Have you wondered yet how to find a good school?
As a parent, you naturally want the best for your child, so finding a good school for them may seem a daunting task. However, by doing your homework, you can take on this challenge and succeed. Importantly, you need to remember that it’s not just about finding a good school, but finding the right school – the school that suits your child. Here are some tips from education consultants Enjoy Education.
How to Find a Good School
Do Your Research
First, check to see whether the school has a catchment area; if you live outside the designated area of a popular school, it may be difficult to obtain a place. Then, you need to put your detective skills to work. Talk to other parents to find out what they think of the school that their children attend.
Use online resources, such as goodschoolsguide.co.uk, or schoolguide.co.uk, where you can find school reviews written by parents, as well as performance scores, so you can gain insight into the academic achievements and progress of pupils in the school compared to those found nationally. On these websites, there are links to school inspection reports, e.g. OFSTED (the Office for Standards and Education, Service and Skills) reports for schools in England.
These reports provide valuable information about the school: leadership qualities of the headteacher, pupil behaviour and achievements, and quality of teaching. Your final step, before the all-important school visit, is to examine the school website, where you can read about the school’s vision, and check for a rich and varied curriculum.
The School Visit
Many schools have designated open days scheduled during the year. Ideally, you should contact the school and arrange a visit with the headteacher at another time, too. This allows you and your child to get a better feel for the school and also discover more about the headteacher, since their leadership of the school contributes significantly to the school ethos and the academic success. Watch the headteacher’s interactions with staff and pupils: ideally, there should be signs of mutual respect.
In a good school, pupils in all year groups will make excellent academic progress. Therefore, in the classrooms, you will want to see teaching of the highest standard, with the teachers engaging the pupils in stimulating lessons.
Ideally, the teaching should be regularly monitored with appropriate feedback given, and the teachers should participate in professional development courses, so they can continually improve their teaching skills. In addition to the classroom, learning should take place elsewhere, such as during class trips, and art and drama activities, to consolidate learning and also allow for differences in learning styles.
Look for happy kids – How to Find a Good School
A good school should also provide a nurturing environment with a strong school spirit, ideally showing good interactions between pupils across the year groups. Other factors that contribute to a strong school spirit include: parents being actively involved, availability of a wide range of extra-curricular activities and schoolwork being prominently displayed around the school.
Perhaps the best indicator of a good school, however, is seeing happy, well-behaved pupils who obviously enjoy learning and enjoy their school.
How to Find a Good School is a featured post – you might also like my post on a letter to my children about my school days
