School Open Days: What to Ask and What to Look For

Open days are choreographed. The corridors are tidy, the head is on form, and the pupils showing you round have been picked for a reason. That doesn’t make them useless — far from it — but you have to look past the polish to see what daily life is actually like.

Before You Go

Read the school’s most recent Ofsted report, the last two years of exam results, and its admissions policy. You should arrive already knowing the basic facts, so you can spend your visit asking about the things you can’t learn online.

Bring a written list of three or four questions. By the third school you visit, every tour starts to blur together — notes are the only way to remember which school answered what.

What to Look For Beyond the Tour

The corridors between lessons

If you can, visit during a transition period. Are pupils walking purposefully or hanging around? Are staff visible? Calm, brisk movement is a good sign — chaos or eerie silence are both worth noticing.

The displays on the walls

Look at the dates on pupil work. Are displays current and from a range of pupils, or is it the same six names from two years ago? Schools that celebrate a wide range of work tend to have a wider sense of who can succeed.

The toilets

Pupils will tell you, more than anything else, what the toilets are like. Are they clean? Locked at break? Vandalised? It is a remarkably reliable signal of how the school treats its pupils day-to-day.

The pupils not on duty

Tour guides are selected. The pupils sitting in classrooms or working in the library are not. Watch how they interact with each other and with staff who walk past.

Questions Worth Asking

• What is your staff turnover like? High turnover, especially in core subjects, is a warning sign that takes years to show up in results.
• How do you support pupils who are struggling? Listen for specifics — named interventions, hours per week — not vague reassurance.
• What happened to last year’s leavers? A primary head should know which secondaries their Year 6 went to. A secondary head should know university and apprenticeship destinations.
• How do you handle behaviour? Ask for the actual policy, not the philosophy. What happens after a first incident? A third?
• What was the worst week you had this year? The answer matters less than whether the head can give one. A leader who cannot name a difficult week is not paying attention.

Things to Be Sceptical Of

• Vague claims about “values” with no examples of how they affect a Tuesday afternoon
• Headline results without context — a school with selective intake should have great results; the question is progress, not attainment
• Being told the Ofsted report is “out of date” without an explanation of what has changed
• A refusal to answer questions about exclusions, off-rolling, or the proportion of pupils who didn’t finish Year 11

After the Visit

Write your impressions down within 24 hours. Score each school on the things that matter to your child — not a generic list. A child who needs creative space and a quiet environment will rank schools differently from one who thrives in a competitive academic atmosphere.

Talk to current parents at the school gate, not just on the official tour. Most are happy to give an honest five minutes if you ask.