How to Choose an Independent School

Choosing the best school for your child is never easy. If you’ve decided to go private, you may have more options to choose from. So where do you start?

The right school for your individual child

First, remember that the best school really depends on your individual child’s needs and preferences, and your own values. Your child’s personality may be better suited to a certain type of learning environment, or they may have talents, interests or aspirations that need catering for. If they have a learning disability, mental health condition or other challenges, you’ll want to choose a school that has plenty of experience in supporting similar children. In short, choose the school that can achieve the best outcome for your individual child, not just the one that boasts the best league table position.

Decide your priorities

Make a list of everything you feel is important in a school. Include practical requirements, such as distance, after-school provision, maximum fees and so on, as well as facilities, ethos and other factors. Grade your requirements in order of priority. Which ones are essential, and which ones are nice to have?

Do your homework

Ask your peer group for recommendations. (However, do remember that the right school for your friend’s child may not be the best choice for your own child.) Reach out on forums and read reviews on The Good Schools Guide and other sites. Find out how the school has performed in previous years. Check whether there have been any controversies in the past and, if so, how they have been handled.

Create a shortlist

The above steps should enable you to create a shortlist of possible schools. Request the prospectus for each one and have a good read of their websites. Don’t just look at the information prepared for prospective parents; read the existing parent and pupil communications, such as newsletters, socialmedia posts and notices. Does the school portray the values you’re looking for? Does it have good safeguarding policies in place? Can it offer your child the activities and learning environment they need? What support services are in place? What facilities does it have? Does the school have any links to useful outside organisations? Do you agree with the discipline policy?

Visit the school

Finally, attend as many open days as you can, so that you can compare and contrast the schools on your shortlist. Consider the overall feel of each school and whether the pupils seem happy and engaged. Ask questions, ideally to both teachers and pupils. Speak to the head teacher to gain a better idea of how the school is managed and what they see as being the school’s key attributes. Do their priorities align with your own?