Devon County Council

Before you arrange to visit a school you may find it helpful to read the following:

• School Prospectus/ school profile
• School website
• Ofsted report
• Attainment tables
• Schools information database  
• The Next Step

You will find below a selection of questions that you may find useful when visiting a school. Before you go it is worth spending some time thinking about which areas of school life are particularly important to you and your child. These questions are a guide to give you some ideas and are by no means an exhaustive list; you may well be able to think of others,

Question bank

Academic

• What is your specialist status? How will this help my child?
• What is contextual value added and what is your score?
• Are children streamed? How do you do this? What information do you use to do this?
• Is there much movement between sets?
• What percentage of children attained 5 or more A*-C GCSEs last year?
• How do you monitor that children are learning and making progress? And what happens if they are not?
• What IT facilities do you have? How do you use IT to support learning?
• Do you have a homework club?
• Is learning ‘cool’ at this school?
• Have you got a 6^th form? What courses do you offer?
• What do you do for gifted and talented children?
• How much training do staff do?
• What advice do you provide to help me support my child’s learning?
• What educational trips do you do?
• What do students from this school go on to do? (E.g. college, university, employment)
• How much homework is set? Does it always get marked? How do the students receive feedback?

SOCIAL/EMOTIONAL

• Who do I contact if I have any concerns or worries about my child?
• How do tutor groups work? Are they mixed age?
• What happens at break times? Are students supervised?
• Are there any organised activities at break times?
• What activities are there for year 7s to build relationships with each other?
• What SEAL provision do you have?
• Are there school counsellors/mediation/peer mentors to help students?
• What clubs/societies/groups are there for children to join?
• What do you to help shy or nervous students?
• What do you do to help students who may find it difficult to make friends?
• What support it there for parents?

School/Home Communication

• How often do you send reports home? What is in the report?
• When do you have parent’s evenings? What happens at a parents evening?
• Do you have a newsletter? How do I get hold of it?
• Is there a home/school book?
• What do you do if there incident involving my child?
• How do you use your website to communicate with parents?
• What’s on your website?
• How do I contact my child’s tutor? What do I do if my child is sick?
• What do I do if I need to take my child out of school for a particular reason e.g. holiday, hospital appointment?
• How do you check on absence? How would I know if my child is not at school?

Discipline and behaviour

• What do you do to address bullying at your school?
• How often to children report being bullied at this school? What do you do when a child is being bullied?
• What happens if a child behaves badly in class? How do you prevent bad behaviour?
• How do you reward good behaviour?
• What do you do if a student is found in possession of drugs?
• How many students have you excluded in the past couple of years?
• What action is taken toward students who are racist or homophobic?

SEN

• What specialist support to do you has for children with SEN?
• Do you have any parent support groups? How do you include children with SEN into mainstream activities?
• What do children with SEN go on to do after leaving school?
• What links with other agencies/specialist do you have?
• Who is the local parent partnership officer?

TRANSITION

• Do you have a transition worker? What transition activities to you run? When do you start transition with primary school children?
• What transition activities are in place for students who do not attend feeder primaries?
• Are they given a map? Do they have an orientation day?
• What happens when a student appears to be struggling to settle?

PRACTICAL MATTERS

• What is the daily structure? What are the term dates? How will we be given this information?
• What is the school uniform/ sports kit? Where can I buy it? How much does it cost? Is there any help available with costs?
• What charges do you make for school trips? Is there any help available?
• What school transport is there? How do I find out about school transport?
• Is there a bike shed? Is it secure?
• Is the walk onto the campus safe? Is the site secure?
• How do students pay for lunch? What are the menus like? Is drinking water available?
• Can you accommodate for different dietary needs?
• What do I do if my child needs to take medication?
• Do you have instrument lessons? How much do they cost?

RELIGIOUS/SPIRITUAL

• Is there a daily act of worship?
• Can the school accommodate my child’s particular act of worship?
• Is there a tolerant attitude to different religious faiths?