Don't choose a school for your children until you have visited it yourself, say educators. With the beginning of the school year only weeks away, the Bay of Plenty Times investigated what parents should take into account when choosing where to send their youngsters.
University of Waikato senior lecturer in professional studies and education Bill Ussher said reading a school's ERO (Education Review Office) report should be the first step, followed by visiting a school in person.
Schools and early childhood services were reviewed on average once every three years by ERO. "For many people it's quite an easy decision and others find it quite hard. Good guidelines I'd give people are to firstly, have a good look at the ERO reports, which are available on the website, but the most important thing they could do is visit the school."
ERO's independent reports listed the school's strengths and also published what improvements the school could make, Dr Ussher said.
Visiting a school would give parents an indication of what the school was about and discover if it met all of the parent's requirements.