Across Australia, Year 6 families are doing the rounds of high school open nights, information evenings and tours.

Perhaps in your area, you don’t get a choice of schools. Maybe you and your child have already made up your mind about next year.

Or maybe the decision is more difficult. Your child may be torn between the school their best friend is going to and the one their cousin or parent loved. Maybe you’re the one losing sleep over it.

Choosing a high school can seem enormous. It’s six years of your child’s life, at an age when so much is changing. And the choice can feel so much more fraught when neighbours, friends and family are heading in different directions.

So how do you cut through the noise and work out what actually matters?

Here’s something to take the pressure off

Australian research suggests there is no such thing as the “best” high school. What matters far more than a school’s reputation is the fit between the school and a particular child.

As the Australian Education Research Organisation has shown, even in high performing schools, students sit right across the achievement distribution. In other words, there is no “average” school with “average” students. In every school, there are students who perform well, in the middle and at the lower end of the........

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