Choosing the right school is important for your child. Some steps you can take to ensure you choose the best fit are detailed below.
School List
Using the Find a school search tool and make a list of the schools in your local area.
Needs & Wants List
You need to ask yourself and your child some questions to help with this decision:
- Is your child keen to attend university, or are you keen on their behalf?
- Does your child have any particular talents in a specific academic area?
- Does your child have any extra curricular activities that they are keen to continue?
- Do you need special needs support?
- Which school does your child’s friends attend?
- How far away is the school? Can they walk there?
- If you want to send your child to a private school, is there a budget limit to consider?
- What school zone are you in?
- Do you want your child to study NCEA, Steiner, Internationale Baccalaureate, Cambridge International Exams or some other curriculum?
- Any other questions that you feel are relevant…
Decide upon your “must have” items and “nice to have” items and list them. When reviewing schools you then have a check list available to help with your decision.
Your priorities may vary depending on your child or teen’s talents and needs. What are you prepared to compromise on, and what are your `must haves’?
Shortlist
The next step is to make a shortlist based upon locality and your list of ‘must haves’, you can then use your list of ‘nice to haves’ in order to further shorten the list if necessary.
Once you have your shortlist, you then need to do some deeper research into those schools you’ve chosen to find out more about them. This could include:
- Visiting the school, taking your child with you
- View the school report with the Educational Review Office (ERO)
- Talk to parents who live near your to find out their opinion of the local schools
- See how the NZQA rates the schools you have shortlisted
