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My biggest piece of advice would be to go with your gut feeling.We have had to choose schools on 3 occasions now and each time we have gone with our gut feeling and in retrospect been right.Our boys' previous school had an OUtstanding Ofsted report and above average SATs results - they got them because they focussed on the whole child. It was a caring school where discipline was not a 'one size fits all' approach, they were willing to listen to us and to work with us and to try new things, they had a sense of humour.When we phoned the school up to book into an open day and explained that our children were being placed for adoption, the head set aside extra time beforehand to talk to us. The school secretary helped me with 100 pieces of paperwork that I knew nothing about (and later went to extraordinary lengths to help us find a school jumper that would fit over Dizzy's enormous head!)Our boys' current school is, again, outstanding, with good results. Again they have bent over backwards to ensure our boys fitted in, have worked with us and have been willing to try things out. There is a strong emphasis on social skills school-wide and all achievements are celebrated in a very affirming way - lots of certificates at assembly each week for "making real effort with handwriting", "remembering to put things away in the right places", 'encouraging others' ...don't be afraid to ask questions about how they approach discipline, what kinds of special needs does the school deal with (and how)and listen to the tone of the response as well as the actual words - one head teacher's response to the SEN question was "well, you'll find we have very few children with SEN in the school, very few indeed" (for some reason I wasn't taken with that school!)

Oh how exciting and nerve-racking this time is! How many are you going to visit?My advice would be to look at how the staff interact with the children, and also how do staff make you feel. IMO, Ofsted reports are just a snapshot of a setting that so depends on the individual inspectors. Ask yourself if the children look happy and relaxed; are staff interacting in a friendly, caring manner; do staff make you feel welcome and valuable.I'd also ask to see policies on Behaviour Management, Inclusion, SEN, and Equal Opps. Check out their website: is it about the children - what they've done/are going to do? Do they have a Home/school link worker? How do they encourage parents to communicate with them? How much do they encourage parental participation? Ask about class sizes and staff deployment in year R. Also, how/when do they integrate year r with the rest of the school. How do they ensure that "Every Child Matters", ie, will they look at the whole child, or just his academic progress?Oh dear, now you've got me started, it looks like I could go on forever

I would ask:- do they have experience of children in care / adopted?- what if there were topics on the curriculum that would be awkward for your little one (eg bring in baby photos, draw up family tree)- how do they support children with emotional issuesI would be looking for some level of awareness and/or openness to potential issues; a feeling they will work with you and they will be flexible. Our school (least popular in our small town) is used to various family issues and does not ask for photos / family trees etc. It has excellent ELSA (emotional literacy) support.My little one, Piglet, was (still is) behind in speech when she started at Primary. The teachers made sure she had time to speak. Our reception teacher was fantastic, she noticed Piglet had trouble settling in the mornings and changed the handover process for her (so instead of expecting independent entering went for a hand-to-hand process). best wishesKanga2

I would look for a school that has children with a wide range of special needs - and preferably has outstanding for their sen provision. My dds go to a school that is very focused on the whole child and very child centred, and which are also excellent at listening and responding to parents, which is great but if I could wave a magic wand I'd give them more experience with special needs children!