Questions to Ask a Principal About Their School
Questions for a parent or carer meeting the principal on a tour, at an open evening, or before enrolling. They ask for numbers, procedures, and worked examples rather than for the school's philosophy.
The questions
Open any question for the note
How many teachers left at the end of last year, and how many the year before?
Why ask it
Turnover is the one number that summarizes staff morale, and it is rarely in the prospectus. A principal who knows the figure without checking is a principal who watches it.
Who would actually be teaching my child, and how long have they been here?
Why ask it
Moves the conversation from the school to the classroom your child would sit in. A room staffed by a series of temporary teachers is a different proposition regardless of the school's results.
How many children are in that class, and how many adults are in the room?
Why ask it
Class size means little without the second half. Thirty with two adults and twenty-four with one are not comparable, and averages across the school hide the crowded year groups.
How do you cover a teacher absence?
Why ask it
Every school loses teachers to illness, and the answer reveals the depth of the staffing. Splitting a class across other rooms as routine practice tells you the budget is tight.
Which subjects are taught by specialists, and which by the class teacher?
Why ask it
Determines what music, languages, art, and sport actually amount to here. Vague answers usually mean those subjects are squeezed when time is short.
If my child is behind in reading in October, what happens, and when would I hear about it?
Why ask it
A worked example is much harder to answer with a slogan than a question about support in general. The date you would be told is the part that matters, and the honest answers vary from a fortnight to the spring report.
How does a child get extra support here, who decides, and how long does it usually take?
Why ask it
You want the mechanism and the waiting time, because both are real constraints. Hearing that support depends on an external assessment with a long queue is useful before you enrol, not after.
What happens when one child hits another?
Why ask it
The concrete version of the discipline question, and the answer describes the actual practice rather than the written policy. Listen for who talks to the family of each child, and when.
How many suspensions or exclusions were there last year?
Why ask it
A number that is either known, published, or evaded. Very high figures and a proud claim of zero can both be worth a follow-up about what happens instead.
What do you do about a child who is being left out rather than picked on?
Why ask it
Exclusion is harder to see than a fight and it is where most schools are weakest. A specific answer about lunchtimes, seating, or a named adult indicates people are looking.
How much homework would a normal Tuesday involve at my child's age?
Why ask it
Anchors an abstract disagreement to a school night. Compare the answer with what parents in the playground tell you, since the gap between policy and practice is often large.
How long is break and lunch, and how much of it is outside?
Why ask it
Time outdoors shapes a child's day more than any curriculum statement, and it is quietly reduced in many schools. Ask what happens to it when it rains and when a class is behind.
How would I hear from you if something went wrong, and how quickly?
Why ask it
Ask for the channel and the timescale rather than a promise of an open door. A school that says you would hear the same day about an injury and within a week about behaviour has thought it through.
What did you change after last year's parent feedback?
Why ask it
Tests responsiveness with evidence attached. "We survey every year" without a single change to point to means the survey is decoration.
What do parents complain about most here?
Why ask it
Every school has a recurring complaint: parking, communication, the lunches, a year group. A principal who names it plainly is easier to work with than one who says there are no complaints.
What is the school not good at yet?
Why ask it
Look for something concrete and already being worked on. An inability to answer is more concerning than whatever weakness they might have admitted.
Where do your students go next, and how do they do in their first year there?
Why ask it
Destination is easy to publish and progress after leaving is not, so this asks whether they follow up. Schools that do usually have a story about which children found the transition hard.
What would make you tell a family this isn't the right school for their child?
Why ask it
A school confident in its own scope can answer this. A school that says it suits everyone is either not being straight with you or has not noticed who is struggling.
How is the school funded, and what will be asked of families during the year?
Why ask it
Trips, uniform, instruments, technology, and fundraising add up, and the total is rarely presented in one place. Ask for a yearly figure for a typical family.
Could I come back and see a normal lesson on a normal day?
Why ask it
The most informative question in the list, because the answer is either yes or a reason. What you see on an ordinary Wednesday morning tells you more than any tour arranged for visitors.
Reading a School During a Visit
Practical guidance for the conversation itself
How to Get Past the Tour
Visit on an ordinary morning if you can
Open evenings are staged, and reasonably so. A Tuesday at ten shows you the corridors, the noise level, the state of the toilets, and how adults and children speak to each other when nobody has prepared for you.
Ask for numbers and note the ones they don't have
Turnover, class sizes, suspensions, waiting times for support. Whether the figure is at hand is often more telling than the figure itself, because it shows what the school pays attention to.
Ask the same question of a teacher
Put your question about extra support or homework to a teacher on the tour as well. Where the two answers diverge is where policy has not reached practice.
Find a parent whose child had a hard time
The parents put in front of you are enthusiasts, and their experience is real but partial. A family whose child needed support or was bullied can tell you how the school behaves when things go wrong, which is what you are actually buying.
Watch what is on the walls
Recent work by many children, including messy work, suggests a school that displays learning. A corridor of identical polished pieces or year-old displays suggests something else.
Common Mistakes Parents Make
Judging on results alone
Published results track the intake as much as the teaching. Ask instead how far children move while they are there, and how the children who arrive behind do by the end.
Asking about philosophy
Every school will tell you it educates the whole child. The question that distinguishes schools is what happens on a specific Tuesday to a specific struggling reader.
Deciding on the building
New buildings and old buildings both house good and bad schools. Staff stability and how the school handles difficulty predict your experience far better than the facilities.
Not asking about the end of the day
Before and after school care, clubs, the cost of them, and whether places are guaranteed decide whether the school works for your household. It is easy to leave a tour having never raised it.
Three Short Sequences
The five minutes you get with the principal
- 1"How many teachers left at the end of last year?"
- 2"What is the school not good at yet?"
- 3"Could I come back and see a normal lesson?"
If your child may need extra support
- 1"If my child is behind in reading in October, what happens?"
- 2"Who decides that a child gets support, and how long does it take?"
- 3"How many adults are in the room?"
- 4"What would make you tell a family this isn't the right school?"
If you are worried about behaviour and belonging
- 1"What happens when one child hits another?"
- 2"What do you do about a child who is being left out?"
- 3"How many suspensions were there last year?"
- 4"How would I hear from you if something went wrong?"