warwick3

Hi I am currently trying to get organised for a likely move UK to WA and am bemused at the fact I can't visit schools for a tour before signing up for a rental or buying a house. All the registrars are happy to chat but no one will tour me around until I am living in their assigned area & therefore registering. I like to see schools in action to assess the children/teachers etc

Is it really a British thing (or just me!) to choose a school and then move to be in the right locality for it, rather than the other way around? How has this worked out for others? I have three boys (2 elementary and 1 middle - moving to high school next year) so I am having to look for a property that is assigned to three good schools. No mean feat with only online scores to work from!

Wintersong

It's a very American thing as well - and the best schools can usually be identified by the property prices in the area

I assume you've found the Great Schools website? They score the schools based on how well they're performing compared to schools serving a similar catchment area. It's a reasonable place to start, but the one thing I have found is that just because a school is performing well in tests, that doesn't make it the right place for your child (and vice versa). Read the reviews for a better idea of how the parents feel about the school environment.

I'm actually surprised that they won't show you round the school - have you tried contacting the principal directly?

kodokan

We've found this too. Arizona, where we first lived, had open enrollment but absolutely no interest in touring us round until we had an address because it was already massively over-subscribed with out of area people on a waiting list so what was the point for them?

And here in Ohio, our district has no open enrollment so address drives school - again, they're polite and helpful about it, but don't see any benefit TO THEM in giving you an hour and a tour.

I wouldn't worry overmuch about it. I'm somewhat of a veteran new school parent, my son now attending his 10th across several countries. By and large, your child's experience will be based on two main things:

- is it a 'nice' area so he'll be mixing with similarly motivated kids from supportive homes: kids who behave moderately well and do the homework?' I have friends who're teachers, who urge me in very brunt terms to avoid any schools where the teachers will be doing hours of crowd control and behavioral modification rather than teaching.

- and which teacher your child gets, and whether they click.

You can tell the type of kids from the area. You almost certainly wouldn't get to meet any teachers, let alone the one your child may have. Everything else about special programs for art or engineering, what sports they do, etc, can be got from the website or a quick phone call.

I'd actually recommend concentrating on the high school you want: large for the widest range of subject choices and ability levels, or small and cozy? Multiculturally diverse? What sports? One that offers a vocational track alongside an academic one? An IB program? What are the graduation requirements - do they insist on foreign languages or just recommend it; how much PE, is a Speech and Presentation class compulsory, what AP classes do they do, etc etc. What clubs do they have? Do they have National Merit scholars, do they have a state-recognized robotics team, etc. You can get all this from the website - read the course catalog, which is usually in a section called Guidance or Counseling. Any monthly newsletters are good too.

Then backtrack using test scores and house prices to the best feeder middle school, then the best elementaries. Think transport too - my kids don't like being compelled to take the bus, for example, so we live half a mile from the middle school, and 1.5 miles from the high school (a bus is provided which my son sometimes catches, but it's otherwise a 30 min walk through a residential neighborhood).

Anian

I'm in WA, and the schools in my district have special days in the summer so you can visit before you sign up. With only a month of school left, you might want to search when these are since you won't have much time to visit the schools anyway.

Schools within the same district near where I live are generally quite close in quality compared to the massive disparity you can get in the UK.

Bob

It's a good starting point, but definitely also take what it says with a big dose of salt.

A lot of it does depend on how the school district does things. Town over for instance, high school rates really poorly on the site, but it's actually a really pretty decent school, but does poorly on standardised tests as so many kids aren't native English speakers, but they excel in the maths and sciences, also the school is fully inclusive and mixes all the kids together.

Go a town over, that's far more wealthy and they have a school dedicated to those with learning "disabilities" and because it's considered a "specialist" school, doesn't get included in these ratings, so the district rates much more highly when the schools aren't all that much better academically.

warwick3

Thanks, I'll look into those visiting days - none of the schools have mentioned it so far.

warwick3

And it seems opting out of some of the new standardised tests has really penalised some schools that previously had great scores and have now dropped to 2s!

petitefrancaise

As Kodokan says - choose the high school first and work backwards.
UsNews does a good ranking of high schools which is pretty much spot on for our area at least.
Our good schools are also heavily over-subscribed and no-one gets a tour of the high school.. Just the middle/elementary schools once you have shown proof of address and are eligible for registration.

mrken30

Not sure if this is an option, but in some areas private schooling is a lot cheaper than some of the UK and can be quite affordable. Their ratings do not appear on the Great Schools website so it is more difficult to establish how good or bad they are.

Sheepdip

That's strange. We had a specific trip to SC before emigrating to view a number of schools (after much research!) and therefore determine the catchment area to live in.

johnwoo

It's pretty good bet that the more affluent the the area the better the school.
The number of Chinese and Indians in the area, is a good marker, at least in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Talahouse

Seems to be true in Austin Texas as well!

We used the internet to find our middle school. The school we chose had loads of informatioon and videos on their website and our kids love it now we are here.