Primary school open day - what to ask?

magic57

Also when your daughter starts school I would encourage you to be a parent helper if possible. Most schools are grateful for a morning or afternoon help each week. That way you get a very good insight into what is going on in the school and the best way to help your child with reading maths etc.

Savvy_Sue

As for when your child starts, I always took advice from the nursery. DS1 is a July baby, and the school he went to had a 3 term entry at that time, so he started after Easter. I asked "Will he be ready, or should I keep him here?" and they assured me he was ready.

DS2 is a December baby, and he was more than ready to start in September. Poor child, he'd taught himself to read from the cereal packets on the breakfast table, he was that desperate and I was too fogged with PMT to realise! By that time the school was starting them all in September, which led to its own problems with other children, so I'm glad things are in theory more flexible.

DS3 is an Easter baby, and I was all for leaving him at nursery for an extra term or two, but they said no, he was ready for school, so off he went in September. I wonder now if they wanted rid of him? :rotfl: He was supposed to be part-time for a term (my request), but he was SO cross at being brought home for lunch the first day he talked me into letting him stay after that.

I am not a fan of everyone starting in September, even if they're barely 4, but I would review it on a termly basis, she might be ready at Christmas.

kscour

Minerva69 wrote: »

At the moment my DD's nursery school are actively trying to encourage people to keep their children there until the term after their 5th birthday! I'm very happy with the nursery school and they got a very good Ofsted report. I've spoken to the deputy head of the nursery and even she isn't too impressed with the primary (which is actually next door!). There is a high demand for places at the primary though because it has better results than all the others in the area.

Just a thought - why do they want to encourage people to keep their children there? I may be being very unfair on your nursery school but our local nursery school has been telling parents that their child isn't ready for school and that their child will be made to sit still all day and behave and that they are just not ready for this. Apart from the fact that the school has an outstanding reception class where the children learn through play, the real reason behind the comments is that the nursery is low on numbers and scared of losing money. I'm not saying that this is the case with your nursery school but it is worth bearing in mind.

Minerva69

kscour wrote: »

Just a thought - why do they want to encourage people to keep their children there? I may be being very unfair on your nursery school but our local nursery school has been telling parents that their child isn't ready for school and that their child will be made to sit still all day and behave and that they are just not ready for this. Apart from the fact that the school has an outstanding reception class where the children learn through play, the real reason behind the comments is that the nursery is low on numbers and scared of losing money. I'm not saying that this is the case with your nursery school but it is worth bearing in mind.

Thanks for that, I don't think it's really a case of them losing money as it's a state-run nursery school (not a private day nursery). The nursery school is excellent and my DD loves it there, all the staff are very well trained and they have recently become a Children's Centre so have extra funding already, I think this might be why they want people to stay on.

meester

Why not have a look at the reports and results of the local private school? They may offer financial help with the fees.

Minerva69

meester wrote: »

Why not have a look at the reports and results of the local private school? They may offer financial help with the fees.

Thanks for that but our local private school is £2,500 per term and they only offer financial help for pupils in the senior school. Even then it's only a 50% bursary (if you're lucky) and we couldn't afford the other half! :eek:

I went to the open day at our local primary yesterday and wasn't sure what to make of it really. The head teacher was trying his hardest not to actually speak to parents :rolleyes: . He left it to the deputy head and one of the school governors. They had 3 pupils from year 4 showing each parent round, so it was difficult to ask the sort of questions I wanted to ask, and I didn't get to speak to any other prospective parents as they showed us all round separately. The children had obviously been told what to say.

It's an old building so the classrooms are very small, they were also very hot and had no windows open. The reception class was a tiny room and was in chaos, there were toys piled round the edges of the room and all over the floor, when I went in the teacher (who was very young) was shouting at the children to tidy up. One of the year 5 teachers was trying to listen to 3 pupils speak some Spanish at the front of the class but she couldn't hear them because the rest of the class were chatting and swapping seats. She didn't ask them to be quiet. It just seemed very cramped and noisy everywhere. It's a long time since I went to primary school and it wasn't like that, is that what it's like everywhere now?!

The children I spoke to said they're not allowed to take books home from the library until they're in year 4. My daughter can take books home from nursery now, so that'll be a shock! They have some sort of colour-coded reading scheme and they're not allowed to move on to the next book until they've got the current book 100% correct.

The school governor dismissed my concerns about the poor Ofsted report. She said "they'd only had 2 days notice so had no time to prepare" and when I asked what they were doing to improve standards in writing she fobbed me off by saying writing standards were declining everywhere, not just at that school. She also said my daughter wouldn't be able to start the term after she's 5 as they don't have a January intake anymore.

So I came away feeling a little disappointed. There were some good aspects (such as the buddy scheme in the playground) but overall I wasn't too impressed. They don't have to promote the school as it's already massively over-subscribed because the other 2 primaries in the area are even worse. I asked for a prospectus and it consisted of some very glossy photos of children (who could have been from anywhere) and no info about the school whatsoever!