ACADEMIC SHOPPING
HOW TO CHOOSE A SECONDARY SCHOOL
A fulfilling learning experience starts with choosing the right school. This article will highlight some factors that may help parents choose the right secondary school.
Proximity to home
If a child spends two hours every day commuting to school and back, in a school year he would have spent the equivalent of one month of his life on the road. Proximity is a luxury. Instead of time spent on the road, the child could be resting at home, playing or revising. Many secondary school kids lose all their energy towards the last lesson of the day and getting home quickly to rest is very appealing to the child. This also allows students to get up later in the mornings and they will be more alert during the first few lessons of the day.
CCA
Usually secondary schools have many common CCAs. Equally, many schools have their own niche or unique CCAs. If your child is good at a certain sport it would be advantageous to him if he went to a school with a strong management support in that particular sport. This will increase his proficiency in the sport as he will learn from a historically strong team. Finding a CCA to his liking is thus an important factor in choosing the right school.
Academic track record
It is good to find out the results of the school over the past few years, a school with a strong standing in academics will likely benefit the child. However, at the end of the day it all comes down to the student himself; every school takes the same examination. Besides, shoehorning an academically average child into an over-achieving school may result in a miserable experience and ruin his self-confidence.