Finding and enrolling your children into a new school is possibly one of the hardest decisions parents will ever make. The future of your little angels lies in the hands of you as you make the decision of which school they will attend for the next 6 years.
All schools boast the same amazing features when you look on their websites, brochures or school prospectus’ but what kinds of things should parents be looking out for before signing on the dotted line.
Here are my top ten questions all parents should ask:
1. What is your policy on child protection? How often are you staff trained on child protection and are all staff (including admin and maintenance) asked to produce working with children’s check documents?
2. What is the schools policy on bullying? Does bullying always find its way to the principal or is it dealt with simply by the class teachers? What does the school class as bullying?
3. How does the school allow children to develop leadership roles inside and outside of the classroom? How does the school make sure that children are engaged with the real world?
4. Does the school give time for their teachers to simply observe the children as they work? How are these observations recorded and what are the teachers looking for?
5. What emphasis does the school place on soft skills such as compassion, empathy, resilience, time management, self reflection etc and are these embedded into the curriculum?
6. How many hours of professional development are the staff engaged in during the average calendar year? Is there room for the staff to access current pedagogical changes and developments to ensure that the children are being taught in the most up to date manner?
7. Are ‘the arts’ integrated into the curriculum or simply a separate subject that is taught externally? How do the teachers integrate sone of the other subjects such as art, drama, dance and how important are these subjects?
8. What are the schools policies around assessment? What criteria are the teachers looking for and through what means are these assessments conducted? Are all childrens’ talents and skills celebrated or is the emphasis placed on competition and the ability to be top of the class?
9. What are the schools views on rewards and punishment? Why and how are children rewarded? And what happens when a child is not following the rules of the classroom?
10. How does the school promote independence and confidence through the curriculum and routines of the school?
I hope these help you as you make the biggest decision of your lives?
Good luck
13 Responses
Beautifully penned. Eye opener for parents.
Great questions. Should be in every parents and teachers mind.
Great questions for prospective parents and for teachers looking for rewarding careers, too.
Really good questions. These questions will help parent to find a perfect school for their children.
This is great. It’s also useful to principals and school owners build their schools.
its really a great points which could create a real impact in the school life.
Great, but do you believe it is practical to believe that a school principal would answer it honestly. Don’t you think it should be asked to some one else, instead of a school principal. A school principal is expected to speak in favor of his school. On the other hand how would a parent really know that if he is getting a lagitimate response.
Thanks Gavin,
I can see these points are useful for both primary and high school selection.
Informative article,great questions.Thank you Gavin.
MAYBE P.A? COULD CONSIDER to COPY AND PASTE QUESTIONS, send BY EMAIL to THEIR PRINCIPAL, then ONE ANSWERED EMAIL FROM PRINCIPAL ~ DELIVERED to all PARENTS? 💛💛
Loved it. so relevant and important
nice work
I’m sure a school Principal will have a positive response to all of these questions when asked. The best people to ask about the school are the parents who’s children are already enrolled. Go to the school blog and see what’s happening. Talk to students. The best time is Open Days, you get the feel for the school, speak to other parents, pupils. But my question has always been – How can you ensure that my child will achieve their potential at your school? See what the answer is. Also, each parent has a different priority, not all those questions listed above were a priority for me. Other factors not listed were far more important and that is if they had a school bus, what the school dinners are like and the menu, uniform etc. The practicalities of school life are very important. Sometimes the only way you can find out about how effective their safeguarding and bullying policy is, is when something goes wrong. Then you may even have to change schools.