Twenty Questions Worth Asking at Any School Open House

Why Questions Beat Brochures

The twenty questions below are grouped into four sets — art, technology, academic balance and culture — and each comes with what to listen for in the answer. Open houses are performances; every school on your list will show polished work and confident students. Questions are how you get underneath the performance, because schools differ far more in how they answer than in what they claim.

Three practical notes. Ask teachers and students, not only the admissions desk. Take the tour first and ask questions after it. And write answers down on the day — after three open houses the schools blur.

Five Questions About Art

1 · Who teaches art here, and what do they make themselves?

Listen for named teachers with their own practice. A school that invests in art can introduce the people; one that cannot will describe the facilities instead.

2 · Where does student art go after it is marked?

Listen for exhibitions, corridor walls and competition entries. Work that goes straight into a drawer tells you how the subject is valued.

3 · Can a student take art seriously without dropping the sciences?

Listen for actual subject combinations and timetable detail. 'We are very flexible' without specifics usually means the timetable decides, not the student.

4 · What does art look like in the years without exams?

Listen for a lower-secondary program with substance — briefs, mediums and outcomes — rather than art as a rest period between examined subjects.

5 · May we see the art room while students are using it?

Listen for an easy yes. Then look for storage, works in progress and honest mess. A spotless studio at an open house is staging.

Five Questions About Technology

6 · What have students built here recently — can we see one finished project?

Listen for specific projects with student names attached, not an inventory of printers and laser cutters. Equipment lists are purchases; projects are teaching.

7 · Which teams or competitions has the school entered recently, and who was allowed to join?

Listen for sustained participation and an entry route for ordinary students. A single trophy team can coexist with a school where most students never touch a robot.

8 · How does a complete beginner get into robotics or coding here?

Listen for a pathway — trial periods, training squads and open clubs. If the answer is 'selection tests', the program serves the already-skilled.

9 · How old is the equipment and who maintains it?

Listen for students involved in maintenance, which is itself an education, and for an unembarrassed answer about ageing kit. Honesty here predicts honesty elsewhere.

10 · How is AI used in classwork, and what are the rules?

Listen for a considered policy that separates learning from outsourcing. Both 'banned entirely' and 'no rules yet' are warning signs, in different directions.

Five Questions About Academic Balance

11 · What does a normal week look like for a Secondary Two student?

Listen for concrete detail — homework hours, CCA afternoons and travel time. A school that tracks student load can describe it; vagueness means nobody is measuring.

12 · What happens, step by step, when a student falls behind?

Listen for a named process: who notices, who is told and what changes. 'Our teachers are very caring' is a sentiment, not a system.

13 · When do subject choices lock in, and what does changing course cost?

Listen for the calendar and the exceptions. The honest answer usually includes a student who switched late and what that took.

14 · How do you protect time for interests that are never examined?

Listen for scheduling specifics — protected CCA hours, studio access and whether clubs keep running during exam season. Culture shows in what survives the timetable squeeze.

15 · What do you expect from parents academically?

Listen for partnership with boundaries. A school that quietly outsources teaching to tuition and the home will say so between the lines.

Five Questions About Culture

16 · What kind of student struggles here?

Listen for an honest answer. Every school suits someone less well, and staff who can name who that is have thought about their own culture. Refusal to answer is the answer.

17 · How are conflicts between students handled?

Listen for a process — who is informed, what happens first and how parents hear about it. 'We rarely have problems' describes what gets reported, not what happens.

18 · What do students do at lunch?

Listen carefully — this small question opens an honest window. Open music rooms, busy clubs, students sprawled in corridors or silence and supervision: each is a portrait of daily life.

19 · How long do teachers tend to stay?

Listen for whether the answer comes easily. Comfortable schools talk about long-serving staff by name; high-turnover schools change the subject.

20 · Can we speak with current students without a teacher beside them?

Listen for confidence. Schools proud of their culture let students speak unsupervised. Chaperoned answers are still answers, just quieter ones.

Reading the Answers Afterwards

No school answers all twenty impressively, and a school that did would be performing too. Look at the pattern instead. Specifics over sentiment. Ease with imperfection over rehearsed perfection. Staff who enjoy the questions over staff who manage them.

• Ask the same five priority questions at every school you visit, so answers compare cleanly
• Weight the culture answers heaviest — academics are published, culture is not
• Trust your child's read of the students they met; they are sampling their future classmates
• If a shortlisted school offers a normal-day visit, take it — open houses show the ceiling, ordinary Tuesdays show the floor