EDUCAT ION
“Choosing a school for your child is a personal matter to them”
St Christopher School, an independent school based in Letchworth Garden City, for example, prides itself on its reputation as ‘not your typical independent school’, where pupil happiness stems from a focus on the individual. “It’s important when you look round and talk to people to see if you feel comfortable,” says Richard Settle. “If you feel uncomfortable and slightly out of place, the chances are your child is going to as well.” If you want to know how it would feel to be a school family and check the school walks the walk, try to speak to current families – some have parent ambassadors who are always happy to talk to prospective parents. Sancton Wood will do its best to match you with a family who joined in similar circumstances – relocating at short notice, for example. Ask what they – and their children – like about the school. Find out if they have any niggles. Minor (the odd duff school lunch, for example) is as you’d expect: no school, after all, is perfect. Major issues – many unfilled key teaching posts, sudden staff departures, consistently poor communications with parents – deserve further investigation. Finally, but most importantly, ensure that when you’re considering a school, you’re always doing it from the perspective of your child. And that means considering the whole picture, says John Attwater. “In the same way most people wouldn’t pick a spouse from a league table of their statistics, and would probably rightly regard someone with suspicion who was keen to be measured in that way, choosing a school for your child is a personal matter to them, and you really do owe it to them to do a proper matching process.”
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