Education: How to choose the best school for your child

It may be the smile - or the indifference - that greets you; it may be the noise - or even the silence. It may, of course, be the behaviour of the children. Or the teachers.

Within minutes of visiting a school, you get a sense of whether it is a good one or a bad one. Whether it feels right for your child.

First impressions can be misleading, but nothing can replace dropping in at a school during a normal working day.

Equally, even the "best" school - however defined - might not be right for your child. As a parent or carer, you know your child's needs better than anyone.

Schools are important, but families matter even more; children spend only about one-fifth of waking hours in school. Even the best schools cannot compensate for the social and economic inequalities of the world around them.

Many schools in this guide should be performing better, given the relative advantages enjoyed by their pupils; equally, many that appear to be doing less well academically are achieving remarkable results for the disadvantaged communities they serve.

Resources

The starting point is the Brighton and Hove City Council website: www.brighton-hove.gov.uk/content/children-and-education/schools.

For data about examinations, the Department of Education (DfE) performance tables contain everything you need - and more: www.education.gov.uk/schools/performance.

It will be several months before data for 2014 is published by the DfE.

For fee-paying schools, the Independent Schools Council (www.isc.co.uk) is a key organisation, representing 1,200 schools in the United Kingdom and abroad - and bringing together eight associations of independent schools, their headteachers, bursars, and governors.

The main associations are: