This is an opinion piece. It is for a parent choosing a school, and it comes with a bias we should declare: we built a school directory, and we think the most useful thing a directory can do is get you to the gate of the right three schools with the right questions in your pocket. It cannot choose for you. Nothing online can.
Use the list to get shorter, not to get sure
The directory at clarvyn.ai/explore lets you narrow by region, by primary or secondary, by day or boarding, by type of school and by what a school offers. Use every filter that genuinely applies. A school that does not teach the years your child needs is not a candidate however good it is, and a boarding school is a different decision from a day school whatever the fees.
What you have at the end is a short list of schools that asked to be listed and wrote their own page. That is all it is. There is no ranking on the list, because a ranking would be a lie dressed as an answer.
Read the page like a parent, not a customer
A school's page carries a one-line description written by the school. Read it twice. "A co-educational primary school in East Legon, founded in 1998" tells you what the school is. "Excellence in all things" tells you what the school hopes you will feel. Both are fine; only one is information.
Look at the years it teaches, and whether the last year on the list is where you want your child to finish. A school that stops at JHS means another choice in a few years. Look at whether it is private, public, mission or international, because that word says a great deal about fees, about religion and about the exams your child will sit. Look at what it offers, grouped by category, and notice what is not there.
Then look at fees. A school can say nothing, say "on request", or publish a starting figure per term. None of these is a signal of quality. A published figure is a floor, not your invoice. "On request" is an invitation to ask, and the parent app has a button for exactly that. Silence means ask.
If parents with children at the school have reviewed it, read them. Every review on Clarvyn is from a parent whose child is at that school now; the school cannot edit or delete them; and a school with no reviews has no score rather than a bad one. Weigh a single review lightly and a dozen more heavily.
Then go, and ask these
Go on a school day, in the morning, and stand at the gate for ten minutes before you go in. Watch how children arrive and who greets them. Then ask.
- Who will teach my child, and how long have they been here? Not the head; the class teacher for the year your child would join. Ask to meet them. A school that cannot tell you who will teach Class 3 in September does not know either.
- What happens when a child is absent? You want to hear that somebody notices the same day and that a parent is told. A register that is taken every day is the first sign of a school that knows where its children are.
- How do you reach a parent in a hurry? And how do they reach you? Ask what number rings and who answers it at two in the afternoon.
- What exactly is in the fee, and what is not? Feeding, books, uniforms, exam fees, transport, the extra class. Ask for it in writing. A school with nothing to hide will hand you a sheet.
- Can I see a report card? Any child's, with the name covered. What a school chooses to report says what it values.
- Where do the children eat, and what? Then ask to see the kitchen.
- What are the toilets like? Do not ask this one. Go and look.
- What happens when a child is hurt or ill? Who decides, who is called, and where the nearest clinic is.
- May I talk to a parent whose child is here? Not one the school chooses. Stand at the gate at pick-up and ask a stranger.
What to make of the answers
The content of the answers matters less than you think. What matters is whether the school has answers at all, whether it gives them to you straight, and whether the head seems glad you asked. A school that welcomes questions from a prospective parent will welcome them from an enrolled one, and that is the relationship you are actually choosing.
Choose the school you would be comfortable phoning on a bad day. Then, if it is on Clarvyn, ask it your remaining questions from the app before you sign anything.