What to look for on a tour, including at the schools that are not us

You are probably visiting three schools. You will be shown around all three by someone who wants you to choose theirs. That person may be the head, a deputy, a parent ambassador, or a confident year-six child. Whatever the arrangement, the tour has been designed. The route has been chosen. The timing is not an accident. Knowing that is not a reason to be cynical; it is a reason to look at things the tour was not designed to show you.

Ignore the display boards

Every school has display boards. Every school puts its best work on them before an open day. The lettering will be neat, the borders will be colour-coordinated, and the work pinned up will have been selected. None of that tells you what a typical Tuesday looks like. Display boards are the school equivalent of tidying the house before guests arrive. Notice them if you like, but do not weight them.

Listen to the corridor at half past eleven

Mid-morning on a school day is when you hear the building as it actually is. Not silent — silence in a primary school usually means anxiety — but purposeful. You are listening for the difference between productive noise and something less settled. Can you hear children talking about their work? Is there a low hum of concentration in classrooms, with doors open? Or is there a brittle edge to the noise, a quality of people managing rather than teaching? You will know the difference when you hear it, because you heard it in your own classroom years ago and in every workplace since.

Ask to see a Tuesday, not an open day

Open days are set pieces. If the school you are visiting will not let you come back for an ordinary morning — no notice, no preparation — that is worth knowing. Most good schools are relaxed about this, because an ordinary Tuesday is something they are not embarrassed by. When you visit on a normal day, notice what the children are actually doing. Are they working, or waiting? Is the teacher talking at length while thirty children sit very still? Stillness is not the same as learning.

Ask what happens when a child is struggling

This is the most useful question you can ask, and it is one most parents do not think to ask until after something has gone wrong. The question has two parts: what happens when a child is struggling academically, and what happens when a child is struggling socially or emotionally. A good answer to the first part will mention specific adults by name or role, describe how the school identifies difficulty early, and explain what intervention looks like in practice. A poor answer will be vague about provision and heavy on aspiration.

The answer to the second part matters at least as much. Ask who telephones you, and how quickly. Ask what the school does on the day a child comes home upset, not the week after. Ask how the school handles the situation where your child is the one who has behaved badly, not only the one who has been on the receiving end. The answers will tell you a great deal about whether the adults in the building see pastoral care as a system or as a genuine priority.

Watch whether adults crouch down

This sounds small. It is not. When a member of staff speaks to a young child, do they bend or crouch to the child's eye level, or do they address the top of the child's head from standing height? The physical habit is an outward sign of something that either runs through a school's culture or does not. It is not a gesture that can be rehearsed for a tour without it looking odd. You will see it happen naturally, or you will not see it at all.

Look at the same thing in the other direction. When a child wants to say something to an adult, do they approach confidently? Do they wait at a reasonable distance and then speak, or do they hover and shrink? Children who are used to being heard behave differently from children who are not.

A few other things worth noting

• The condition of the toilets. Not glamorous, but schools that look after the unglamorous parts tend to look after the rest.
• Whether the head knows children by name as they walk past. Heads of large schools cannot know every child, but they should know many.
• How the school talks about children who find things difficult. If the language is careful and specific, that is a good sign. If it is euphemistic or defensive, notice that too.
• What the head says when you ask about something the school does not do well yet. Certainty about perfection is not credible. Thoughtfulness about improvement is.

One last thing

Everything written above applies to every school on your list, including this one. We would rather you chose a different school having asked these questions than chose us without asking them. A child placed in the wrong school for the wrong reasons is not a good outcome for anyone. Visit all three. Ask the same questions at each. See who answers them without flinching.

The best thing a school can do on a tour is let you see it clearly. The best thing you can do is look.