so far. DS going into year 11 now, on track for 10 good grades and happy. Wants to stay to do A'levels. It's a small non-selective, not very fashionable independent but the teaching and the pastoral care have been outstanding. They dealt with lockdowns without breaking stride.

The first school had an Ofsted inspection last year, Ofsted said the school had no idea who was on site, the children weren't safe, bullying rife, downgraded to requires improvement, governors resigned, handed over to a different trust etc. So feel better about not letting DS go with his friends.

Paying opens up options the majority do not have.

I’ve also come across cheer leaders at schools within the parent body. However a change of parents and a change of SLT, particularly the head, can make a massive difference in many schools, state or independent. Many parents who are happy don’t like change for no good reason. This is often the case in private schools. State schools can be on a mission to improve.

Around me, the grammars all converted to become academies. I can assure you, no teachers left due to that. They are not part of MATs so set their own agendas, so to speak. All have continued to be successful. So who is running a school matters.

My daughter now goes to the "best" school in our area.......its shocking. The kids are feral, the teachers lazy, the buildings are old and tired and they seem to actively do whatever they can to make school dull.

My son started at the "worst" school, horrid reputation. Its AMAZING!!! Smaller class sizes as no one wants their kids to go there, lots of investment, teachers really seem to care, kids are more well behaved, parents more involved. I'm totally sending my 3rd child there!!!

Seems like the good school runs off its reputation, and acts like it no longer needs to put the work in.

Don't listen to others. Park opposite the school at home time. Watch the behaviour as they come out. Sit in a coffee shop round the corner and watch at home time. Speak to the local shopkeepers.

I was completely bought by their sales technique.

Ds didn't even last year 7.

He went to a much better school after that and I regret ever sending him to the first one and will never forgive myself for buying into what they said before he started and after he started and in response to issues I raised.

Oh gosh it's difficult. How do you possibly know if you're doing the right thing!!!

@Orangeinmybluelightcup Without being snobby, look at the parents. Dc tend to be a chip off the old block. Are DC mostly looking happy and reasonably well presented when they come out of school? Can you find out if professional parents use a school? Is it an area with uni lecturers living in it? Sure fire won’t be a bad school in that area. What about cost of housing? Doesn’t always follow that leafy lanes have better schools, but around me it does.

If teachers are around on an open day, do they seem enthusiastic? Do classrooms inspire? Look at all the school policies. Are they reasonable? Could Dc live with them? What about sport, music, art and drama? Are they flourishing or more of less non existent? Exam results will tell you a lot but check the harder subjects. Look at progress for your DCs group - lower, middle, higher. Look at numbers in each. If Dc are higher attaining, are there plenty of other higher attainers? It might be old info but schools do not change that much in 3-4 years . Are there a good range of subjects at gcse?

Do heads stay? Are they forever advertising for staff?

Lastly, listen to other discerning parents you know. Where did other dc go and did they do well? Were they well supported and encouraged by the school? Unfortunately (or fortunately) schools change. It’s better to get one on the up then one sliding down.

I agree with @TizerorFizz Unfortunately you do need to be a little snobby but balanced. A good school will have a good balance of the poorer and wealthier kids. Those from professional backgrounds and those not. If you can see a school is catering well to both, than you're in good hands.
Unfortunately overall it's very much luck. My DDs school was incredible up until the SENCO left in Dec 2021. The school has a large number of EHCPs (around 15 per year) plus about 20% on SEN register so huge numbers. Since the new senco came in, the SEN provision has nose dived and the whole school setup has changed. The school has an incredible reputation for SEN, but this is not current. We're moving DD to another school in Sept, mid GCSEs as it got so bad. You need to just be vigilant and accept that things in schools at the moment aren't great, and you have to have realistic expectations. Generally speaking if your child has regular teachers, friends and is happy and supported at home, they'll do fine.

Gosh this sounds like a school near us

Yeah, we made an error with DD1 currently in Y7. Private Catholic girls school. We are church goers but not Catholic.

Promise: Lots of feminist marketing about the benefits of an all girls Education. Open recruitment policy. Reassured us several times that they welcome everyone, RE is just learning about religion blah blah.

Reality: first question in RE was "put your hand up if you're Catholic". Mass is about once per month. Y7 RE curriculum has included the importance of chastity and modesty...
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I just assumed that if they had altered their recruitment policy to accept anyone, they would have liberalised everything else too. Lesson learned.

Open days are a show. They can give you an impression but they are, ultimately, a performance put on for prospective parents and children and they will not represent the day to day happenings. That being said, student tour guides can often give you a reasonable impression depending on how open they are as they show you round. Often, their own personal conduct, confidence, etc. can also be representative of the values and expectations of the school.

Word of mouth isn't massively reliable either. One of the major differences between primary and secondary is how involved and informed the parents are (or are allowed to be by their children). Children stop telling parents what happens at school, parents are physically on site far less, there's not one specific point of contact for parents, etc. Obviously, this isn't the case for all children but I've seen parental shift a lot with a number of the families with whom I am involved.

absolutely not a good idea. Some school program naive parents to praise the school. It is a perpetuated notion of "aaaamazing school". Whereas there is bullying and GCSE results are poor.

The problem with open days etc is that quite often they show a biased view of the school, of course they won't show you if the school has bullying problems, bad behaviour etc, they'll make it seem as good as possible. My DC's first secondary school was 'outstanding', the open evening was encouraging but in reality it was a horrible school with a big bullying problem. They had all their issues under a rug, they weren't going to admit they had these problems.
My impression from talking to local parents wasnt great: despite the outstanding ofsted report many advised me against the school and said it had issues with bullying etc. They were correct, I should have listened to them. I took my DC out in year 10 and put her in a 'good' school, which was far better and had no issues with bullying like at the old one.

@TheShorestAnswerIsDoing The critical point is “sensible people”. Not the brainwashed sycophants. Someone who’s able to weigh up pros and cons. I can tell who is too gushing!

but not everybody is as sensible as you are and there are many naive people around

@TizerorFizz Exactly. I would never send my child to a school I did t hear anything negative about. It's just not possible. Find out what is the negative aspect and if you're happy to live with it.

@Foxesandsquirrels That’s exactly it. If people naively believe the cheerleaders without a bit more digging, that’s down to them. However I found many realistic parents when I asked around.

Been happy with ours. Knew it was a very good school. It's the local one, superb reputation. Ds1 finished there and is at Uni. Ds2 about to start GCSE's. Most of ds's class go there. Good pastoral care. Excellent results. Very happy.

Living the dream @Oblomov23