One of the things we get asked about a lot, is how to choose the school that’s right for your child.

This is especially true when a child is moving from primary to secondary school or from mainstream to a special school. It’s a big decision and you probably won’t know whether you’ve made the right one until your child is there and has had a chance to settle in.

We’re an impartial service, so we can’t recommend specific schools. But we can help you ask useful questions, know what to look for and understand what might be best for your child.

We’ve developed a set of new resources on our website and for you to download. In them, you can find lots of practical advice and ideas.

There are four brand-new resources:

• Finding and choosing a school – webpage and factsheet. This gives you information about the different types of school, how to work out what might be best for your child, the difference between mainstream and special schools and how to apply for a place. 
• Top tips for finding, visiting and choosing a school – webpage and top tips guide. Lots of ideas about narrowing down your search, doing your research, visiting schools and making your final decision. 
• Choosing a school: Questions to ask – lots of suggestions for questions you can ask any school, including about their support for children with SEND, the day-to-day life of the school and what’s important to staff and students.
• A schools comparison chart – an editable Word document which helps you compare different schools with each other.

We would love to hear what you think about the new resources. You can either click the star rating at the bottom of each page or contact us and let us know what you think.