If your child is just reaching the school age (or if you are looking to move to a new neighbourhood), one of the most important considerations is finding the best school. Your child’s education is a building block to their future. Getting them into a quality school that can meet all of their needs (and yours) is a vital part of your responsibility to your child.
That said, it’s not an easy set of decisions to make. You will need to apply what you already know about how your child learns best to find a system that is going to be able to cater to his or her unique needs. That may mean choosing between public and private schools, charter schools and other options.
When you are moving to a new area, you should put some time into researching the surrounding schools, including their age, the philosophies of the administrators and their involvement in competitive sports and other events.
Choose carefully between older and new communities. Rapidly expanding areas like the Cypress Real Estate market will often boast newer school facilities to accommodate the growing population of relocated families. Take a look at the following simple steps. Consider each one carefully to ensure that when the decision about a new school is made for your child, it is the best choice.
Consider All Of Your Needs
When considering a new school for your child. there will be many things to keep in mind. You will want to think about what type of learning structure will work the best for your child. Is he or she more inclined towards the creative, the practical or the mathematical way of learning?
If your child has any special learning or social needs this should be immediately addressed in your search as not every school has equal resources to meet all special needs students. If choosing from schools with special need facilities, make sure you take the time to tour them.
Apart from the teaching philosophy of a school, the location is an important aspect to investigate. Find out whether your child will be able to walk to school, will be bused or will need to be driven daily. This can greatly affect your family schedule and impact your final school decision based on what works best for your whole family.
Do Your Research
Once you have a firm idea of what your needs and preferences are, you can start doing your research on the area schools. Start by looking online at each available website, visit the school board websites as well to find out about school rankings and educational formats. Get recommendations from neighbours, family and friends if you are looking for personal opinions and valuable reviews that you can trust.
List out how each one either meets your standards or doesn’t when it comes to the curriculum, policies, tuition costs, national school rankings, and extracurricular programs available. These factors will help you get a good idea of what to expect from each school. Having a well-rounded picture of each school will go a long way toward shortening your elimination process.
Campus Visits
Set up a tour and interview with each school candidate’s principal. Make sure to take a prepared list of questions so that you can make the best use of the limited time you have. Take a tour of the campus scheduled during regular hours so that you can observe how they operate on a daily basis.
It’s a good idea to take notes on each school while you are there to keep the details fresh and be able to add them to the school profile you have collected later.
Apply
Each school will have their own application process, and it’s a good idea to apply to more than one school in case you don’t get into your first choice. Start the process as early as possible to ensure that you will meet all of the application deadlines.
All information on your school application should be checked for accuracy and the presence of all documentation that is required. Once you have submitted your application, wait for two weeks and then follow-up with the administrators to ensure that your application is going forward with no problems.
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