Choosing Schools

7 Reasons Why Private School May Be The Right Choice

We parents who send our children to private school have a lot in common.

• Most of us want our children to think critically, analyze information, and read widely.
• For example, Nancy and I wanted to stretch our girls academically. That's why we sent them off to private school.
• Those poor kids never stood a chance because my late wife read to her daughters almost from birth.

Nancy was a voracious reader. She read real books made out of paper, not books on an iPad or Kindle.

• She had earned an honors degree in French language and literature and Spanish language and literature.
• She attended private schools in New York City. Academic excellence was simply a given from her point of view.

I was passionate about music and made a career in church music as an organist and choir director.

• I mention these facts about us because I know your upbringing and educational experiences have shaped you and your views.
• Those will shape how you plan your child's schooling at every level.

Many of us also have public schools that are considered very good or excellent.

• In our case, we were fortunate to have excellent public schools.
• However, we didn't like the large class sizes and the limited curriculum that they offered.
• So those were among the reasons we started looking for other options

Mistakes Everybody Makes When Choosing Private Schools

Because you and I are not professional educational consultants with an intimate knowledge of private schools, we often waste time and make mistakes as we search for a private school for our children.

• For this article, we will be discussing private K-12 schools that do not focus on special requirements, such as therapeutic schools and schools for students with acute special needs.
• Read When Should You Consider A Therapeutic School? and When Should You Consider A Special Needs School? for suggestions about choosing those schools.

Canva generated this picture.

Here are some of the pitfalls you and I tend to encounter as we look at private schools.

1. Only looking at ranks
2. Thinking you can't afford it
3. Waiting until the last minute to submit applications
4. Thinking that schools are elitist
5. Not visiting schools
6. Not preparing adequately for the standardized admissions tests
7. Not hiring an educational consultant

1. Only looking at ranks.

I know what you're thinking. You want your daughter to attend a highly-rated school, the best school, a top-ranked school.

• Trust me. I get it. I wanted the same things for my daughters.
• However, here's the hard truth: rankings have very little to do with finding the best private school for your child.
• Find schools that fit your requirements and her needs as best as possible.
• You are looking for schools that fit

You have been thinking about private school for your child for some time now. Finally, you have decided to proceed. Naturally, you will have many questions about how to organize your school search process. Here are some answers to your questions about when to tackle the various steps in the school search process. I hope this will help you plan and execute the process efficiently and with a minimum of angst. If you want more detail on any aspect of the search process, start with How To Search For Schools.

When do you send your child to private school?

At what age to send your child to private school depends on several things. The first thing which you need to consider is the quality of the education available in your local public schools. No matter what grade you are thinking about, start with that consideration first. This step requires you to do some serious research and due diligence. Don't skip this research.

Begin with the school's reputation. You may have heard good things about a particular public school in your area. That's a start, but take time to look carefully at the school profiles on sites such as Great Schools. Videos posted on YouTube by private schools will give you a useful point of comparison.

Here is an overview of teaching Spanish at The Rectory School.

Then, the next

15 Reasons To Go To St. Swithins

When it comes to choosing the right educational environment for your child, private schools offer a unique set of benefits that can foster academic excellence, personal growth, and future success.

From smaller class sizes to rigorous academic programs, private schools provide a tailored education that can help your child thrive.

As you zero in on the best private school for your child, keep this list of reasons for doing so handy.

• The question you need to keep asking yourself is whether the fit is right for each of these attributes.
• You may not score 10 out of 10, but try to get as close as you can.
• Scoring these items is obviously a subjective matter that depends on your needs and requirements.
• Remember that the schools that come closest to matching your requirements are the ones to which you should probably apply.

Finding the right school is a complex process with numerous moving parts.

• If you get one of these factors wrong, it won't kill the deal.
• It could, however, make your child's experience less than optimal.

Here, then, are fifteen reasons why we think you should consider our school.

1. School size

Most preschools and nursery schools typically have a student population of 75-100 students. Schools offering kindergarten through grade eight usually have a population of 200-500 students. As you search for schools on Private School Review, you will notice

Use this five-point checklist to keep your search for private schools organized. If you ask your friends and family who have gone through the process of finding private schools for their children about their experiences, you will probably hear that the search is not difficult. On the other hand, it is time-consuming, has several deadlines, and can be demanding, particularly if you and your spouse have full-time careers. Before long, somebody will create an app to help you keep your private school search in order. In the meantime, use this simple checklist.

1. Look at schools.

"Cast your net as wide as you can." "Think outside the box." Sorry to bombard you with cliches, but they are the best suggestions which I can offer. Thinking outside the box is not always easy for us parents to do. We know our children so very well. That's a given. But some of us tend to be overly-protective, and we worry a lot. "She'll never do well in that school. Helen's son had a terrible time there." Force yourself to explore schools that you might not have put on your list, for one reason or another.

As the following video illustrates, schools will put their best foot forward as they want you to consider them and, better yet, visit them.

This part of the school search process can be great fun. Why? Because most private