Parents' Experiences of the Process of Choosing a Secondary School

Information was gained from all LEAs in England from the composite prospectuses
sent to parents in 1999 whose children were entering secondary school in
September 2000. From this information about their present admission arrangements
different modes of practice were identified and analysed. The composite
prospectuses and the web-sites of each LEA were also assessed as to the quality of
the information provided to parents. The results of the analysis of policies and
practices of admission authorities is intended to provide a context against which the
results of the survey of parental experiences can be read. The intention was to use
the emerging results from Stage 1 to inform the design of the nationally
representative survey questionnaire. However, in the event the difficulty of
developing a small number of categories that would capture both the complexity of
LEA practices as well as be meaningful to parents meant that the resulting typology
only informed the design of the nationally representative survey to a limited extent.
Stage 2 of the research was conducted by the Office for National Statistics. In 2000,
the quantitative survey interviewed nationally representative samples of parents of 3
cohorts of children:
• parents whose children had entered secondary school in September 1999;
• parents whose children would enter secondary school in September 2000;
• parents whose children would enter secondary school in September 2001.
The 3 cohorts were chosen to reflect the experiences and expectations of parents for
whom the issues were particularly salient. At the time they were interviewed for
the survey, parents of children in the September 1999 entry cohort had completed
the process of choosing and their children were in their first year of secondary
school. Parents of children in the September 2000 entry cohort had either just
completed the formal process of choosing a secondary school or were still engaged
in it. Parents of children in the September 2001 entry cohort were about to start to
be involved in the formal process of choosing a school.
Details of the methodologies of Stages 1 and 2 of the research will be found in the
their respective sections.
22