What are 'green flags' that you would look for when choosing a secondary school?

[As8ly4yn]

This doesn't pertain to me, just interested in what people think.

Schools will never please all parents.
This is why our inboxes are so full every morning!

Council data should show how many children of staff are offered a place. I think that says a lot.
As does staff turn over / number of vacancies in staff.

Local reputation speaks volumes.

Accessible head teacher.

lots of extra curricular clubs - it shows very invested teachers.

If teachers don't run after school clubs, it doesn't mean they're not "invested". Maybe they're working hard on teaching and learning and continuing that work after hours.

I didn’t mean that at all. Christ, if you’re a teacher at all you’re invested! But in my experience we have teachers at our (state) school forever supporting school productions, classics clubs, chess clubs etc on top of everything else. It shows an over and above approach to what they do which is what I think tips a school from good to outstanding. And we are being asked for green flags here.

(On top of excellent exam results I should add)

Totally this, the choice of school is an illusion in areas where schools are full or oversubscribed.

We could have had a choice of high school, but only to less desirable options further away from home.

If the teachers appear to actually like teenagers, that's good.

How the head interacts with the children.

The head sets the tone for the whole school IMO - thankfully the head at the kids school knows all of the kids names and manages to hit the sweet spot of commanding respect and discipline, whilst still being approachable and friendly.

Also on the list, teachers interactions with the children, extra curricular activities on offer (I.e. do they celebrate and invest time in things other than academics), facilities, travel options to and from, subject choices at gcse and beyond

I think that's amazing - it certainly is "over and above" giving the demands of the job.
I think most parents would understand why many teachers can't do that, though.

@PheobeBebe - I'm guessing you're talking about Primary Heads here? Where I teach there are 1,850 students... I can just about remember the names of the ones I teach 😉

Absolutely.

The question being asked here though is what green flags do you look for when considering a school. I can’t actually see Mr Jones doing 50 hours a week overtime at home so I can’t mark that as a green flag in this scenario can I?

I can only judge on what I actually see or hear of from the local parenting community. Which is why I have added it as just one thing in a list of positives to look for in a school ( and by no means a deal breaker on its own).

I think that's a very good point. You can't see perhaps the most important green flags, but of course you can't - that's just the way of it.

Things I love about DDs school...

1. The head teacher teaches all the Yr7 and 8s for one term each year. She elected to teach Food Technology. So she meets them all in a relaxed environment. She might not remember all their names (there's 1000 pupils) but she has talked to them all individually.

1. Wide range of extracurricular.

1. Teaches vocational and academic subjects. This term DD has Music, Photography and Dance for example. (They rotate through a list of artistic and technical subjects)

1. Schoool camp. They have their own camp ground. But I concede thats a rural thing... inner city schools don't have enough fields going spare to set one aside just for camping on!!

@PuttingDownRoots - that sounds amazing! Their own camping ground as well. What type of school is it?

Breadth of subjects on offer.
Low staff turnover.
Extracurricular clubs/trips.
Green outdoors space.
Good pastoral care.
Good SEN provision.
Inclusive and welcoming atmosphere.

Just the local village school! They are lucky to have loads of land, it can't be built on so has no value to anyone really.

That's really lucky. Is it a primary school?

Secondary... takes the children from 5 villages plus any farms etc.

Its not perfect by any stretch of the imagination. The results look low if you are used to grammar schools etc. But it is genuinely a nice place.

It sounds lovely! All results are low if you compare them to grammar schools, so that's not a concern!

Depends on the child. We have single sex strict uptight state schools then two more relaxed mixed comprehensives. The perception was the strict single sex ones were “better” but some friends kids hated the approach and moved and have thrived in the more relaxed mixed schools. Brilliantly the most haphazard mixed comp then got better results than all the other state schools bar the girls only one.

This can be misleading. We have a high school near us who only allow high achieving students to sit exams. So if you are guaranteed an A or B they allow you to sit the exam anything lower you don’t get to sit the exam , therefore their exam results look amazing!

For me it’s the feel of the place, are SMT visible around the school, do the students appear happy, positive interactions between staff and students. Do past parents speak highly of the school?

Good points, @2chocolateoranges . Does the A and B refer to A level? It's actually not allowed. It's also very hard to disapply, so I would definitely wonder what they're up to.
I think exam results have to be taken in conjunction with other factors, as you say.

I have children with ALN and so getting the right school was really difficult and important, like it is for every child of course but I just look at differnt things.

I always take opportunity to do a private tour (which I guess might be different if your child doesn't have any ALN). I take note of how that is handled and how the staff speak and deal with me because those are the people I'll have to talk with for the next 5 plus years.

I arrive early and I watch how staff interact with pupils, do they know their names? How do the pupils react to them? What is uniform like? Do the staff come over and introduce themselves? Are staff visible? What was reception like? Was it friendly? How was signing in?

I'll read any online policies, social media pages and inspection reports.

I have a list of questions that will be important to me and I'll ask them and see how they respond.

I have four children in three differnt schools and what I looked for in each was different.

I am absolutely over the moon with my children's schools, of course there are things I would change but my children are happy and thriving, staff are supportive and friendly, and the schools are aware of my different children's needs and work with that.

I don't think every school is perfect for every child, but if you have staff who are engaged with pupils then that's half the battle.

I tend to do a lot of work in schools and I'm also a governor at two schools, schools can have very different feel to them. I find it interesting how staff interact with other staff, the time staff leave after school, how many community events and how visible senior leaders are speak volumes. I'm not advocating that all staff should be staying behind every day and doing and spending loads of time at the school but I do think it indicates how engaged staff are.

Also check out their governing body. Is there lots of vacancies? I expect one or two as normal turn over but not more than that.

Staff turnover is a good indicator, again you would expect a turnover especially in secondary but my primary has the same teaching staff consistency. And if those staff are still engaged, that's a really good sign.

It’s a comp.

@newnamechangeforthisone - I think you make some excellent points and I would concur with most of them. However. When a member of staff leaves the premises doesn't really reflect on the quality of their engagement with the job. I've never stayed late at work - I used to have to leave sharpish to get to the childminder, now I leave promptly to go home and decompress, have a cuppa and relax with my family. I will often work later in the evening at home.
I'm glad that your 4 are thriving and you sound like a very engaged parent.