Open Days Education
Impressions First
Charlotte Phillips advises how to make the most of the school open day
Ampleforth
College, North Yorkshire
C
hoosing the right school for your child is one of the hardest challenges parents face, but a good starting point
is the school open day. From September onwards, thousands of parents will be doing the rounds, rating head teachers’ speeches for inspiration, assessing star pupils for role model suitability and trying to work out whether a brand new sports pitch, performance centre or science block packs the biggest educational punch. While you may pride yourself on your
ability to assess a teacher’s pastoral care qualities at 20 paces, you also need to know what else to look for to ensure that your child is happy, fulfilled and ends up with those most desirable of educational commodities, a rounded personality and a CV that ensures they sail effortlessly into a Russell Group university and a top degree at the end of it.
www.firstelevenmagazine.co.uk Objectivity is vital for a practical
decision but rarely achieved by emotionally charged parents who can be seduced by glossy information packs. Some schools have ditched the printed page altogether. Instead, they put information on-line, turning prospectuses, quite literally, into all- singing, all-dancing affairs, where last Christmas’ carol service soloists blast Once in Royal David’s City into your ear and teachers, parents and pupils practically leap off the screen and into your living room in their eagerness to present the place as a cross between Hogwarts and Enid Blyton’s Malory Towers. Having created the
mood, it’s not surprising that schools favour open
days as the best way of keeping the magic going. Tey control the timing and the format, so it’s easier to ensure that buildings, pupils and staff are toned up to near Mr Universe standards. But look closely because the clues are there. Not everything goes according to plan.
Objectivity is vital for a
practical decision but it’s rarely achieved by parents seduced by glossy information packs
“Half the time, the girl who showed the visitors into my study after a tour was not the one I had asked to do it,” says one former house master at a West Country boarding school who was horrified to find that a girl he had just carpeted for smoking was doing the guiding, and even more astonished when, after she had left, the visitors gushed about how highly she had spoken of both
source of unvarnished truth. ✏
the school – and him! Pupils are often the best
Autumn 2011 FirstEleven 37
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