Questions to Ask When Touring a Preschool
Questions for a preschool tour, covering staffing and turnover, what a normal day actually looks like, how they handle biting and settling in, and the fees and notice periods parents find out about later.
The questions
Open any question for the note
Can I see the room my child would be in, while it is in use?
Why ask it
A tour arranged around an empty room tells you almost nothing. Ask to stand in the room during a session and watch whether children approach the adults easily or steer around them.
How many children are in that room, and how many adults?
Why ask it
Ratios in the brochure are legal minimums; the number in the room at four in the afternoon is what your child experiences. Ask what happens to the ratio during drop-off, lunch, and staff breaks.
Who would be my child's main person, and how long have they been here?
Why ask it
Named continuity matters more than qualifications at this age, because a two year old settles with a person rather than with a setting. If nobody can tell you who that would be, that is the answer.
What has your staff turnover been over the last two years?
Why ask it
The single most telling number on any tour, and the one least often volunteered. Long-serving staff suggest a place that treats its team well, and a room that has had four key people in a year will not feel settled to a child.
Can you walk me through a normal day, hour by hour?
Why ask it
Forces specifics instead of philosophy. Listen for how long children are expected to sit still, how transitions are handled, and whether the timetable leaves room for a child who is absorbed in something.
How much of the day is outside, and what happens when it rains?
Why ask it
Outdoor time varies enormously between settings, and the wet weather answer shows whether it is a principle or a fair-weather habit. Look for waterproofs, boots, and mud rather than a tidy playground.
What happens with a child who does not want to join in?
Why ask it
The response to a reluctant child shows you the discipline culture more accurately than any written policy. Coaxed, left alone, or made to comply are three very different places to spend a childhood.
What do you do when a child bites or hits?
Why ask it
This happens in every preschool, so an answer implying it does not is itself a warning. You want a described sequence, including what is said to both children and what you would be told afterwards.
How do you settle a new child over the first two weeks?
Why ask it
Settling practice differs widely: staggered short sessions, a parent staying, a comfort object allowed all day. A rigid single-day handover usually suits the staff rota rather than the child.
What will you tell me at the end of the day, and how?
Why ask it
Daily handover is your main window into your child's life here. A photo app is not a substitute for thirty seconds from the adult who was actually with them.
How would I hear about something that worried you?
Why ask it
Ask about bad news specifically, and ask for an example. Settings that only communicate good news leave parents learning about difficulties months after staff first noticed them.
What do you do about food, and how do you handle allergies?
Why ask it
Food covers cost, quality, and whether adults sit and eat with the children. Allergy handling should come back as a named procedure with named people, not as reassurance.
What is nap time like for a child who does not sleep?
Why ask it
Non-sleepers spend a long stretch of every single day in whatever this arrangement is. Ask what they are allowed to do instead of lying still, because the answer shapes their whole afternoon.
What is your approach if a child is not out of nappies yet?
Why ask it
Toilet training expectations are one of the most common reasons a place turns out not to suit. You want their method and their patience, and you want any requirement stated plainly now rather than in September.
How do you support a child who needs extra help, and who decides that?
Why ask it
The useful part is who notices and who assesses. A setting with a named coordinator and a route to outside professionals is on much firmer ground than one that offers individual attention as an answer.
What are your ratios and procedures when you leave the site?
Why ask it
Outings are where supervision either holds or does not. Ask about adult numbers off site, who carries medication and the emergency contacts, and how often they count the children.
What are the fees, what costs extra, and what notice do I have to give?
Why ask it
The headline fee usually excludes lunches, extra hours, trips, and holiday weeks. Ask for a full year on paper and read the notice period, which is often an entire term.
What are your hours, your closure days, and your late pickup policy?
Why ask it
Operating hours decide whether the place works alongside your actual job. Late collection charges and the number of closure weeks are the two details parents most often discover after signing.
What do you do here that you are proud of?
Why ask it
Gives them room to make their own case, and what they choose to raise tells you what the setting values. A generic answer at the end of a whole tour is information too.
Could I speak to a parent whose child is in that room now?
Why ask it
Current parents from the same room will tell you about staff changes and handover quality faster than any inspection report. Reluctance to put you in touch is worth taking seriously.
What to look for on the tour itself
Practical guidance for the conversation itself
Watch the room, not the displays
Look at the children's faces, not the wall art
Displays are made for tours. Whether children look absorbed, whether they go to adults when upset, and whether anyone is crying unattended tell you more in five minutes than the brochure does.
Listen to how adults speak to children
Tone at floor level, whether staff crouch down, whether they use children's names, and how a refusal is handled. This is the thing you cannot ask about and the thing that matters most.
Go at the end of the day, not the start
Late afternoon is when staffing is thinnest, children are tired, and the room is at its least presentable. A setting that holds together at half past four is a setting that works.
Check the toilets and the outdoor space
Both are usually off the tour route. Look at whether the toilets are clean and private enough for a three year old, and whether the outdoor area is used or ornamental.
Ask the right person
Ask the practitioner, not only the manager
The manager knows the policies and the room staff know the practice. Two minutes with whoever is actually in the room will tell you about turnover, ratios, and workload.
Read the inspection report before you go
Whatever the local regulator publishes is free and specific, and it lets you ask about the things it flagged rather than about the things they want to show you.
Visit twice
Once on a booked tour and once briefly at a different time of day. The second visit is where most parents change their minds, in either direction.
What parents get wrong
Being sold on the facilities
New buildings, tablets, and a forest area are easy to compare and are not what determines your child's day. Staffing, turnover, and tone are, and they are harder to photograph.
Accepting the philosophy without the practice
Every setting describes itself as child-led and nurturing. Ask what happened yesterday with a child who did not want to come inside, and see whether the answer matches.
Not asking about staff conditions
Pay, hours, and turnover are the strongest signals available about whether the adults will still be there next term. It is a fair question and a well-run setting will answer it.
Signing without reading the notice period
Many contracts require a term's notice or a month's fees to leave. Know the exit cost before you know the start date.
Ignoring the walk and the timing
A setting that suits your child and not your commute will erode both. Do the actual journey at the actual hour once before you commit.