touring high schools? xposted in learning at school

[kathymuggle]

My DS, who has been largely (but not exclusively) HS is considerring whether or not he wants to go to high school in the fall. He has not made up his mind.

I am going to suggest to him we tour the 3 high schools that are possibilities - and see what he thinks.

Are there any questions you can think of that I or DS need to ask the guidance counsellor (or whoever is doing the tour)?

I have a few (to show you waht I am after)?

1. What clubs are in the school? Are they after school or on lunches? Is there busing for them? Are they open to all grades?

2. How much homework do you expect of the kids? What resources are there if they struggle?

3. Do you have any issues with him bringing a laptop to school and using it?

4. What do you think of part time enrollment?

5. DS has already taken the grade 9 geography course - what would he do during this time slot?

Any suggestions appreciated!

Kathy

[MariaMadly]

Looking at each school's student handbook might be helpful; our local HS has theirs publicly available online. They can answer some of the particulars, and also the wording can reveal quite a bit about the building climate.

Do they offer the option of having your DS shadow a student for a day?

[A&A]

ask to look at the course guide--that way you can see what classes are offered to students. Some of them will have it online.

[mommajb]

I think the first few phone calls will be quite informative. My ds has been hs exclusively and we went through trying to enroll him for fall. My dh was insistent on age based placement for social reasons while I wanted proper academic placement. The two are not the same in our case. In the end our public school would not meet with us. All they needed to know was his birthday and in their eyes all I needed to know was when to drop him off.

We ended up at a private school that allowed him to test for credit and select classes for fall after the exams and a shadow day.

Godd luck!