Feeling Disheartened With Private School Visits: Very Unpersonalised & Felt Like Cattle Markets

[roses2]

We're in London and have spent the past few weekends visiting private schools. We are huge state school supporters but willing to pay for the right private school.

We've visited four private so far, all well known in London.

1. School 1 - Great tour - we'll apply for this one
2. School 2 - "self guided"; didn't reply to my email query I sent regarding common entrance exam; bell rang at end to signify "please leave"
3. School 3 - "self guided" again
4. School 4 - had a student guide but they seemed unmotivated; couldn't help with half the questions

2; 3 and 4 all felt a bit like cattle markets. And all charge ~£25k/year. This is our first venture into looking at private but I expected something a bit more personalised especially if this is the sales part where they should be selling the school to me. I'm thinking of scrapping half of them from the list.

Is this what visits to popular private schools are like? Where you are just a number? Does it get better once you are in??

@CurlewKate and that's why it tends to be Yr 11-13 pupils who do the tours. At DDs school a few confident Yr 10s would also do it but definitely not below Yr 10.

I remember last year in some open days, the questions from some parents are really terrifying for a 11 year old kid to answer:

"where do you live, are you from state or prep school, are you on bursary? Do you or anyone in your form still use any tutors? How many hours you did to prepare for the 11+ exams. Did you sit grammars and other schools when doing 11+ did you got offers from those schools too? What university are you thinking to apply for (for 11 year old...)"

You got much better and calibrated parents to ask more sensible question on offer holder days.. (natheless some of the questions are still very strange for some schools).

DD has been doing tours since Y8 (and again in Y10 and Y12). She hasn't found it terrifying. She has mostly enjoyed it. Most parents have been easy to talk to and interested in what she has to say. She has absolutely had a few of the more bonkers ones such as Preplex describes, but seems to find this funny. I don't know of any of her friends who have found it alarming either. It might be a more confident and talkative student body than average, maybe.

@CurlewKate Stating the reality of many schools for those that had "never heard of it", not necessarily endorsing it.

@XelaM risky statement and so inaccurate. As it happened, I worked as a marketing manager in a private school some time ago I had to research competitors.

@twistyizzy "and that's why it tends to be Yr 11-13 pupils who do the tours. At DDs school a few confident Yr 10s would also do it but definitely not below" That seems eminently sensible. But several posters have said "all hands on deck" "all of year 8" and even a learning experience for the less confident.

Was definitely shown round by year 7s when we looked. The self guided one we had was quite good. Didn’t feel bad keeping to our own time and as DS was determined to set fire to everything he could in the labs this was no bad thing.

Many schools seem to pair a sixth form student with a yr7/8 as tour guides. Seems a good idea.

The annual Open Morning has hundreds of visitors. Unless you approach specific staff to ask specific questions, then it will be pretty impersonal.

If you want more personalisation, book for a Working Open Morning. Serious contenders attend these…in fact most serious contenders probably visit 2,3,4 times. Here you might be amongst 30-50 people. There will be more opportunity to have individual conversations.

quite simply, the annual Open Morning is a cattle market and it’s for the masses and impossible to provide great personalisation for everyone. Typically families have kids in yr5 and it’s a first visit. They then book for the Open Working Morning if interested. This is not a one-stage process for those seriously interested. Many might attend 4 or 5 big open mornings and then narrow down to the ones they are serious about.

I think OP misunderstood the annual Open Morning. What she wants is available at Working Open Days in the week.

And yes there is lots of schmoozing. Interview days whilst resting also I vole selling the school to kids who might take multiple exams. That’s why there are fun activities too. Some run taster days as well to sell the school. Come offers go out, there are further Q and A sessions for undecided parents, a chance for kids to come for fun activities etc etc. Over-subscribed schools have far too many applicants. They can’t shmooze 600. Once they know who they want, they really will. They want those top performers especially.

We have always been shown round by Year 7/8 students and in primary by Year 6s

You don't support state school s if looking at private OP.
At our school yr7 do the tours as guides & other years answer questions

Bespoke visits will always be available - you could request one.