So this week we got an invitation from Settle College to have a look round during their Open Evening - apparently they invite Year 5s as well as Year 6s to give us an insight ready for decisions next year - you don't get long, think the forms need to be completed by the end of October.
I was surprised to get the invite, but thought it worth our while to go along as then at least we have been in a high school environment and have a feel what they are like and can start thinking of questions we need to ask.
It's not a secret that I didn't enjoy my time at high school so for me it is very important that Tom ends up somewhere he will enjoy and grow in confidence as well as getting a good education. We are very lucky here in Ingleton as we are in the catchment area of 2 well regarded high schools - so although it is a difficult decision to make, at least it is a decision between two good schools rather than trying to dodge a bad school.
We got there for 6pm when it opened - wow it was busy. We were welcomed by a smiling very young teacher and sent to reception to sign in. We were then given quite a poor map and a list of activities for Tom to complete and sent on our way to find everything.
The fabric of the school is tired and old, it is 'of an age' and I don't think it has been improved since it was initially built. I would guess if I had attended it in the 1980s I wouldn't get lost or feel it was any different going there now! The only difference is that there is a computer classroom and the library is 50% computers 50% books and the teachers all looked sooooooo young.
It is only a small school, 600 pupils which includes 75 6th form students.
They obviously have to compete against QES for pupils, QES has had millions and millions spent on it in recent years, so it's not facilities that they sell, it is passion. AND wow, do they have passion!
We went for a talk by the senior management (the assistant head teacher and deputy headteacher - not sure what the difference is?!) Both speakers were young (late 20s, early 30s) and very very passionate, at one point I thought one of them was going to blub. You were left in no doubt that if you sent your child there, they would we very well looked after. Every teacher in the school knows the name of every pupil - not many high schools where that is the case.
The head girl and a Year 8 pupil also made speeches and both were very very impressive. The thing that hit me was how confident every pupil we met was. There were loads of ex-Ingleton pupils there, including quite a few year 7 pupils. I asked parents the next day in the Ingleton playground if the kids were 'bribed' to be there at night and the answer was no, they are given the opportunity, no strings attached, they wanted to show their school off!
There were loads of things to do: Tom got to decorate a cupcake in the food tech room, he did some experiments in the science room, learnt how to hack the BBC website in the computer room, did puzzles in the Maths area etc etc. Everywhere we went there were mega confident pupils - they all looked me in the eye and confidently answered questions. I was amazed. I wouldn't have been able to do that at the same age. There was a drama production in full swing, music performances going on, it was impressive, we were even provided with drinks and cakes and biscuits free of charge - they were good too, but we knew that as the new head cook at Settle College is the old cook from Ingleton.
The only disappointment was the Languages department which of course with Matt's lineage is quite important. They teach Spanish and French only. The teacher kept telling everyone who came to her classroom that they could give up languages at Year 9, she didn't seem keen at all to sell GCSE or A Level languages. We asked her about school exchanges, they don't exist any more. We asked if pupils have the opportunity to visit the country of the language they are learning - the answer was no. We asked about the Dutch school that visit Settle College (The Assistant Headteacher told us about this during his speech), she knew nothing about it and said that pupils from Settle don't return the visit. We asked the killer question about Japanese and we were told that only native speakers have access to other languages. I was unimpressed. Languages aren't compulsory anymore and looking at GCSE results from last year, only 10 pupils took French and 2 pupils took Spanish from a year of 93 students. I'm not surprised if that teacher was the best they could do.
We didn't get to see Geography or History classrooms which was a bit of a disappointment for me. This was because we couldn't find them and we ran out of time.
Anyway we came away thinking that the place would suit Tom very well, he wouldn't get lost there and if he gets 10% of the confidence the children were showing I would be very happy.
QES only invited Year 6 parents to their open evening and it has already happened, so we have nothing to compare it too. On speaking to Year 6 parents, it seems that QES has ALL the money and its facilities are second to non and therefore opportunities are amazing. However, it has 2,000 pupils and Tom being who he is (i.e. not the top of his class, not the bottom of his class and not naughty) he is likely to get 'lost' in such a big school.
Oh, decisions, decisions, what to do...I think it will be very difficult when it comes to the crunch next year. I will be quizzing parents with year 7 pupils this year in the hope it helps...
Questions to ask next time:
+ How many classes are there in the year
+ Are pupils taught in those classes for all subjects?
+ If they are taught in streams - is there the ability to move up and down according to attainment or is it set in stone for a year at a time?
+ Sports: cricket - is there a club / team?
+ Is there the possibility to arrange a private foreign exchange, can they help us with this and if it happens during term time will we get fined?
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