OPEN DAYS
Curating Open Days THE PANDEMIC HAS CHANGED THE FACE OF THE SCHOOL SELECT ION PROCESS , BUT CAN ANYTHING REALLY MATCH AN IN-PERSON V I S I T?
W
hile it would be crass to think of the pandemic in terms of silver linings, it has brought about additional flexibility
to the school selection process. With in-person visits off the agenda, at least during the school day, families were forced to opt for the website experience as the main event, supplemented with their own research, drive pasts and perhaps a tour (if they were lucky) after the final bell had gone and all the pupils had left. It gave the process, once so centred around physical meetings, an oddly remote feel. That said, there have been surprising benefits. Families have become well-versed in the way that schools present themselves. They are all too familiar with the online staples, from the fly-through tour of the interiors and drone shots of ancient chimneys and mellow brickwork, to the images of talented pupils giving it their all on the sports field, in the auditorium or exam hall. But a careful analysis of what was said – or what wasn’t – can quite often send out important (and possibly unintended) messages about what schools are really all about. You should be able to glean from the tone of the communications whether schools really see every pupil as individuals, and genuinely seek to uncover their talents (however well hidden) and interests (however obscure). Alternatively, do the pupils come across as being there primarily for the school’s greater glory,
sights, it’s also the smells (school dinners to locker rooms), sounds (levels of chatter in classrooms and corridors, fragments of conversation between staff and pupils – respectful dialogue, animated exchange or top-down direction), and the small details that no glossy promotional video is going to highlight, like the level of litter, that really make in-person visits invaluable.
happy, and ideally grateful to be offered a place? Will they be vigorously primed to achieve the exam results, that while good news for the pupil, are more importantly there to add further lustre to the school’s already burnished reputation? Although online research is essential, only in-person visits can provide the 3D, full sensory experience. More than the
64 SPR ING / SUMMER 2022
Powered by FlippingBook