My son is in Year 5 and has had problems with a particular bully ever since infants. The school hasn’t done enough, and it’s with that in mind that I’ve started stressing over the secondary school choice — it’s coming up faster than I’d like.
I don’t know about everyone else, but it feels like a decision I’m not ready for and not informed enough to make. I looked at comparison websites but found them lacking, to be honest. They didn’t make things easy to understand and were missing information I really wanted to know — like bullying.
So I decided to do something about it. I built a website that pulls together government data and presents it in a way that actually makes sense. I’ve also been emailing schools directly under the Freedom of Information Act, asking about bullying, accessibility, the technology available to pupils, and how much supply teacher cover they use. All the responses go on the site, for free. As far as I can tell it’s never been done before — the idea is that parents will finally be able to compare schools on the things that actually matter. It’s a big task so I’m expanding at pace and will only cover England.
This genuinely isn’t a promotion — if any parent is going through that awful phase of choosing a state junior or secondary school in England, I hope it helps. If you’re in that window of indecision at the moment, the site is here: https://theschoolcompanion.org