I am a mum who is trying to make sense of the maze that is the British education system and more particularly - find a school for my son in London. Not only is it complicated but it is also changing fast. Being a researcher at heart, I have been visiting schools ever since my child was six months old because I felt I could only make an informed decision on where to send him if I had a comprehensive enough overview of what is available to us. As someone who was not educated in this country, the maze of London schools felt truly overwhelming. Even understanding the different routes one could take (private, state, faith schools, montessori, Steiner etc etc) took me a while.
My son is 3.5 now and will be starting school in a year and a half. Having visited almost all relevant schools in our local area and some beyond, I feel I have a good overview of different types of schools, and of what is available locally. As I tend to be quite methodical about things, I kept a diary and a database of my visits and in most cases, wrote down my impressions.
Having had more conversations that I care to remember about this topic, I decided to share my knowledge and impressions with others as frankly I don’t want to ‘waste’ all that research and accumulated knowledge. I hope the information on this blog will be useful to other parents, and maybe even encourage others to contribute their impressions of these or other schools.
When I started looking I felt that there was a lack of centralised information about all the different options, types of education and a places to simply find out some real information from the point of view of a parent. I find the school brochures pretty useless as they are too generic in the way the are written and there is too much spin. All the sites I came across tend to have a commercial interest or to be focused on only one type of education (the good schools guide focussing only on independent school, whilst council websites only giving info on state schools etc).
When I started looking I felt that there was a lack of centralised information about all the different options, types of education and a places to simply find out some real information from the point of view of a parent. I find the school brochures pretty useless as they are too generic in the way the are written and there is too much spin. All the sites I came across tend to have a commercial interest or to be focused on only one type of education (the good schools guide focussing only on independent school, whilst council websites only giving info on state schools etc).
Also, there are all the little details that are hard to find out about unless you visit the school, but that are actually really important. For instance – what is the area around the school like, is it a safe, peaceful street or busy with traffic? What is the school building like? What is the playground like, how big are the classrooms, is the food cooked on sitem what is the general atmosphere like?
Why is it anonymous?
Because I don’t want my personal opinions and very subjective thoughts to affect my son’s chances of getting into the schools we decide to go for. This is also why I do not specify the exact date of my visits to schools as I would like to continue to add to this blog as I go along (there are still a few to visit before the decision comes) and I don’t want this blog to affect the experience of school visits.
Impartiality
The opinions on this blog are completely subjective and honest. They are the opinions of a mum who is truing to work it out as she goes along, so I might change them as I re-visit schools and learn more about them. My thoughts about schools are formed on the basis of my visit (or in some cases several visits) and combined with knowledge of schools through local networks and ‘the grapevine’. I have tried to avoid any ‘gossipy’ information or rumours and stick to the more factual observations. My comments are particular to our situation, location and interests so may not be relevant to everyone, but I do believe that there is a real lack of flow of information about schools so I think that sharing what I do know is a positive initiative.
I am in absolutely no way affiliated with any school nor do I know anyone that works for any of the schools either (in fact, this is probably the very reason for doing this ‘the hard way’ and going through endless visits and late night online research). I also have no professional links in this sector and I work in a different industry that has no connection to education in any way.
Why all this research?
Apart from the reasons listed above - I have found this process to be excellent in helping me find out what it is I am looking for in a school. When I started looking I didn’t know what I should be looking out for, but now I know a lot more and I feel less lost. I didn’t know if I liked schools that are stricter or more lax, whether I liked uniforms or not, what the difference between a Montessori school and Steiner school was etc.
Now I know the answers to all those and a lot more. I know what my ideal school would be like, but sadly, in reality, it is not out there (or at least not in our area) and it would be an amalgamation of many elements I have found in the schools I have visited.
Now I know the answers to all those and a lot more. I know what my ideal school would be like, but sadly, in reality, it is not out there (or at least not in our area) and it would be an amalgamation of many elements I have found in the schools I have visited.
Our own decision
So after all this research – which school will my son go to? The short answer is – as I write this on 9 June 2011 (and his entry is Sept 2012) - I still don’t know.
I have my favourites and the shortlist is getting narrower by the day but the truth is that I have not found a ‘dream school’. An obvious thing to say is that each option will require a certain amount of compromising and it’s about weighing that up. We are now down to three schools which I would be perfectly happy with. None of them has *everything* but they each impressed me in their own ways.
So wish us luck over the next year with the admission process. We'll need it.
