Open Days or Open Evenings?

[Girasoli]

DS1 is in year 6 so we will be applying to secondary schools this half term and the open days/evenings are coming up.

Did you find your DC got more out of attending open days or open evenings?
I feel like maybe open evenings are more fun for the DC but open days might be better for the parents to ask questions?

You can ask more questions at the evenings as the teachers aren't teaching and they can be fun especially if you get to self tour and explore. Open days and even better individual or small group tours are better for seeing behaviour especially if you can be in the corridors for lesson changeover. You can ask your student tour guides and the senior leadership questions at both.

Both 🙈 sorry that’s probably not helpful. But they’re very different experiences.

Evenings are less rushed and are often set up to be interactive for the kids (unless it’s a super popular oversubscribed school that just herds you through like a tick box exercise regardless if it’s day or evening)

Days let you see the kids in the environment and get a bit of a feel for the day to day.

if you can only do one: go for evenings - go as early as you can and experience as much as you can.

Depends what on offer

The open evenings here are manic!!! Especially at the grammar schools. Crowded and very busy corridors. You only really get a quick whizz around and the heads talk. Hundreds of parents turn up but they won’t all get dc in! Daytime tours are a private school thing here or they would have 800 parents wanting one at the grammars, which is impossible!

I preferred the open days where the school is in session and you get more of a sense of how it feels. We only went to a couple of open evenings and the schools very much go all out - there were experiments in the science labs, games in the maths rooms where you could win stuff, everyone at their most engaging, but it was a bit overwhelming and incredibly busy and felt hard to see through that to get a sense of the school itself. Going during the day felt like the best of both to me because you still got a talk from the head, some students giving their perspectives and you were shown round by students you could ask as many questions as you wanted of, but you also got to see the school in regular session.

Open evenings for all potential schools, then narrow it down and go to open mornings for your 2 or 3 front runners.

I agree, we went to two open evenings last year (year 5) and they both felt a bit manic!

There's only 2 possibly 3 schools we could realistically get into which helps at least with logistics of visiting.

Remember, you are stating a preference; be open to them all as you may not get your No.1 or even 2 preference

@Himawarigirl How many turn up at the open days though? Don’t hundreds of parents clog up the school? They allow a quick tour here if you are working or not available for the open evening but some parents would come back on the open day and do both! It’s pretty disruptive to the lessons and the school I would have thought.

@MeetMeOnTheCorner you normally have to register for the tours so schools can limit them as they see fit and run as many or as few as they feel comfortable with. It is a lot of work for schools and will be disruptive to an extent, but they plan for it each September. Open evenings require the teachers to go all out in their classrooms after a long day or on the weekend and require loads of students to take part too so it I think so both have their benefits and challenges.

You normally have to book a place on open days and open evenings round here. You can't just turn up.

As a teacher, I'd always go during the day if possible. Evenings can be misleading...

@Phineyj Here every dc takes the 11 plus unless they withdraw. They get hundreds of parents looking and yes, probably booking but how many open days would you need for hundreds of wannabee parents? It’s incredibly disruptive.

I prefer open days because it's a better insight into the children and teachers in their daily life. At an evening you're just seeing the buildings and any staff or pupils will be out of their usual environment. Plus I don't have to arrange childcare if I'm going on my own.

We are visiting independent schools as well as state schools and they have no problems accommodating hundreds of parents on open day tours - behaviour is excellent and the pupils continue in their lessons without fuss.

If you can take your child to the open evening then go yourself to the open day, as evenings are more fun and you'll get more time to talk to the actual teachers, where as open mornings are good for seeing behaviour etc (although I'm sure they cherry pick which classes to show).
Saying that for my daughter for most schools we got a private tour (during the day) as she has SEN and the open evenings were just too overwhelming for her. That was good as they're usually done by the Senco so covered that side, but there was no opportunity to ask subject teachers anything (because they were teaching).

Both.

An open evening gives you a feel for the school but they're generally very busy, staged and a little overwhelming at times.

An open morning is much quieter and focused. You see the actual school as it operates.

I'd do several open evenings and then 1 or 2 open mornings of one or two schools that you are realistically likely to choose and get a place.

Most independent schools don’t get hundreds of parents though and they have quite a few open days if they do. State schools generally cannot cope with hundreds on a working day.