The Key Questions To Ask When Choosing A School For Your Children

What is the perfect school? This question seems to be essential. Even if schools have common missions, we have expressed differences that may attract or repel you. But even if it is better not to choose a school at random, there is no ranking of schools, nor is there a list of criteria that give the perfect school.

The responsibility for school choice is both a freedom and a pressure. Parents have to commit to a school for their child's education, just as schools have to suit a minimum number of parents in order to exist. So it is understandable that they are not uniform since parents' expectations are not.

So how do you, as parents, choose 'your' school?

Perhaps you trust the one in your street, your neighborhood, your village. You already have some contacts there, you know a teacher, your child's boyfriend is going to go there... and you feel comfortable there. So it seems logical to you to choose this one.

But for those who have some doubts or who have not yet had any contact with the school, here is a list of questions to guide your search.

Are the values conveyed very important?

The values are not diametrically opposed, but if you feel that the few points that differ are important, reading the educational projects will enable you to choose what suits you best.

Are active methodologies a top priority or are 'ordinary' schools right for me?

If this question is important, read the educational project carefully.

Are 'day-to-day' methodological choices right for me?

Do you not see education without homework or do you see homework as an intrusion into family time? What about this school? Will you be able to get along with a teaching team that does not do weekly dictations or a school that imposes a writing book to be completed every day?

How are the classes composed?

Are pupils grouped by year, by cycle? Are students from more than two grades in the same class? Are the pupils in classes of different levels, are the strong and the weak distinguished?

Where will your child go if he/she has difficulties or if you judge that he/she has great "facilities"? Do you agree with this distinction or, on the contrary, do you prefer a totally undifferentiated treatment of pupils?

Do they offer International facilities and programs? These days, such facilities and programs are really important as they offer extensive carrier opportunities for students. Therefore, you should look for an International School Kuala Lumpur for your children for their better carrier and life.

Can you go far geographically?

Children go to school 182 days a year. How do you combine this with your job(s)? Is it on the way? Can someone (neighbor, friend, family....) pick up your children from this school? Will your children spend more than 20 minutes on the bus every day from the age of 6?

What are the childcare and meal facilities?

How will you reconcile your life with the child's, and therefore your timetable with his? Are there any facilities, or at least possibilities that are suitable? Will he/she be able to eat hot lunch? Does the daycare start/end at a time that allows you to go to work?

Is there a playground in the school?

Do you think it is important or dangerous, or less important than teaching? Do you, who live far from green spaces, find that this school provides the necessary dose of the outdoors without cost or time investment? Or, on the contrary, given your garden and its two swings, this plain seems superfluous.

Will there be activities to which parents are invited?

If so, will you have time to go? Is this compulsory? Do you want to get to know other parents and show how important schooling is to you? On the contrary, do you feel that this is not the place of parents and that this time could be better used by you, the teachers and the pupils?

What do other parents think?

If you want to have an indicator of effectiveness, you can also ask parents whose children have been to this school and who are in secondary school, to find out how they are getting on with their lives with the knowledge they have received in this basic school.