Admission season brings a great many school visits, and most parents leave them having learned less than they hoped. Brochures look alike, buildings tell you little, and everybody is on their best behaviour.
Here is what we would pay attention to if we were the ones choosing — including the things that would not flatter us.
Watch the children, not the facilities
A smartboard tells you a school had a budget. It tells you nothing about what happens in the room.
Look instead at the children you pass. Do they seem at ease? Do they greet adults without being prompted or without visible fear? In the corridor between classes, is there ordinary noise, or is there either silence or chaos?
Children are poor liars about whether they are happy somewhere.
Ask what happens when a child falls behind
This is the most revealing question you can ask, and the answer is rarely rehearsed.
A school with a real answer will describe something specific: extra classes, a support teacher, a conversation with parents at a particular point. A school without one will say something general about individual attention and move on.
Ask a follow-up. *At what stage would you contact me?* The answer tells you how closely anybody is actually watching.
Ask how you will hear bad news
Every school is happy to share good news. What you want to know is the mechanism for the other kind.
Are there fixed times when you can meet the class teacher? What happens if you have a concern outside those times? Has anybody ever telephoned a parent about something small before it became large?
A school that only contacts families at the report card stage will not tell you about a problem until it is well established.
Ask about the teachers, not the results
Board results are shaped as much by which students a school admits as by how well it teaches. They are a weak signal on their own.
Better questions: How long have the teachers been here? What training do they receive? Who teaches the youngest classes — the most experienced staff, or the least?
That last one is worth pressing on. Schools that put their strongest teachers with the youngest children usually understand something important about how learning compounds.
Consider the journey honestly
Parents consistently underestimate this. A ninety-minute commute each way is three hours of a child’s day, every day, for years. It affects sleep, homework, temper and the possibility of ever staying late for an activity.
An excellent school an hour away is often a worse choice than a good school fifteen minutes away. Be realistic about traffic at the actual times you will be travelling, not at the time of your visit.
Notice whether they ask about your child
A school that spends the whole visit talking about itself, and never asks what your child is like, what they enjoy or what they find difficult, has told you something about how much individual attention to expect.
Trust the ordinary details
The state of the washrooms. Whether the water is genuinely clean. Whether staff who are not expecting you are polite to you. Whether anyone knows the name of the child who walks past.
These small things are difficult to stage and they reflect the everyday running of a school far more accurately than a prospectus.
We would be glad to have you visit us and ask all of the above. Call the office and we will arrange a time.
