‘HAPPY CHILDREN THRIVE’

Choosing the right school for your child can be a daunting process. As a parent, your first priority is your child’s happiness and helping them to find the right school for the next step in their academic journey, but it can sometimes feel difficult to know where to start. I would suggest that the first step is to think about what matters to you. Think about your outlook on education and decide on what you feel are the most important aspects of secondary education. Then discuss with your child what matters to them and what they are looking for in a school. A common theme for both you and your child is likely to be a school where they will be happy. Happy children thrive, so the next step is to determine which school will be the best fit to enable your child to feel happy when they leave for school each day.

A good place to start is looking at the websites of the schools you are considering. Being armed with information about each school will help you understand what kind of education they offer. Check the basics of what age groups they cover, the size of the year group, the location and travel routes, whether they are co-educational or single sex, whether they are a day school or boarding or both. Then look at their ethos, aims and values, this will give you an idea of what they are trying to achieve for their students. Looking at recent inspection reports to understand the key strengths and areas to work on can be helpful and I would always suggest looking at some recent news articles to see the kinds of things their students have been getting up to. Having this information before you visit a school, means you can spend your time asking the questions that are most important to you.

When you do visit the schools you are considering, ask what subjects their students study and how their curriculum is structured in different sections of the school. Check that they offer what is important to you and your child. Ask about their co-curricular programme; what opportunities are there for activities outside of lessons and when the activities take place. Ask about the way in which they structure pastoral care, what is taught outside of academic lessons to help their students prepare for the future and what support they have in place for physical and mental health. If your child has specific needs, ask about how these would be supported at that school. Although your child is little at the moment, they will be an 18-year-old and preparing for life after school eventually, so try to speak to some older students to ask about their experiences of the school. Ask about the structure of their school day and try to get a feel for what a normal school day will be like for your child.

Visiting a school is the most useful way to understand whether it is the right school for your child and for you as a family. It will help you to get a feel for the school and it’s ethos and can sometimes move schools up or down your list. Once you have narrowed down your list to the schools you are seriously considering, try to engage with them as much as possible. Visiting at different times, attending different events with different people can give a broader picture. You could try the journey with your child on public transport if that is how they will travel, so that they can understand their daily journey. Before a visit, have a list of questions and ask the same questions at the different schools you visit. Helpful questions for students you meet are what they like most about the school and what they would change about the school. Ask the teachers what they like most about working there and what makes their school unique. Make sure your child has some questions to ask about what matters to them. See how your child is engaged with the students and teachers at the school, as this will be an indicator of how they might engage with the community that they will be joining.

Once you have completed your research, visited the schools and asked all the questions, you may find that you and your child are on the same page about your first choice. You may also find that you are not. If this is the case and you find that you and your child prefer different schools, talk through why they feel that way. Try to understand what it is that they like about the school and discuss your preference as well. It may be that one more visit will help and schools will often have events for families to attend right up to the point of acceptance. Choosing the right school can often be guided by the feeling that you get when you are at the school and trusting your parental instincts. You will also rarely go wrong if you keep in mind ‘will my child be happy here?’.

Find out more about St Dunstan’s College at their upcoming whole school Open Day on Saturday 23 September 2023, 0900 – 1500. Book at stdunstans.org.uk