Choosing the right school for your child is an incredibly important decision, but how do you know if you are making the right choice for you and your child’s needs?  Emily Cole finds out whether a visit to a school’s open day can make all the difference. 

You have narrowed it down to five schools, you have met the criteria for three of those five and you still can’t decide what to put as your first choice. Confusing isn’t it?  

We can read the school’s prospectus, look at their website or check their position in the league tables from the last ten years, but does anything really prepare us or give us a truer insight of the school better than a personal visit? School open days give parents and prospective students the opportunity to gauge the school and assess it’s suitability in order to make an informed decision - it’s that easy. Or is it? 

David Herd, Head of Form One at Bishop’s Stortford College told me that he thinks “parents should always attend a school open day if they are considering sending their child. It should be easy to determine whether the school feels like a strong community, whether pupils, staff and parents are pulling in the same direction and also to appreciate the quality and breadth of curriculum and extra-curricular activities on offer”. Local mum Caroline Talamas agrees that parents should “100% attend the open day - you need to see the facilities and you need to get a feel for whether it is the right choice for your child’s personality”.

But with some schools making more of an effort than others, does an open day really give us an honest insight into what we should expect when we send our child there?

In a recent Daily Telegraph article, David Robson noted that “open days may have the whiff of PR exercises”, so how much can we trust a school to deliver the promises they make on their open day? David Herd believes that at Bishop’s Stortford College it is “honest in terms of parents understanding the ethos of the school and appreciating the buzz of activity and learning” even though it is not a “typical day”. The school open day is more of a “showcase” of the school and if you are seriously considering sending your child there, an individual tour  is a “necessary follow up”.   

For Cathy Tooze, the Headteacher at Herts and Essex High, she knows that the most reliable source comes from the pupils themselves. “Look out for our ‘Ten Top Tips’ video in which Year 7 students speak directly to girls joining the school, both reassuring them about the transition process and advising them on how to get the most out of being at Herts & Essex. Their enthusiasm is infectious – and that is what we are looking to promote”.  

So as we frantically attempt to gather as much information as possible, speak to teachers and listen to a ‘very informative’ Head Teachers speech, all in the space of a few very quick hours, is there really enough time to make an informative decision? For Caroline, although her visits were beneficial in terms of first impressions, she felt that the large number of people attending and the “overcrowded” presence meant that there was “not enough time or resources to find out everything you wanted to know”. In contrast Cathy Tooze believes that their open evening at Herts and Essex High gives them sufficient time to introduce the girls and parents to the “unique educational and exclusive experience we have to offer”.   

So while there are lots of things to consider when choosing the perfect school, a school open day seems to be a vital ingredient to the decision making process. Both parent and child need to get a feel for the environment and find out if it has that extra factor. Something, I suppose, we can only discover by attending the open day. So do your research and scrutinise from all angles, but don’t I tell you, miss out on that one, crucial “showcase”, better known as the school open day.