Looking at seconday schools in Year 5?

[MrsSnape]

Sorry for another thread on this but I'm inspired by a thread below...

If I was to enquire at local schools about visits with my almost 10 year old son, are they likely to agree to it?

There are two schools in the area that are rough as hell but I'd like to at least say I've checked them out before I say for certain that I won't send him there...

We have been 'ok'd' for a visit to a very over-subscribed and popular boys school for October but its so hard to get in, I'm not holding out much hope for that one...

[wheresthehamster]

Can't you just go along to the open evenings? Or have you missed them?

[LynetteScavo]

Here we had one round of open evenings/mornigs last term, and they are doing them again now.

DH and I are going to one in a couple of weeks time. I need to convince DH that a 45 minute bus journey every morning will be worth it!

[teslagirl]

To revive this a bit- the school don't need to know you're a Y5 parent. Be economical with the truth if necessary! I've gone along to the Open Mornings without DS (and have never been the only one!). DS will get to visit my 2 best choices in Y6. Frequently the school only need numbers for group planning purposes but they won't necessarily even ask your name or which school your DC is at.

We may need to move to get DS into one of the likely schools so we've given ourselves a year to consider our options.

[roisin]

We haven't had any secondaries decline requests to look round during a school day.

I would strongly recommend this as a way of getting a real feel for the school. Open Evenings are pretty much a pointless exercise IMO.

[frogs]

Oh I disagree, roisin. It's def not a substitute for looking round during the working day, but the whole way they set it up tells you volumes about the school. You get to see kids and staff interacting in a non-classroom context as well, which is quite instructive.

We went right, right, right off the school that I thought would be our first choice for ds as a result of the open evening. The place was like boot camp, you felt you ought to be marching in formation. The boys hardly dared open their mouths, the entire show was run by the staff with military precision. Yuk.

Conversely the rough comp on our doorstep came across really well -- informal setup, lots of kids elected to stay behind rather than the school choosing their star pupils.

Most illuminating.

[christywhisty]

Agree Frogs

We are looking for DD at the moment.

Went to DS's school open evening last week. School full of enthusiatic children (specially the year 7s all showing off their school and the sense of pride shone through.

Went to another last night and DH and I came away saying where are the children. There were only a few pupils there, most of them prefects and 6th formers and it made us wonder why.

Could they not trust the other pupils to behave themselves?

[magentadreamer]

when I went last year for open evenings I too was put off by the school that ran the open evening like it was a military campaign. We were all hearded into the hall listen to the Heads speech which was patronising to say the least. then told we could go look around. It was a massive school and of course we got lost! The teachers were stand offish and as for pupils I spotted the head boy and girl on the stage at the beginning and that was it.

The school DD now goes to was an eye opener. The moment we walked throw the door we were assigned a pupil who was in Yr8 to show us all around the school which she did wonderfully. When we walked around after wards the classrooms were full of displays, games for the children etc and teachers who actually spoke to you! One teacher even suggested a person who DD could do a project on - she was doing a history project at Juniors. The children we spoke to were polite - ok so they aren't going to ask little Jimmy who's in detention every night to come but their ethusiasm for their school was loud and clear. The Head in her speech opened it with if you have any questions please just ask them and we did. I was all for the first school till I went to look around it and I just knew DD woudn't florish in the enviroment it portrayed at the open evening and I knew where I'd rather she went. I did go and look around on a school day as well and again what came across to me was how caring a school it was.

[bigTillyMint]

I am just doing some open days now for my Y5 DD and am finding it quite interesting how the schools organise them. Some do normal working day ones and others do only a few kids in to show you round.

I think it's good to get some idea now, especially with the pan-London application process - very daunting!