The Good Schools Guide Avis 6

My son has additional needs and is struggling in mainstream school.
Good Schools guide were very understanding of the frustrations and offered practical advice to help me navigate a very complicated system. They provided names of organisations that I can contact for legal advice and suggestions of specialist schools in my area. I had a very long conversation with someone who was really empathetic of the situation and took time to listen to me. I would highly recommend contacting them!

I took out a subscription when we realised we wanted to move our three children from their London schools out of London. We based our move on finding the right schools and the Good Schools Guide was invaluable. I started by checking out the children’s current schools and they had them spot on!! I then proceeded to search across multiple counties for schools catering for three very different children. The Good Schools Guide allowed us to put together a long list of schools, then a short list, and finally narrow it down to the final ones. I don’t know how we would have done it without their reviews. And since moving I have found what we learnt in their reviews to be not just accurate but beautifully nuanced. Fully recommended.

Navigating the secondary school system in London needs serious insight, detailed evidence, genuine expertise and personal understanding. The GSG provides all of that and their consultancy service is really superb. In our case we felt our daughter and our family were really understood as we sought out the best place for our 11 year old to take the next steps and grow and learn.

Though the service we received from was very helpful in parts, particularly by identifying and then communicating with various possible schools for our son, it wasn’t worth the not inconsiderable £5,000 fee charged.

I asked for a partial refund, in recognition of the fact that, in the end, the service only lasted for a bit over a year, rather than the 2-3 years originally envisioned, but GDG was not origin prepared to offer anything back, though to their credit they then rectified it.

Overall, we do not think that the value of the services offered really quite added up to £5k of value, though they are undoubtedly experts and can give very good tailored guidance.

I contacted The Good Schools guide to get some advice and save some time doing my own research to find a suitable school for my child with SEN. I chose The Good Schools guide because they advertise themselves as experienced SEN advisors that have experience with working with families. Unfortunately our advisor shown no interest in understanding our daughter's needs and provided no information about the pros and cons of various options available to SEN children when it comes to education which our initial consultation was supposed to be about. I was so disappointed, I decided to complain. Unfortunately my complain although was responded to, was not addressed either. I would definitely not advise to use the good schools guide for parents of SEN children trying to identify a suitable school/educational facility, rather go by recommendation of other parents for either advice on schools or educational consultants who actually deal with SEN cases. —- after this review was submitted the Good School Guide contacted me and has done a number of steps to improve their survive including updating their complaints procedures and offer of further support.

Quite and informative guide, however I wonder how much of it is facilitated by back handed deals?