Disclosure: This is a collaborative post.
Choosing the right school for your child can feel like amassive responsibility and can be a stressful experience for parents. There are so many considerations such as location, facilities and school inspection results.
To help relieve some of the pressure involved in choosing the right school for your child, St Hilda’s in Harpenden have put together these three helpful tips…
1. Start your search for the right school by making a list of what is most important to both you and your child. It is vitally important to listen to your child and their opinions and feelings about their new school. After all, they are the ones who will be spending most of their time there. It may be important to them to go to the same school as their existing friends.
Try to include them in your decision making and arrange for them to visit potential schools with you.
2. Once you have completed your check list, you can then start to research your most suitable schools. You can look up school league tables and Ofsted reports online and you can also learn about the schools different curriculums and values. Other important factors to research are class sizes and additional enrichment opportunities, such as language and music lessons. You may also wish to speak to other parents about their knowledge or experience with local schools.
3. The best way to choose the right school for your child is by visiting them. If possible, try and arrange a tour of the school on a normal school day. This will give you a true insight into daily life at the school as opposed to an open day, which is normally held outside of school hours. When visiting prospective schools, it is important to consider how welcoming they feel, how well the children interact with the teachers and how safe and clean they appear.
