Tips For Choosing A School

It’s finally here. Open Day season. It’s the time of year when all of the schools across the entire country are excited to welcome aboard brand new applicants. It doesn’t matter if it’s your first time back into the mix from your school days or if your child is already in school and you’re looking ahead, here are some of the top tips to use to make the right choice.

1. Get Prepared

First things first, you want to be prepared. It’s always a smart thing to start looking beforehand. Consider starting your search a minimum of two years before it’s time to apply. When you are looking to transition your child to secondary school, you’ll want to start your search around year 5. You want to get things narrowed down to ensure you know what you are going to do when the time comes. While things could change, you’ve done enough research to make the process easier.

2. Visit The Schools

You always want to visit the school beforehand. Visiting any school is a good opportunity to not only check out the school but also to see the teachers. You get to meet the teachers that will arguably have the greatest impact on the development of your kids. After all, they spend the most time with them. Because of this, you want to ensure you are satisfied with the teachers in the school before choosing it. Ask any questions you have. You’ll also want to ask yourself some questions. For instance, can I picture my son or daughter playing in this playground? Do the other children’s parents seem friendly? Is there are red flags that jump out at me while visiting the school? Do all of this and you will have plenty of information to use to make a better decision.

3. Do Some Digging

You want to do a lot of homework on the different schools in the area. While it can be difficult to find all of the pertinent statistics, you can leverage the School Guide to get all of the performance data you want and need. You can get this from the Department for Education and Ofsted. This will provide you with a snapshot and summary of all of the results and an easy-to-use star rating. However, the data only presents one side of the equation. While a school may be highly ranked, it doesn’t always mean it’s the optimal school for your child. You need to look at Parent Reviews and more. This can give you more information other than the raw data that you can use to right-fit your child.

4. Take a Language Lesson

You want to look at how the school is selling itself. This can be a great way to identify whether or not a school is the right option for your child. You want to visit each school’s website and figure out how they are positioning themselves. Look at their copywriting. How do they describe their school? Here are some of the different ways a school may describe itself in an advert: “A school located in a spirited community.” “A school with exceptional academic standards.” “A school that delivers the happiest education.” These are things you can use to figure out whether or not the school is the right option to select.

5. What About The Bus?

You want to ensure that the school is going to fit into your life practically. Will you have transportation to and from school for your child? Will they be riding the bus? If so, you need to ensure the bus stop is nearby. If you are planning on driving, consider how far it is and whether or not there is sufficient parking.