What to ask at grammar school open day

[Scottishgirl85]

I'm attending an open day for a Bucks Grammar tomorrow. My daughter is Y4 so I'm a year ahead of myself, but want to assess the various options well ahead of applications.
What kind of questions should I be asking?

Again. Curriculum info is on the web sites. I know a DD who has gone to Cambridge for maths from one of these schools. They can teach maths! There’s also a huge amount of info in their newsletters and one used to have a language specialism and one performing arts. Neither school will fail any child with their curriculum but one school is larger - the girls only one.

I only know boys that have been to the coed one. All DDs friends went to the girls’ grammar. None chose the coed. Probably changed now but the coed grammar was seen as second best. It tends to have a different intake - less leafy lane and probably more down to earth parents. The boys I know who went there are great but some of their friends ???? Sadly not the best! However a while ago now.

TBH open evenings are often rammed and you don't really get chance to talk to any teachers.

You will get a chance to get the 'feel' of a school. Ask your pupil tour guides what they like most or dislike about secondary school.

And try to talk to older pupils rather than younger ones. The older ones will have more experience and are likely to be more open and honest, telling you the "warts n all" rather than, say, year 7s or 8s who will have limited experience, certainly of "exam" years, and may be more inclined to tell you what they think they should rather than what they really want to!

At one of our open day visits, the tours were by sixth formers, who were very candid about the realities of the day to day life in school, and some comments were really probably not what the teachers/management would have wanted them to say!

At a different school, the tours were by year 7s who, to be brutally brunt, didn't really have much to say at all, and basically just walked us round the school, couldn't really answer questions about GCSE/A level options (obviously), and seemed very tight lipped about answering questions about bullying, what the teachers were like, etc.

@Scottishgirl85 A lot of parents choose the grammar DCs friends are going to. Hence you get swings one way or the other.

I have friends who didn’t tutor (plus us) and had very bright dc (not genius level here though!) Others tutored like mad and still dc didn’t get in. Dc felt like huge failures. Money spent that the family could not afford. I would be inclined to practice some tests but doing too much stops other activities. My DD did brownies, Music centre choir & string orchestra, school orchestra, netball and swimming in y5 and 6.

I would say JC take the curriculum at a slower pace but DC do have good opportunities. Also these days, very many from the junior school will go there. Look at their news pages and you see plenty going on. They also report in Wendover News I think. It’s a community school and behaves like one! You would probably have the option of a grammar 6th form.

Obviously there are differences between private and JC or Misbourne but if you might struggle to pay for 7 years, then grammar for 6th form is an option. I’ve not seen anyone I know leave JC though. I would say they are a bit light on hard sciences in the 6th form but you might not have to worry about that. However if you did, that’s a necessary change. Although two dc I know did hard sciences at uni from there.

It’s perfectly possible for academic parents not to have the highest flying Dc but we all
want happy DC. For your borderline DC, you might prefer JC - top of one school is better than being bottom of another which can be stressful - as over tutored dc find out. I’ve seen it lead to bed wetting and school refusal as well as poor behaviour. I’m sure you won’t be that parent, but honestly, JC is fine!

I really would not ask a y7 about bullying. Just unfair. In primary schools there’s a great knowledge held by the parents, and the teachers. Some will have dc at the schools already and will know the schools very well. There might be a few who have dc who aren’t happy but I bet most will be. Where op
lives, it’s not difficult to ask around! Dc will only go to one of 3 state schools if a DD.

These schools clearly have options details available to parents. However y4 to y11 A level choices is some years and subjects change. Most parents accept the grammars have a very good curriculum that suits the vast majority.They have Oxbridge dc, those studying medicine, MFLs etc and many here find these schools are terrific and tend not to worry about minuutae. As the OP found at the open day - a very positive school!