Moving house is tough, but moving house with kids can be at least 10 times tougher.
Moving to a new town or city with school-age children will mean that you’re going to have to find a new school for your child. And if you’re moving during the school year, then things will tend to be even more complicated.
How do you find the best school for your child? The most important thing you should do is find the right school in the new neighborhood – the one that will fit your child’s needs and will match your family’s lifestyle at the same time.
The next steps will help you choose the ideal school for your kid when moving.
Step 1. Identify what your child needs
The very first step to finding a new school when moving house is to figure out what your school-age child needs. In the majority of cases, you will have numerous schools to choose from, and that’s a good thing because different children thrive in different learning environments.
Take into account your child’s abilities and interests before you even start looking for a new school in the town or city you’re moving to. To find the school that will be the perfect fit for your son or daughter, here are a few basic questions to ask yourself:
- Will your child feel more comfortable in a small school or a large one?
- How important are extracurricular activities (sports, music, theater, art, etc.) for your kid as a student and for you as a parent?
- Will your child need any tailor-made programs such as gifted learning, language immersion, tutoring, or special needs?
Read also: How moving affects children
Step 2. Decide on the best time to move
The chances are that you won’t have full control of the timing of your house move. But if you do, then you’re advised to move during the summer break so that in the fall your child can begin the school year in their new school. That way, the school transition will be easier for your kid as he or she will already be used to the new surroundings and will be starting together with other students who are new to the school.
A summer move may not always be possible though and you may be forced to move house during the school year. A midyear move has its apparent disadvantages, but it will give your child an opportunity to get immersed in the new school much more quickly and painlessly.
Useful info: 5 Ways children can help during a move
Step 3. Look for trustworthy recommendations
Your next step is to try to get recommendations for good schools from reliable sources.
Oftentimes, real estate agents are a dependable source because they can give you specific inside information about the local neighborhoods and more importantly, which schools are the best ones in your destination town or city. So, if you have a real estate agent, make sure you ask them.
Another option is to use social media as a tool for getting recommendations from people you can trust – tell all your Facebook and Twitter friends that you’re moving and that you’re looking for reliable information about the schools in the new place.
Generally speaking, parents are the best source for school-related information so, if possible, connect with other parents and see if they might know something that will help you make an informed decision.
Step 4. Browse through online school resources
The next step is logical enough – once you get a rough idea which schools are the most suitable ones for your kid, you should do further research online.
- The National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) offers a good tool for searching for all schools and colleges in the USA and its territories. You can filter the results by state, city, zip code and school name. The NCES will give you useful statistical information about each school you’re interested in.
- GreatSchools.org – a national non-profit website that offers various useful information (test scores, for example) about the public and private schools in your new town or city. Also, you can check school ratings, compare school programs, and read parent reviews. All schools are rated in terms of principal leadership, teacher quality, and parent involvement – something you will find very useful when choosing the best school for your child when moving.
Also, you can always visit the individual school websites to try to gauge where the schools you’ve shortlisted for your kid are what he or she really needs. Look for virtual tours of the schools, videos, and photo slideshows to get a more realistic picture of what to expect.
Step 5. Visit the schools in person
By now you should have narrowed down your search to a few schools in the town or city you’re moving to. The next step is to contact those schools and arrange for a personal visit, if that’s even possible.
Keep in mind that doing the school tour is by far the best way to determine whether an educational institution is right for your kid or not. It may not always be possible, of course, but when it is, then you should do it at all costs.
Get in touch with the school principal or administrator and arrange a personal visit, preferably with your school-age child too. Even a brief tour will help you identify each school’s strong and weak points. If possible, speak with the school principal, then meet some of the teachers there.
Ideally, you’ll have your kid with you so that he or she can experience firsthand the school atmosphere and get those important first impressions, as well as provide you with their feedback that’ll make them an essential part of the process.
Good to know: How to tell a child you’re moving soon
Step 6. Ask the hard questions
One thing you should definitely do when looking for a new school when moving is to ask the hard questions. In fact, those questions will often prove to be the difference between finding a mediocre school and picking a great school for your school-age son or daughter.
If you find it impossible to visit any of the schools in person, then you should still prepare a list of really important questions for the school principal or administrator. The idea here is to get a sense of the school environment in an attempt to give your child the best possible atmosphere to study, learn and grow as an individual.
Some of the most essential questions you should ask include:
- How does the school handle discipline and safety? How does it handle bullying?
- How is modern technology used to aid the teaching process?
- What types of extracurricular activities does the school offer?
- Does the school offer any programs for gifted students or special needs students?
- How will the school support students who may have academic or social difficulties?
- Does the school require uniforms? Are any types of clothes restricted?
All in all, this is an excellent chance to get satisfactory answers to all the school-related questions that are burning on your mind.
Step 7. Prepare the required paperwork
Bear in mind that it’s not easy to find the ideal school in a new neighborhood after moving to a new city. But when you do, you’re going to have to be ready to register your son or daughter at that new educational institution.
Here are the documents that you’ll need to prepare before the house move takes place:
- Copies of report cards and transcripts;
- Copies of completed exams and scores;
- Copies of recommendation letters from teachers;
- Addresses and contact information of the schools your kid has attended before;
- List of any awards or achievements;
- Immunization records of your kid.
Don’t forget that no matter if you’ve selected a public school or a private school for your child, there’s no guarantee that your kid will get a spot there. Therefore, it’s important that you also have a Plan B – a few alternative schools in case things don’t go according to plan.
I liked that you mentioned you need to consider if your child feels more comfortable in a small school or a large one before choosing one. My brother is looking for advice about how to choose the best school for his kid, and we are looking for advice. I will let him know to take his kid into consideration to choose the best school for him.
You’ve written it so nicely, and you’ve come up with some great ideas. This is a fantastic post!
Heya.
This is what to do in order to find a good new school. Firstly make a numbered list of the schools that are located in the area. Visit them one by one. Use a typed up checklist to make things that much simpler. Interview some of the key staff and try to watch a lesson in progress in any case. That way you will be able to decide. Best wishes. Pick a school that fits your child’s personality. Not the other way around.
Read beyond the lines of the report too. Note down what is good and bad about the school in question as well. Talk to a few different pupils at the school in addition here. Make some brief summary notes. Pay very close and careful attention to what is currently going on in the school. Inquire about the exams, trips, homework, clubs, lessons and food. Try to have a face to face meeting with the Head about all of that stuff. This is important. Seriously.
Discuss the fees only at the end of the meeting. See if you can talk to people who are working at the local library and so on about the quality of education offered within the school. Request their opinion as a precaution. As you walk around the school, glance quickly at the classroom walls. If they are totally bare get a explanation quickly. Take a notepad. And a pen.
The classroom walls need to be covered completely within any school. In other words you should not expect to see boring walls at all. Insist on being shown a copy of the weekly menu, and view a copy of the school policies. If there are any old newspaper articles on the school read them all. Check out the website of the school. Often it will contain a lot of further information that can be really useful to read. Look for the glaring discrepancies in the reports. Highlight them.
Trust your gut feeling. Consider what it is trying to tell you. Take your own sweet time to check the finer details. You can do this. Make only helpful recommendations. Understand what is not said. Breathe in and out deeply. Smile. Relax. Get to know a bunch of the other parents. Speak to them. Appear friendly.
Meet again later on with the head to discuss volunteering to read and the like. Avoid all silly pointless quarrels however. You ideally want to be confident but not stupid. Forget money or size of the classrooms, neither are particularly important. If you have picked the right school you will know. Trust me on this.