Choosing high schools

[purpleme12]

Can I pick your brains a bit
When you went round high school for open evening for your child, what did you ask about?
What should you be looking out for?
What should I be thinking about?
And what questions should I be asking?

I am going to write some down but I'm worried there's things I'll forget or won't think about so wanted to get some ideas/help

I am visiting 5 over the next 6 weeks and I have firstly looked at their websites to get an understanding and overview also looking at exam and progress scores. I saw some last year aswell as wanted a year to reflect.
DS will be coming to all too. Firstly, I want him to get a feel for it and look around and see how he reacts to the building, facilities etc...I will also be asking about extra curricular activities, for example sport is very important so will ask more questions about that, how they encourage it and see the facilities available. Then looking at GCSE options. Most high schools have very similar subjects, of course the core ones but some have one or two variances with additional subjects so will ask about this too. I will ask how and when they allocate sets for Maths and English as last year some did this in year 7 while others waited until year 8. I also look at the attitude and behaviours of the pupils who show us round. I know they pick the most academic or confident kids to do this but I also went last year to some and I saw the differences. Also state of the building, wear and tear, general organisation and tidiness of the place. One I went to last year, the play area was just complete concrete with 80s old school vibe and completely put me off. One library in another school was really dull and uninspiring, even me as an avid reader would feel a bit unenthused to browse through books there, let alone a teenager! Ultimately the child's reaction to it is very important as they want to feel good in that place. They will be spending a minimum of 5 years there so their initial reaction will be crucial. (Obviously aware that there may be an initial bias if they know their friends are going). One school I saw had an amazing wellbeing centre which was a place for kids to go and relax, looked very modern and contemporary.

Thank you appreciate your reply 😊

Feels like there's so much more riding on it than choosing a primary school!

Sorry just to add (you can tell I've been going crazy over this too!)...I said about GCSE options... it's hard to know now what our kids will be into, and although all schools have all the same 10 or so subjects, in modern foreign languages for example, in addition to French some offer Spanish while another had German. I even saw one offering Latin as an additional subject - these are all state schools btw. This may seem trivial now and irrelevant but it may something important to you. On one high schools website which I will visit in 2 weeks for the first time, I couldn't see any page for extra curricular activities except things centred around community work which I thought was odd so this will definitely one of my first questions! Perhaps I totally missed it on the website but that's why good to see website first then get your specific questions to that school ready.

Ah yes that's definitely a good thing to think about

Thank you

. Behaviour management/ uniform policy (v strict, relaxed, chaos)
. Pastoral care
. Results driven v. Whole child balance
. Setting / streaming policy (What subjects and when)
. Level of homework
. Extra curricular you care about
. Level of choice for GCSEs (can change but gives an idea about ethos)
. Would the kids recommend their school
. Access to toilets
. Travel - how will you DC get there, how long will it take
. Mobile phone policy

We looked round last year (son starts secondary today!). I think *TeenToTwenties *

Has covered most things I was focused on, although I would additional ask when GCSE course starts. Some schools here start in Year 9 'to get the edge', which raised alarm bells for me about really mattered for that school.

Also casually ask teach about the curriculums they follow. We found that at one school some teachers didnmt know what was taught in different years. How can you teach GcSE History if you don't know what the kids have already covered?!

In general though, you'll probably get a 'feel'. We knew which schools felt good and not to us, and to DS, and that rapidly narrowed down the options.

Good luck choosing and with applications OP

Consider how realistic it is that your child could get a place. Absolutely no point falling in love with a school that they stand no chance of gaining entry to.

Ask about transport, not only for school start and end of the day, but also if they make friends with a child at the opposite end of the catchment area...."Please can I have a lift to Bella's house" is a frequent request in this house (no bus and dual carriage way with no footpath between our homes)

When my son was at primary school, I asked his head teacher about high schools - her advice was, go to the open days/evenings but also make an appointment to visit during the school day (this was quite a few years ago so not sure if it's still possible?).
She said to go and visit a few........ and trust your gut instinct!

These days I would also ask about their 'gender' policies. (When mine started I was asking about teen pregnancies, anorexia and self harm.)

It will depend on your child as well - for dc1 I wanted to know if single sciences was possible, as many do the double award for most but offer single for the most able /interested. We had questions about how science was taught and how many lessons over their fortnight timetable (many schools have week A/ week B timetables). With dc2, she’s very interested in languages and we put any school that only taught one language to the bottom of our list. With our dcs the sports facilities aren’t really important but for some kids that’s going to be a priority.

so what’s your child’s strengths? What’s their interests?

Thank you so much for the replies they have really helped me and will definitely be using the ideas