Questions to Ask on an International School Tour

The mindset to bring to a school tour

A school tour serves two purposes: the school is selling itself to you, and you are evaluating whether the school is right for your child. The marketing element is unavoidable. The tour will be led by a member of the admissions team, the buildings will be presented at their best, the children visible during the tour will largely be the academically engaged ones in well kept uniform. The role of the parent is to read what the tour is showing and to ask questions that go beyond the rehearsed script. The aim is not to catch the school out, it is to understand what is actually there.

Take a notebook. Bring questions in writing. Tour two or three schools within a week so memory does not blur the comparisons. Walk in with a partner or a trusted second pair of eyes; the school tour is too long and detailed to retain alone. For broader context on how to evaluate the visit overall, see our piece on red flags on a school visit.

Questions on academic outcomes

Headline statistics are useful but limited. Strong questions probe behind them. Ask: what are the average and median IGCSE, IB, A Level or AP results for the last three years, broken down by subject. Ask which subjects have the strongest results and which the weakest. Ask the proportion of leavers who get into their first choice university over the last three years (this is more meaningful than the proportion who get into any university). Ask whether the school operates value added scoring (comparing entry assessments with exit results) and what the value added figure has been.

For curriculum specific questions, the framing matters. At a British curriculum school ask about A Level subject offering breadth, including whether less common subjects (Latin, Greek, Further Mathematics, Computer Science, Politics) are taught in school or outsourced. At an IB school ask about the spread of IB Diploma results, the proportion taking three higher level subjects against four, and the proportion of leavers achieving 40 or more points. For background on IB Diploma scoring see our IB curriculum page.

Questions on staff stability

Faculty turnover is one of the strongest signals of a school's underlying health. A school with consistently low teacher turnover (under 10 per cent annually) is typically a well managed, well paid institution. A school with turnover of 20 per cent or more is paying poorly, managing poorly, or both. Ask the head of school directly: what was teacher turnover last year, what was it the year before, and what is the longest tenured teacher's length of service. Compare the answer against the school's tenure (a 10 year old school cannot show 20 year tenures, but it should be able to show core staff who have been there since the start).

Ask about leadership stability separately. How long has the head of school been in post. How long the deputy head, head of secondary and head of primary. Schools that have churned through three heads in five years are usually in difficulty. Ask why the previous head left and listen for vagueness or evasion. For broader context on the operational signals see red flags on a school visit.

Questions on pastoral care

Pastoral provision is harder to read on a single tour than academic provision. Ask how the school structures its pastoral support: form tutor, head of year, school counsellor, safeguarding lead. Ask the ratio of school counsellors to students; serious schools have one full time qualified counsellor per 400 to 600 students, weaker schools have one per 1,000 or more. Ask what the school does when a child is struggling academically or emotionally. The depth of the answer is the signal. A specific multi step process described with confidence is a strong sign; a vague reference to wraparound support is not.

Ask about anti bullying policy in practice, not the policy document. Specifically, how was the most recent serious bullying incident handled. The senior leader should be able to describe a recent case in non identifying terms with clear actions taken. If the answer is that the school does not have bullying, treat this as a warning sign rather than a strength. All schools have bullying. The question is how it is handled.

Questions on admissions and waitlists

Ask how many places are available in your child's year group for September entry. Ask the school's overall enrolment trend over the last three years (rising, stable, falling). A school with falling enrolment in a city where demand is broadly strong is usually losing market share for a reason. Ask the typical waitlist length for the year group your child is entering. Ask about admissions testing: what is the format, how is it scored, what is the practical pass rate.

For families joining mid year or mid term, ask how the school manages the transition. Strong schools have a structured buddy system, dedicated transition support for new arrivals, and English support for children whose first language is not English. Weak schools leave the child to manage. The detail in the answer matters.

Questions on fees and value

The published tuition figure is the start of the conversation. Ask the bursar for the full annual fee schedule including all non tuition charges, capital contributions, and optional but routine fees. Ask the average annual fee increase over the last five years and how next year's increase has been set. Ask whether the school offers sibling discounts and what the qualification criteria are. Ask whether the school operates means tested bursaries or merit scholarships, what the typical award level is, and what proportion of children are on financial assistance.

For a full walkthrough of how to interpret the fee schedule itself, see our piece on how to read an international school fee schedule. To model the true all in cost, use the fee comparison tool.

Questions on culture and community

Ask what proportion of the parent body is local versus expatriate, and what the dominant nationalities are. The mix shapes the social experience for your child and the parent community for you. Ask about the parent association: does it exist, what activities does it run, what is the engagement level. Ask whether the school encourages parental involvement (volunteering, classroom support, governance) or holds parents at arm's length. There is no single correct answer; the question is whether the culture matches your family preferences.

Ask about religious or cultural observance in the school day. International schools vary widely. Some hold a daily assembly, others do not. Some accommodate prayer times for Muslim students, others do not formally. Some celebrate Diwali, Chinese New Year and Eid as inclusive school events; others do not. The answer reveals how the school thinks about its community.

Questions on transitions and leaver outcomes

Ask where leavers have gone for the last three years, by university destination. The school should be able to provide a destination list, or at least summary categories. Ask specifically about destinations in the systems your family is most likely to use (UK, US, Canada, Australia, Netherlands, Germany, the home country). Ask whether there are dedicated university counsellors for each system and how many counsellors per student. A 1:200 ratio in senior school is strong; 1:400 is workable; 1:600 or worse means students will get less individual attention than is ideal.

Ask about transitions out of the school: how many children have left mid school in the last two years and for what reasons. Some departures are unavoidable (relocation, change of employer). A higher than expected non relocation departure rate is a signal. For the broader frame on school evaluation see our methodology page.

How to read the answers you get

The texture of the answer matters as much as the content. Specific numbers, named individuals, recent examples and confident detail signal a school that has the data and is comfortable sharing it. Vague generalisations, deflection to brochure copy, or unwillingness to share figures usually indicate either that the school does not track the relevant data or that the figures are weak. A school proud of its outcomes will share them. A school cautious about sharing has typically been burned by a comparison or by past poor data.

If a senior leader does not know the answer to a basic question (turnover, results, waitlist length) and cannot point you to a colleague who does, treat this as a signal. Strong schools are well managed and the data is readily available to senior leadership. For the integrated picture see red flags on a school visit.

Related guides

• Red flags on a school visit
• How to read an international school fee schedule
• How we rate international schools