“I wish I thought to ask that” – everyone has done it at least once! Whether it’s a House Viewing, Job Interview or at School Open Days. In this article, you will find 10 top questions to leave you safe in the knowledge that you have all of the information needed to make the best decision for your child.
Before any Independent School Open Day will come plenty of research. You’ll look at the website, social media channels and you might even talk to some existing parents or past students. This is a great way to make a short list. What comes next is the most important bit – you can’t truly understand the DNA of the school and whether it is the best for for your family until you’ve had a look around and asked the right questions.
The questions below will give you an idea of the best topics to cover at any school open event in 2025.
1. What makes your school special?
An open ended question. Your guide may reference academic success, sports, performing arts or impressive facilities. They could address their pastoral care and their ability to nurture children as individuals before academics or facilities. Often it’ll be a combination of these! Nobody will understand what your child needs to thrive more than you. This question will give you an early opportunity to assess whether the areas the prospective school prides itself on align with what your child needs.
2. What are the schools values?
Is there a religious element to the school? Are they a traditional school or modern day trailblazers? Do they balance modern day innovation with traditional values? Do their values align with your own family values?
3. Are you a selective or non selective school? What were your value-added scores?
When looking at exam results it’s always a wise idea to ask whether the school is selective or non-selective. Whilst a strong set of GCSE and A level results look impressive, you should look beyond these results to look at value-added scores. Value added is a national measure of the progress that pupils make between the start of Year 10 and the end of Year 11. A non-selective school may not have the same results as a selective school on paper, but their pupils might have performed a lot better than children of a similar ability in other schools, that says a lot for the teaching and ethos of the school.
4. Think long term! What support is available to prepare pupils for life?
It is the schools responsibility to develop thoughtful, confident and resilient young people. Who transition in to well-rounded and confident young adults. This is a vast topic but here are a few suggestions of areas you might like to ask about:
High Performance Learning – How does your school equip children to negotiate a future which will certainly look different to what it does today? Young people of today need to focus on meta-skills (learning to learn) and how they combine these skills with the tools available to them. Schools exist to create a supportive and stimulating learning environment where all children and young people feel encouraged to take risks, embrace challenges, and celebrate their achievements. The only thing we can be certain of in the future is change. Good grades are essential but work will probably look very different in the future and AI may do much of the heavy lifting in terms of many of today’s job roles.
Futures Programmes – What support is available to develop career management skills? This could look like UCAS support, careers conventions, meeting industry experts, work experience and 1:1 personal guidance meetings amongst many other initiatives.
Pupil Health & Wellbeing – How can we as parents work with the school to help my child grow? The pastoral care and wellbeing of your child is at the centre of every schools thinking and decision making. Schools get to know every child as an individual and work hard to develop excellent working relationships with their parents.
5. What are your policies on electronic equipment?
With so much access to technology available, it’s important that pupils are educated and empowered to use it to it’s maximum effect. This needs to be carefully balanced with using it the right way. Different schools will have different electronic equipment policies on how to achieve this, whether they are allowed personal devices for use in lessons, mobile phone policies – the list goes on!
6. What are the class sizes?
Always a good question. Smaller class sizes mean more individualised support!
7. Standard school day look like?
Every school structures and prioritises their day differently. Is it a day your child would find enriching and enjoy?
8. How do you balance school and family life?
Is there school on a Saturday? How much homework do pupils get? How long are the days? These are all things to consider if you want to be able to enjoy valuable family time.
9. I need a question here!!
10. It’s not a question.. but a top tip!
You don’t need to wait until an open day to have a look around. Open days are a great way to get to know the DNA of a school and work out if it’s the right fit for your child. But if an open day isn’t coming up in the near future, contact the school admissions team directly and they will be always very happy to give you a personal tour!
On any day you visit and no matter what questions you ask it should always be the feel you will get from speaking to the staff and the students. The feeling of knowing that your child would be in safe hands and would be happy and nurtured as they navigate their future, discover themselves and develop independence all while continuing to love learning. That is after all the best any parent can hope for!
Author – Jayne Gray
Jayne Gray, Director of International Admissions, joined Queen’s College in May 2024 after working in international admissions since 2014. Helen became passionate about education for international students after moving with her young family to Hong Kong. Choosing a school for your children in an unfamiliar country can be extremely daunting and Helen’s approach is one of understanding and support, ensuring families can make an informed decision.
