What are the most important things when looking for a school??

[Astrid]

A lot of what is said above and some more.

Do they have after school care, or is there one nearby? Might not be important right now, but may be vital in the future. I am seriously considering changing DD1 from the out of town rural school to one in town where the after school bus will come and pick her up. Love the school, great principle etc, wish I had thought about that bit at the time.

The other thing, when asking around other parents ask them "why?" they do or don't like a school. Some schools can have a reputation, good or bad, that when you look into it has no basis or is based on some silly prejudice. The best people to talk to are the ones who send their children to those schools, not the person who heard once from a neighbour's brother that the school was good or bad.

[Erin_25]

The other thing, when asking around other parents ask them "why?" they do or don't like a school. Some schools can have a reputation, good or bad, that when you look into it has no basis or is based on some silly prejudice. The best people to talk to are the ones who send their children to those schools, not the person who heard once from a neighbour's brother that the school was good or bad.

totally agree, this is why I suggested talk to parents at playgroups, kindy etc as many have children already at school.

I'm not sure where you are or what you are looking at private vs public, but remember many have waiting list and are doing interviews now. We need to get a move on, as one place we wanted to look into is currently doing interviews and the list is huge.

Also what are all the staff like, can you communicate easily with front of office staff as this is who you will be dealing with a lot. One lady couldn't even spare us a minute so they didn't get our vote.

We have a stupid amount of schools close by making our decision very hard. Arrrggghhh not fun is it.

[Olive]

so much to consider.
one school has the kathy walker based learning which we like! its smaller and a 2 minute walk away
the other school is a 10 min drive but offers alot more...library class, IT classes, are getting chook, have vegie patch and student kitchen, the principle knew every single kids name over 400 of them, i saw a must stronger sense of respect between teachers and students, not that the first one did have respect, u just didnt see it
both have after school care
rough tis ok

[Smoke Jaguar]

Where we used to live I had an idea of which secondary school we would send DS and kinda knew where he'd go for primary if we were going to stay in the area. I didn't think about it too much because we were working on not needing this plan!
Now we're in a country town - well, just outside of it, actually - so a few things had to be considered.
Transport - turns out, the Catholic and State school use the same bus service (all the neighbours kids use the same bus stop at the end of the road...I reckon I could get DS there on his pony some mornings )
LOTE - the State school doesn't have one, but I met a teacher through a friend who said that if the teacher knows some Italian they will teach it and if I pester enough, it could get taught. Great!
Music - need a school with a good music focus. The State school wins on that count.
I have yet to do a school tour, but so far, from what everyone I know here tells me, the State school looks like the winner. My neighbours' kids love school, the local paper write ups are all positive, a lot of the neighbours are ex-pupils.
It's funny, because where we used to live I would never have sent my children to that state school because of the not-so-good vibes I got from various angles (teacher and student alike!). So, a State school is not a State school.
DS's method for choosing? The one with the best-looking playground! He thought the Catholic school didn't have one because you can't see it from the main road. Turns out that the one they have isn't as nice as the one at the state school, so he was onto something.
Oh, and some lovely Edwardian architecture doesn't go astray, either...
So, a drastic reduction is school choice has influenced us, but in a good way

[Olive]

well i may have found the right one! i visited my 6th school and its a combo of both the other schools we were considering!!
its in the opposite direction and no one from out kinder will be going but both dont bother me

[BellyBelly]

Choosing a School For Your Child - an article on BB written by Pinky McKay.

[~*Niadalla*~]

You are all extremely lucky to be able to choose which schools your children will attend. Out here in the middle of nowhere I have the option of the one that the school bus that passes our house drives to, or one that would require approx a 120km round trip in the opposite direction that I would be travelling to work in town (when the time comes). It's not really a choice that I get to make.

Enjoy the opportunity to choose. Some of us aren't so lucky, but I guess that's the compromise when you live in isolation.