Secondary schools open evenings - what to look out for, questions to ask

[Stevie77]

We've a few open evenings coming up, visiting local secondary schools for DS, who's currently in Yr 6. All state, one is a boys' school and is the nearest one to us. It's not had the best Ofsted last year, one of the reasons being various issues under the 'quality of education' heading, but every parent with a child there that I've spoken to is very happy, and the boys are doing really well, including those who are very academic and narrowly missed out on the local state grammar.

We've been to open evenings before for eldest DD, and it can sometimes feel like you're being shepherded and shown the best of the school with the best behaved kids on show.

With that in mind, please share with me the things to pay close attention to at schools, the questions to ask (especially the above school r.e. addressing quality of teaching issues), and what to look out for in the answers. 🙏

Anyone?

What languages are offered? It is compulsory to do at GCSE? (You might be able to look up on website in advance but sometimes isn't clear ie school does Spanish and french, but in reality kids are randomly allocated to one or other and then stuck with it).

How is the school day (some schools I know have regular "doubles" of 1h 45 mins of straight maths!!)
How many kids take X subject (something your child is interested in) at GCSE, do they always run that course.
Is triple science compulsory for top set or do people opt for it?
Trips (especially international). How often do kids go places, are trips oversubscribed and how do they choose who goes?
Are the kids happy there? (Tricky as the kids showing you around will be self selected a bit)
Extra curriculars? Is the choice good etc? Are clubs oversubscribed (one school I know bashes on about how amazing their offer is but when you talk to current parents they say numbers are very limited and kids often don't get to do the clubs that the school are promoting).
Detentions? Do the kids think they give out too many? Classroom disruption.
Pastoral care and bullying are hard things to ask about as the school will gloss over any issues and say everything is great and they do x, y , z. Kids many not have direct experience (my daughter was showing people around at an open evening, was asked about bullying and told the parent about reporting tools, telling teachers etc, but then said it didn't really happen - because she simply hadn't experienced it or been exposed! All schools have bullying!). So I think those sorts of things better to get info on from local parents.

The PP has given great suggestions above.
A red flag for me was not seeing any staff under 40.
Does everything look very corporate and bland, or do different areas of the school have individuality?
What can the student guides tell you about extracurricular activities and the pastoral care?
But honestly, word of mouth from other parents was most important to me.

Thank you so much both, this is incredibly helpful, and I wouldn't have thought of these things.

Great points already shared, I'll just add a couple of points that I am looking for during such visits:

• If possible, I'd check the toilets :) They will show you quite clearly if school cares about kids' comfort.
• Connection with the real world - do kids have a chance to explore different career opportunities, are there any visits from the companies or to the companies, career support team, etc.
• Phone policies - can they bring them into the school? Are smartphones allowed?

Totally agree about schools showing off all the best bits with the best kids on open evenings. You can also ask if they do tours during the school day, so you can get an impression of the school when it's running normally.

Re quality of education - you could ask if published minutes for the governing body are available? Otherwise ask for specific examples of how they are working to improve the quality of teaching, and successes so far, so you don't just get some general flannel.

Toilets. Are there lots of them, are there single sex toilets in good supply or just mixed? Is there enough time in breaks/lunch to use the toilets and do you think the kids would feel safe using them?
Have the headteachers been there a while, and if new, I wonder would it be possible to gauge if they will improve things.
My DC school has gone from being quite a nice place to be, to one with higher and better academic standards but about a millions rules and possible infringements making it all quite stressful, since the new head two years ago.

The vibe. They really differ