Finding A Secondary School
How early should I start thinking about a secondary school for my child?
Secondary schools will generally come with the primary school, in the state sector. You're looking at schools which will select geographically, where you have chosen for a primary school will have a secondary school advocated with it. You should, when you've been thinking of where you should live generally, if that's the decision you've taken, have looked at what the secondary schools are like. So you've probably taken the decision some long while before, that this is an area we like because the secondary schools are good. You can look anytime, if it's a question of moving. If you're looking at an academic school or a selective school in the private sector, then often you don't have to look far in advance. You may be able to get all the lists as late as a year before your child is likely to go. Some of the very selective schools, three, four years ahead, but not much more than that.
What age does my child go to secondary school?
Generally, it's 11. Most schools now let you in at that age. Some of the private schools will take you a bit earlier than that. There's a tradition among all these private schools that you should go at 13, but 11 is almost universally now the age at which people go to schools.
How can I find secondary schools in my area?
Again, look for the local authorities' brochure on secondary schools. They're pretty descriptive, but not very helpful to tell you what the school's really like. But they give you about where the school is, how many get in, and where they get in from. So that's the basic starting point. Much more at this age, because the child is beginning to become able to travel, or if they can't travel at eleven, then they'll be able to travel at eleven or twelve or thirteen, you can start to look wider than that, and then I would start to search on the Ofsted site, the Good Schools Guide site, for schools that are within reach of you, and you might consider if you are prepared to make that bit of extra effort at traveling.
What should I consider when looking for secondary schools?
Your child is getting to the stage where you can really recognize what their characters like. You can begin to make a judgment on what sort of environment will suit them, but you're looking for a school which will respond to that particular character, the values, what they are, what they're good at, and what they're like. That's really the core to finding a school which will suit your child well.
How do I find out if a secondary school is any good?
You've got lots of ways of finding out if a secondary school is good, because they're starting to produce real examination results. They're starting to include people that you can talk to almost as an adult. Looking at it from a distance - look at the Ofsted reports, look at the examination results, look at the prospectus. You can gather from that, and particularly from analytical sites like the Good Schools Guide, how well a school is doing against its peers against the objectives you've set for the school. Are our physics results good; if your child is a budding scientist. Has it really got strong drama - is the music enticing? There's a lot more information there to look at. The core of it though will be getting out there and visiting the school. Again, the only way of really getting to grips with the atmosphere of the school is to be there on the ground and absorb it for yourself.
What should I look out for when I visit the school?
See the Head. The Head is important at a senior school, not in the same way as they are in a primary school. In a senior school, which is much bigger, the school's peerage will be important too. There will be things there that carry over from one generation to the next which are embodied in the pupils and the staff. You can survive a mediocre Head in a good state secondary school in a way that you can't survive a mediocre Head in a primary school, but still it's a good thing if you've got a good Head. What they will make a difference on particularly is what happens if your child misbehaves or has a problem. You want to know that the sort of misbehavior, the sort of requirements your child is likely to have, will meet with a sympathic ear should you ever have to talk to the Head about them. You have to be imaginative and know what things are likely to happen, because someone who is a little angel with them can turn into something very different at 16. Other than that, the principle is the same. Go around the school, absorb and talk to the children. See whether they are the sort of children you would like your child to turn into, if what they're interested in is what your child is interested in, if they look as if they are the sort of people who would make friends with somebody like your child, and look for the things that you really care about, whatever it might be. It will be something that just happens to appeal to you or your child, or is important to them, and make sure that there are things that are freely talked about and are freely supported. If your child is someone who is likely to be bullied, you want to hear lots of stories about bullying being solved, about how easy it is to tell people how you feel, and about how supportive the teachers and the other pupils are. If that's what's really happening in the school, you get told those stories without having to prompt too much. You need to be out there and listening for what you care about, and not allowing yourself to be focused by the school and whatever they think their particular high points are.
How do I tell if the teachers are any good?
You've got much more information. You've got the examination results. You can use a site like the Good Schools Guide website, which carries all examination results and compares them with each other to see how good each department is. You've got mechanical ways of looking for good teaching. Again, as with primary schools, if something is really good then the pupils will be enthusiatic about it. It's what they will talk about as they go around the school. If you ask them who their favorite teachers are or what's really well taught here, they will tell you. They won't tell you about the bad ones because pupils, when you're visiting a school, will tend to be loyal about teachers and tell you bad stories about teachers they're unhappy with. There would have to be something really wrong or just a really affected child for that to happen. If you ask them what's good and know what's missing, then you will probably have an idea where the lesson is and where it is offset by good reports.
How do I tell if out-of class activities at the school are any good?
A lot of schools will say that they have an enormous range of extracurricular activities, and you will get their prospectives and they'll list forty or fifty after school clubs. But how often do they run, how many people do them, and how hard are they to get into? Those are things you will only find out when you go around the school. You will have particular ones you care about, just make sure you ask about them. Look for them on the notice boards, look for them to appear in the school magazines being celebrated for what's being achieved.As you go around the school, you'll be shown around by children or have some access to children. Ask them what happens in a particular area. Is there a club you go to? Is there someone here who knows about it? Just enquire the people, and that way you will get a feeling for how good a particular extracurricular activity is. Some of them can be really very dull, boring and uninspiring, things that just exist on paper, and you can't tell from paper whether it's that or whether it's the most wonderful thing in the world.
What is setting and streaming?
The comprehensive school ideal was that children of all sorts, all academic abilities, all backgrounds would be lumped together in a classroom and taught by a teacher each according to her needs. And that is a principle which is extremely difficult to put into practice, because actually children move at different paces at different times in their lives. They want to be focusing on the problem that is giving them jip and not on something they solved six months ago or is six months too advanced for them. So, if you're going to really effectively teach pupils in a mixed school, then you've got to find some way of giving them common level so that they can all be working together on a particular set of problems. There are two basic ways of doing that. One is streaming, and that says that you've got a big school and you say: 'Right, we've got the top stream and the bottom stream.' And the bottom stream move at slow pace and the top stream move at a fast pace, and it's almost like having a grammar school within a comprehensive school. That can be tough, just the same way as grammar schools are, because you get into the top stream but you're useless at French. You never really learn any because you're being pushed far too hard. Or you're in the bottom stream because you're bad at French, and actually, your mathematics is wonderful even though you've got no chance to learn it. So, in most comprehensive schools, you'll find much more setting, which means that you will be in the top set for Maths if that's what you're wonderful at. But, if you need to take French at a slower pace, you'll be in the third set or the fourth set for that. That seems to be very well accepted by children. They're happy because they're being taught at a pace that suits them, and they're not ashamed of the fact that for a particular subject they're not top set.
What are mixed ability classes?
Mixed ability classes are classes where you've got pupils who are highly academic and pupils who are much less academic mixed in together, and there are circumstances where that's fine, such as if you're all experiencing a performance for Shakespeare drama, or watching a film together, or doing something which each can appreciate in their own way and join in in their own way. Art classes can be mixed ability with no trouble at all, with everyone moving at their own pace because you're not having to follow instructions from a teacher at the same pace as everybody else. If it's particular subjects, particular circumstances, or particular bits of subjects, they can work very well, but if you get something where pupils are being instructed and are being expected to keep up with a teacher at a particular pace, then it gets extremely difficult to manage. This is because either the class slows down to keep up with the slower people and the brighter ones get bored, or it keeps up with the brighter people and those who can't keep up find themselves at an enormous disadvantage and just sitting at the back completely disconnected from what's going on. So it's a technique to be used with great care. There are still a lot of schools where it's used too much and where you get disaffection either among the academically gifted or among those who need additional help spreading through the school and really causing a lot of trouble. So it's something to be careful of, and if you're going around a school, if you're seeing a lot of that happening, if you're told a lot of that is happening, you need to watch out very carefully for the effects of it, which are likely to be showing in bad behavior and underachievement. There are some schools which manage it with extraordinary teachers and great dedication. It's wonderful when it can happen, but it is a very special and unusual thing when it does.
What are vocational exams and are they useful?
Most exams in England and in even Scotland worlds and Northern Ireland are academic in focus. They originated from exams which were building up to university entrance and they are focused on academic learning. Other European countries have a much more mixed economy, where there are many forms of examination which focus much more on vocational skills. Whether it's pure vocational things like hairdressing, beauty therapy or what ever else it might be, so much more practical experience coming into the academic curriculum. So, that you might rather than studying physics be studying engineering and really getting your hands around some problems in the physical world, and that is something that's been lacking in England. We've now got to move to try and create a set of vocational examinations in England in particular, but also in Scotland which will suit those children with a more practical vent. It's very unclear quite where that's going to go. If you are faced with looking at a school which offers vocational examinations, the key thing to ask is, where do those children go on to? There are good ones and bad ones, and there's good teaching and bad teaching, it's very difficult to know, in any formulaic way, what you're being offered in a school. If something is being offered that is vocational than that ought to be resulting in children going on to do things that are associated with that later on in the school. Vocational things are much more related to the real world than academic subjects are. The school really ought to be developing links with the real world, and there ought to be clear histories of people who have taken these exams and succeeded in doing things. So yes, vocational exams if that's what your child is suited to, but make absolutely sure that it's being followed through in to a connection with the real world- so that these kids aren't just being left with what is; on its own, still, a second class qualification, in so far as most people in this country are concerned.
How much say should my child have in choosing their own secondary school?
I don't think you should ever let your child have that responsibility. It's far too much weight to put on the shoulders of an 11 year old, as to, do they take that course or do they take another? You should listen to your child, you should involve your child, you should take what they said into account. Absolutely. Because they will be telling you things about school that you don't sense anymore. Particularly if you are taking your child around with you. They will be getting a feel of how they as a personality will fit in with the personality of the school. That will come through to them much more directly than it will to you. So listening to them, fine. But if they take a liking to a particular school because they happened to see some kids blowing bubble gum and they'd love to be allowed to do that, but you really don't want to put them inside – No. It's got to be your decision. But listen to them.
How do I know if a secondary school is right for my child?
You start with a real understanding of what your child is like, particularly their character, because it is how a school going to respond to what your child does in that school. Whether they are studious, whether they are disruptive, whether they like to play the fool, whether they really need inspiration or discipline to make them work. Is the school set up for that kind of child? School's characters differ a lot, particularly in that kind of area. I remember when I was choosing secondary schools for my older children, that we settled on a school which had a particularly relaxed view on how children should behave, not that it was undisciplined, but it just gave them latitude and that was what my children needed. A school that was stricter, they would have been eternally on detention and unhappy and miserable. So you just, if you choose on that sort of basis and that will involve looking around a school and getting a feel for whether what's on offer will suit your child, then you are going to be giving yourself the best chance of making a good choice. But you will never know, you can never be certain. You will always be anxious about it. So particularly in the earlier years of secondary school; watch what's happening, if things are going wrong, try and move. It is not, at all, impossible to move secondary schools before the child is fourteen. It is really quite easy. There are always gaps or periods somewhere else and if there is something going wrong at the school, the school should help you and find somewhere else that suits the child better. So take a positive and interested attitude to it and you should come out okay.
There are no good secondary schools in our local area. What can we do?
Plan ahead, because if you're stuck there, having to move a child at eleven and you haven't got access to a good secondary school, then you are going to have a hard life. Not necessarily an unsuccessful life, but you're going to have to give your child and the school a lot of support to make the best of your life. But if you're looking ahead you can choose where you live and be next to a good secondary school, or you can get religion and have access to their much wider networks. If you've got a selective academic school within reach, start tutoring and preparing your child for their entrance exams, so that you've got options if you think ahead.