Questions to Ask at a School Interview
Questions for a parent at an admissions interview or school visit, deciding whether to enrol a child. They cover the shape of the day, class sizes and grouping, what happens when a child falls behind or is unkind, communication with home, staff turnover, and total cost.
The questions
Open any question for the note
What does a typical day look like for a child in this year group?
Why ask it
A timeline is much harder to gloss than a philosophy. Listen for how much of the day is spent sitting still, how much is outdoors, and when the taught day actually ends.
How many children are in a class, and how many adults are in the room?
Why ask it
Class size matters less than the ratio of adults to children and how those adults are used. Ask whether the second adult is there all day or shared between rooms.
How do you group children by ability, and how often does a child move group?
Why ask it
Grouping practices vary widely, and movement between groups is the part that matters. If children rarely move, a decision made when your child was six can shape the next ten years.
How would you know within a month if my child was struggling?
Why ask it
You are asking about their monitoring, not their intentions. A good answer names something concrete: a reading check, a piece of marked work, a teacher who noticed at the door.
What happens next when a child falls behind in reading or maths?
Why ask it
Intervention is where schools differ most. Ask who delivers it, when in the day it happens, what the child misses in order to attend, and how soon it is reviewed.
What do you do with a child who is ahead of the class?
Why ask it
Enrichment is usually the weakest part of a school's answer. Listen for whether they describe more work or genuinely different work, and who plans it.
How much homework is set, and what do you expect from me at home?
Why ask it
Homework expectations reveal how much of the teaching is quietly outsourced to parents. Ask what happens if it is not done, and whether nightly reading is required or encouraged.
How do you deal with unkindness between children?
Why ask it
Ask for the process and a recent example rather than the policy statement. The part to listen for is what happens with the child who did the unkind thing, not only the one who was hurt.
What happens when a child breaks a rule, and when would you call me?
Why ask it
Discipline answers matter most at the edges: what earns a phone call, what earns exclusion, and whether you would hear the same day or at the end of term.
How does support for additional needs work here, and who coordinates it?
Why ask it
This depends on named people and funded hours rather than goodwill. Ask who holds the plans and how often they are reviewed, even if your child has no plan now.
How and how often will I hear from my child's teacher?
Why ask it
Frequency is easy for a school to state and easy for you to check with current parents. Ask what you get beyond a written report once a year.
How do you tell a parent something difficult about their child?
Why ask it
How a school delivers bad news predicts your entire relationship with it. Look for an early phone call from the person who knows the child, rather than a line in a report.
What do lunch and break look like, and who is outside with them?
Why ask it
Much of a child's day is decided in unstructured time. Ask who supervises, what happens when it rains, and whether children can come inside if they want to.
How many teachers have left in the last two years?
Why ask it
Staff turnover affects children more than facilities do. A run of departures from one year group is worth asking about directly rather than inferring.
What do children who are new here find hardest in the first term?
Why ask it
It puts the school in the position of describing a real child's difficulty. A school that cannot name one has either forgotten or is not watching new joiners closely.
Where do your leavers go next, and how do you prepare them?
Why ask it
Destinations show what the school is really optimising for. Ask about the middle of the year group, because the two most impressive names are always volunteered.
What does a year here cost in total, including uniform, trips and clubs?
Why ask it
Fees are often the smaller half of the real cost. Ask for a full-year figure including uniform, trips, instruments, after-school care and any voluntary contribution, plus the usual annual increase.
What sort of child does not thrive here?
Why ask it
The most useful question of the visit. A candid answer is worth more than the whole tour: a child who needs quiet, a child who needs structure, a child who dislikes sport.
Could I speak to a parent whose child started last year?
Why ask it
Current parents will tell you what a prospectus cannot. If the school will not connect you with any, that reluctance is itself an answer.
Could my child spend a day in class before we decide?
Why ask it
Nothing you learn from adults matches watching your own child in the room. Notice whether they agree readily and how well they organise it.
Visiting and deciding on a school
Practical guidance for the conversation itself
Visit on an ordinary day
Open evenings are performances. Ask for a second visit on a normal teaching day, ideally mid-morning and again at lunch, and ask to see a class in the year your child would join rather than a showcase lesson. If a school will only ever be seen on an open day, treat that as part of the information.
Ask each person what only they can answer
- Head: intake numbers, staffing changes, discipline, what the school is trying to change this year.
- The class teacher your child would have: what a day looks like, how they track progress, what they do about a child who is stuck.
- The additional needs coordinator: how support is triggered, who delivers it, how plans are reviewed.
- A pupil on the tour, out of a teacher's earshot: who they go to when they are upset, and what happens if they do not understand something.
- The office: how absences, medication and late arrivals are handled day to day.
What to look at while you are there
- Whether the work on the walls is genuinely the children's, with mistakes and corrections visible.
- The toilets and the cloakrooms, which reveal how much the building is really looked after.
- How staff greet children in the corridor, and whether children look at adults when they pass.
- How the noisiest child in the room is spoken to.
- What the outdoor space is like in bad weather, since that is most of the year in many places.
- Whether children who are alone at break are noticed by anybody.
If your child is interviewed too
Ask what form it takes and how long it lasts, and ask what the school is looking for. Rehearsing answers tends to backfire, since schools are usually assessing whether a child will talk, listen and have a go. Tell your child there are no wrong answers and that it is fine to say they do not know. Afterwards ask them what they were asked and how the room felt, because their impression of the adults is worth as much as yours.
Before you commit
- Get fees, deposits and payment dates in writing, along with the notice period for leaving.
- Ask what happens financially if you withdraw mid-year, and whether a deposit is refundable.
- Ask about sibling policy and whether places are guaranteed for a younger child.
- Confirm the transport arrangements and what they cost, since this often decides how the school fits your week.
- Read the most recent inspection or accreditation report yourself rather than the summary on the website.