PARENTS with 11-year-olds will be watching their youngsters' progress with great interest and concern during the next few weeks.

Girls and boys of that age have just started at secondary school. It's a big moment in all their lives and many children will naturally view with some trepidation the fact that, after being the senior pupils at primary school, they are once again the 'babies'.

Within a few weeks, of course, most of them have made new friends and feel completely at home. For parents, who want their youngsters to learn in a friendly and supportive environment, that is very important - their main concerns (or should be) are that youngsters are happy at school and do justice to themselves.

School open days are a way for both parents and children to get a feel of what a school might be like. Typically, visitors can see a wide range of activities including drama and PE, modern languages, science experiments and pupils working in a classroom. It's an opportunity to get a flavour of the full range of school activities and ask questions.

Some schools go for a more informal approach to open days, taking the view that 'every day is open day'. Parents make an appointment to come and look around the school during the teaching day in order to get a better feel for the place.

St Peter's School in York is a co-educational boarding and day school for pupils aged 4-18. There is an open morning for St Peter's and St Olave's (the junior school for boys and girls aged 8-13) on Saturday, October 5, 9-30am-noon. On Saturday, September 28 there is an open morning for the Pre-Prep school, Clifton Preparatory School, 9-30am-11-30am.

The school celebrated a 100 per cent pass rate at A-level this year, with 28 pupils gaining grade A in all subjects taken.

New sixth form scholarships have now been created through the work of the School Foundation and generous donations from outside benefactors. They are to be awarded to scholars who show the greatest aptitude and potential in modern languages, business studies and economics, design and technology, and science - one scholarship per subject per year.

Students wishing to hear more about the Sixth Form Foundation Scholarships should contact the school secretary on 623213 for further details.

At Bootham School, there is an open morning on Saturday, September 28. Typically, families will spend about two hours in the school, meeting staff, pupils and the headmaster, Ian Small.

He says: "We are finding that more local families who come to look at Bootham think purely in terms of a day school, see the 'flexi-boarding' which we offer and decide to take up a two or three night per week boarding option; this is just one example of how a visit can reveal more about a school than you might at first expect."

For more information about open mornings at Bootham contact admissions tutor Jenny Daly on 623261.

Alternatively visit the website to be found at www.bootham.york.sch.uk

Updated: 08:53 Wednesday, September 18, 2002