How will your kid’s needs be best met at school? Will he/she slip through the cracks or be given every opportunity to realise their full potential? Today more than ever, education is more than getting through the Government dictated syllabus.

Before you commit on arguably your greatest investment, here’s some questions you need to ask before signing up at a school.

• Is it balanced (pastoral care, sport and academic)?
• What is the school heirarchy, are the Department heads (academic) treated and remunerated  the same as Year Group heads (pastoral)?
• Can your school articulate it’s policy on sport, academia, co-curricular, religion, discipline etc..?
• Can the school provide a comprehensive list of the interests of it’s pupils?
• How do they manage non-sport kids and how do they manage non-academic kids?
• What activities exist that provide  a  sense of belonging for your child? (e.g. school dances, community services programs, camps etc..)
• Describe your child and see if the school could suggest how he/she would fit within the cohort.
• What are the future plans of the school (academic, infracture, facilities etc..)
• What is the school’s philosophy on merit based pay to it’s  teachers ?(this will demonstrate the extent to which they value their teachers)
• What steps have been made to embrace differences on race, culture, special needs etc..?
• What are the school’s values?
• How does the school manage bullying?
• What processes are in place to prevent all types of bullying (cyber, teacher, playground)
• What school do the teacher’s send their own kids to?
• Ask why you should send your kids to this school?
• How can dads support the shool? (e.g dad’s canteen, vocational education, camps and fundraising)
• How often do the department heads meet to cross reference topics being taught? (i.e does the geography teacher  know/understand where the kids are up to in Maths, Commerce etc..at any one point in time).

Like most things, ensure you receive robust answers to your questions. Providing you are satisfied with most of these anwers and if it feels right in your gut, it probably will be a good choice.