What to look for when visiting a school, a parent's checklist

You'll visit two or three schools before deciding on one. Each visit lasts maybe an hour. What should you actually look at, and what can you safely ignore?

Things that matter (in order)

• How children are speaking to each other in corridors
• How teachers speak to children, friendly? brisk? warm?
• Whether washrooms are clean (the single best test of school operations)
• Whether the library is in use, or just decoration
• Whether the labs have actual equipment, not just photos of equipment
• Whether the playground/sports area has children using it
• How the front office staff respond to visitors, including you

Things that don't matter as much as you think

• Building size and grandeur (some excellent schools are in modest buildings)
• Reception lobby finish (it's for visitors, not children)
• How many laptops are in the computer lab (one per student is plenty; the brand is irrelevant)
• Whether the principal is "available" during your visit (busy schools are busy)
• Marketing collateral (every school has good photos)

Questions worth asking

• "Can I see a regular classroom in session, not just an empty room?"
• "What's the average tenure of your teachers?" (look for 5+ years)
• "How do you handle a child who is struggling in Class III maths?"
• "Can I speak to two parents whose children are currently in school?"
• "What's the school's policy on phones, lateness, and bullying?"

“You can tell more about a school in five minutes in the corridor between classes than in an hour in the principal's office.”

, A parent who visited 7 Delhi schools before choosing one

After the visit

Within 24 hours, write down three things you remember most clearly. They're usually the things that mattered. Decisions made on first impressions tend to be sound, schools rarely look better on the second visit than the first.

And finally: if your child came along, ask them what they thought. They notice things adults miss.