When to start searching for the right school

Local state schools - begin your search 1-2 years prior to entry

Sooner if you think you may need to move house to meet school admissions requirements or if you need to prepare your child for selective entry. Make sure your house is on the right side of the street; school admissions boundaries change year on year. Houses in the locality of a popular school tend to have a premium price-tag but do not carry a water-tight guarantee of a place. How ever close you live to a great school always make sure you have others in reserve.

Faith / religious schools.  Plan from birth onwards

As soon as you find the perfect faith school, make sure you find faith too. Church attendance or equivalent, together with baptism certificates are essential; in many instances the flower and coffee rotas are non-negotiable.

London pre-preps. Start your search pre-conception and register your child at least 1- 4 years prior to entry

Some of the most highly sought-after schools require registration at birth; others operate first-come-first served lists, subject to a child fulfilling any entry requirements. We recommend registering at at least 2 or 3 schools to ensure you find a school that suits your child's personality and academic/creative bent and fulfils your ambitions. For more information see London Schools In The Good Schools Guide.

State selective grammar schools. Suss out schools 3 or 4 years prior to 11+ (or 13+) admission

Thoroughly research entry requirements, and have a couple of schools in reserve. Be prepared to find and fund extra-tuition in preparation for entrance exams. See our sections on 11+ and selection and tutors and tutoring for further information and advice.

Check out the extensive data we carry on school performance, results (including by individual subjects), strengths of the school (wow factor) and, for state schools, how good a school is for a child like yours

Boarding at a country Preparatory school. Ideally check-out 1-2 years ahead of entry

A slightly longer lead time may be required for the handful of oversubscribed preps).  Many have spaces and will take children immediately but try to allow sufficient time to compare at least 3 or 4 and to pay a return visit to any potential school. Most will offer at least one overnight 'taster boarding' session; some offer several days to make sure your child will fit-in and cope. See How To Choose A UK Boarding School for more information.

Entry to top independent senior boarding schools. Five/six years prior to entry

You will need to consider, when your child is 7 or 8, the school you would like them to attend when they are 13 - with a little more leeway for girls only schools and those with 11+ t. At this stage register them at any significantly oversubscribed schools to ensure they remain in contention (heavily oversubscribed schools close their books completely when a child is 10 or 11 for entry at 13; sooner for entry at 11). Many begin pre-testing for entry 2 years prior to common entrance/scholarship. To find out more about what's involved see Common Entrance CE

How to find the ideal school

There is no shortage of information on schools; everyone from Great Grandma to beguiling dinner guests will readily share their thoughts.

What matters though is not the quantity but the quality of information; sifting the gems from the junk.

We share our thoughts on the principal sources of information

The school’s own prospectus

Schools are increasingly adept at employing professionals to fashion glossy marketing brochures illustrating an Aladdin’s cave of tempting treasure. Expect to encounter painstakingly picked prose infiltrating shiny, wholesome faces atop a myriad of fanciful facilities. Read? By all means indulge but, take the sales pitch with an extra large pinch of salt.

Internet sites

The internet is awash with people having their say. Comments range from unctuous reports oozing sycophantic praise (the scribbling of the school marketing team?) to comments so damning you feel compelled to call Childline. In fairness there are some helpful observations but it is a minefield – tread very, very carefully.

Inspection reports

Ofsted inspects all English state and an increasing number of independent schools. Estyn and HMIE inspect schools in Wales and Scotland respectively. The Independent Schools Council (ISC) oversees its own members.

On individual school pages we give an 'at a glance, overview' of Ofsted inspections and provide links to the full reports.

 

The formulaic reports can be helpful and, if recent enough, offer a valuable insight into the leadership and direction of a school and outline academic standards. Clinically penned, they fail though, to give a flavour of a school – the atmosphere, what it is like to be a pupil, who it suits and importantly who it doesn't and importantly what the head is like! 

School guides

(Priced from £15 to £90+)

There are many guides to schools, some little more than directories of addresses, others with stunning pictures and prose so gushing it could have been written by the schools themselves; of course, that’s because it has.

It is the norm for schools to pay for their entry in school guides and to simultaneously provide the text and any images for inclusion; such guides are barely worth the paper they are printed on. The exception to this is The Good Schools Guide. No amount of money will buy a school a place in The Guide; it is exclusively reserved for those cherry-picked by its team of education editors, writers and researchers and as such sets the industry standard (see below).

The Good Schools Guide 

 Considered ‘The Crème de la crème’ of school guides. The Good Schools Guide uniquely hand-picks schools for selection, vigorously researches them, visits, rejects those that don’t come-up to scratch and independently writes about those who pass muster. Honest, outspoken, lively, The Good Schools Guide fiercely protects its independence to ensure parents are given the very best, impartial advice; little wonder The Guide has earned very many accolades throughout the last quarter century.

The lively reviews, featured in the printed guide, are also available to subscribers of this website. 

Advisory services

 Fees for schools' advice range from £0 to £150+ per hour. Sadly there is no such thing as a free-lunch. Zero cost is only usually offered by agencies that take a commission from schools; beware they may not offer you truly impartial advice. To ensure the ideal match for your child we strongly advocate an independent, paid for service such as The Good Schools Guide Advice Service (from £120)

email: advice@goodschoolsguide.co.uk

or telephone 0203 286 6824

Dinner parties

School gossip and insights from friends and those who know schools well are invaluable; just ensure they aren't coated in, rivalry and one-up-manship or drowned in Pinot Noir!

The school gate

A good way to find out which schools to avoid or to get the low-down on a school you are interested in but somewhat time consuming and difficult to infiltrate.

The media

Newspapers and magazines love to run education stories - narrative supplied by neighbourhood schools proffer a reliable and cheap way of filling local rags.

Some broadsheets run superficial league tables and produce basic information but genuine insights into individual schools are regrettably rarer than the lotto six!

The Good Schools Guide - how we can help

Subscribers to The Good Schools Guide on-line get access to very detailed, very telling examination information.

For every English school, with published public data (at KS2, GCSE or A-level), subscribers will find a plethora of statistical analysis to show:

• how good a school really is;
• what value it adds;
• what subjects it does best at;
• which subjects are most popular and those to be avoided;
• the type of child, the most able, the least able, average children and those with special needs that thrives there.

Additionally, subscribers can compare the exam performance, subjects offered and the value added of schools they are interested in - removing the need for guesswork. And, for state schools see which schools they are in catchment for via our Interactive Catchment Area Search and catchment information on the individual school's pages. Want to know more? See Latest Exam Data

Over the years we have introduced a number of products and services designed to meet your needs. The key ones are outlined below. What you should purchase depends on the type of school you are seeking and the level of advice and detail you need. Please remember, we do not review all schools (those we do are hand-picked by our team) but we do carry extensive information on this website on most English schools. This includes detailed exams analysis for individual schools; the ability to compare schools by exam performance and, for state schools, catchment area information.

New to schooling and education?

From Embryo To Eighteen - How To Survive The Education Highway - arguably as vital as folic acid; this lively, informative guide explains what to do, when.
 

The Good Schools Guide Advice Service - for the very best tailor-made help, advice and support. Because your child deserves centre stage not second-fiddle.

The Good Schools Guide - Can you afford not to read it?

Authoritative, sought-after, truthful...

Try before you buy

Click on the links below to read the FULL Good Schools Guide review or buy now from our on-line store.

Farleigh School, Andover is an independent school for boys and girls aged 3-13, that takes boarders.

The influence of the head is pervasive, rooting the school in values of right thinking and right conduct..

Jordanhill School, Glasgow is a state school for boys and girls aged 5-18.

Outstanding, with an inspirational slightly left of centre rector. Better resourced than many independent schools - and it's free..

Discover all the inside information including: 

• What the head is really like.
• How to get in - and where pupils go on to when they leave.
• What's really on offer; both in and out of the classroom.
• The facilities, frippery and finery to be found - or not!
• The atmosphere - who will the school REALLY suit?
• The funding you'll need and the financial health of the school.
• Our opinion - what parents think, what we've uncovered...

Online only -

Subscribers to The Good Schools guide can examine:

• School performance data* for KS2, GCSE and A-level
• Value-added data* .Does the school make a difference to all pupils or just some?
• University information*. Details of which universities pupils go on to and what they study.
• And, for English state schools, make sure you make the right move by examining catchment area data and seeing which schools pupils come from and which schools they move on to. 

*We indicate on a school's page here data is available. We do not have data for schools outside of England.

Further reading

State School Admissions - How to Secure A Place

Independent School Admissions  - It's Not Just Ability To Pay

Questions To Ask When Visiting A School - Academic Ability

Questions To Ask When Visiting A School - Beyond The Classroom

The Good Schools Guide - leading the way to the very best schools

Shop Online from our Bookstore

Galore Park, an independent publisher have a excellent range of books - including 11+, common entrance, scholarship, study guides, individual subjects plus verbal and non-verbal reasoning.

You can order past papers for CE and Common Academic Scholarship exams plus all the Galore Park textbooks from our online bookshop.