When POD didn’t get offered a place at the local school last year, it came as a huge surprise. The school is walking distance from our home so we never imagined we’d have to research other schools. It was a worrying time what with getting our heads round the school admissions process and wanting to give our four year old the best start. As it happens she ended up going to the school she was offered a place at and, despite a rocky start, finished reception with a glowing report. POD recently started Year 1 at the same school and we remain on the waiting list for the nearest school. We don’t know if we’d accept a place if POD was offered one but it would be nice to have that choice.
Most parents worry about making the right decisions for their children. The most valuable lessons we’ve learnt around education these past months are never presume, research all available options and talk to other parents. The one area that was particularly hard in 2015 was finding out all the necessary information. As it happens School Reviewer is an ideal solution in that it provides parents with the knowledge they need to make an informed choice about their child’s educational needs. With information from the Department of Health and Ofsted, it has detailed profiles for over 40,000 UK nurseries, schools, colleges and universities. School Reviewer is the only site in the UK that provides parents with information about every UK school at every level.
School Reviewer would have been invaluable last summer and it definitely will be in the future. You can learn about schools, colleges and universities in your area, where they’re located, the catchment area and what their Ofsted rating is. Full Ofsted reports are available too along with academic results such as SAT and GCSEs. There’s also a parent forum, a free buy/sell area and a review section for parents to leave their comments for each school. Once you’re registered to School Reviewer, you can also view your own reviews, forum topics and manage any items you’re buying or selling.
There are expert walkthroughs for Maths GCSE and SAT’s with 11+ papers being launched soon. Unlike any other sites, there are question by question videos to download that show how a 100% A+ grade can be scored. These have clear and easy to follow instructions from a teacher with top tips and errors to avoid include. These seem so far away from where we are now but actually POD will be in Year 2 from September 2017 *cries a little inside* with SAT’s on the curriculum. For her age group, they’ll focus on reading, grammar, punctuation & spelling and maths with her teacher assessing her on speaking and listening, writing and science. SAT’s are compulsory for all 7 and 11 year old children with most GCSE’s taken in Year 11.
With home education on the increase and 42% of children having some kind of private tutoring, School Reviewer will also be the option to search for local tutors in the future. Tutors can register their details online and upload a DBS certificate free of charge. Who knows if this will be a requirement for POD in the future, we’ve barely got our heads round her being at school!
We’ll no doubt have some big decisions to make around POD’s education over the next couple of years. School Reviewer will certainly be an invaluable resource for her educational journey that’s for sure. Until then we’re taking each day of this new school year as it comes and hopefully there’s a little play in there for good measure!
This post is in collaboration with School Reviewer. For further information, check out the School Reviewer website. You can also find them on Twitter and Facebook.
