Top Tips for Choosing a School for Your Child

Collaborative content When the time comes for you to choose a school for your child, you’ll probably feel a range of emotions, from exciteme...

Collaborative content

When the time comes for you to choose a school for your child, you’ll probably feel a range of emotions, from excitement to anxiety. It’s a big milestone for your family and there are lots of things to consider, so it’s perfectly normal to feel overwhelmed. To help ease your nerves, I have teamed up with a preparatory school in the South West to offer some tips on choosing a school.

Start by having a chat as a family about your priorities and what you’re looking for within a school. Does it need to be on a suitable bus route or near your work? Does it need to have appropriate facilities for a budding athlete? Does your child have special educational needs or a language barrier that need to be catered to? Once you know what your priorities are, you can start looking online and ruling out schools that don’t tick all of your boxes. 

You should be able to find a lot of information on schools’ websites but be sure to take it with a pinch of salt, as they will be showcasing the schools in the best light. Have a look for things like previous exam results, inspection reports and their policies on subjects such as anti-bullying. This research stage should help you narrow down your search and come up with a shortlist of schools you’d like to visit.

Visiting the schools is the best way to really get a feel for whether or not your child is likely to fit in. Consider the atmosphere; do you feel welcomed by the staff and other students? Do the students seem happy? Ask lots of questions and really try to make the most of the experience. You should also think about the facilities; do they seem clean, safe and modern?

If possible, take your child along for the visits so that you can monitor how they respond to the environment. You should also ask for their thoughts on the school once you’ve left, to help them feel more involved in the process and therefore less intimidated by it.