10 questions every parent should ask at a school open day (and why most don't)
Most parents leave school open days with the same feeling: impressed. The campus looks beautiful. The students giving the tours are articulate and confident. The principal's address was polished and warm.
What they leave without is the information they actually need.
Open days are a school's best day. Every element is curated. The tours are led by the school's most engaging student ambassadors. The displays showcase the year's peak achievements. The staff you meet have been briefed to be welcoming.
None of this is dishonest — it is just marketing. Your job as a parent is to look past the presentation and find out what the school is actually like on a normal Tuesday in Term 2.
These questions help you do that.
1. What happens when a student is struggling academically and doesn't ask for help?
This is the most useful question you can ask, and most parents never ask it.
Every school has support structures for struggling students. What you want to know is whether those structures are reactive (the student must identify themselves as struggling and seek help) or proactive (the school identifies the student before they fall behind and reaches out first).
A proactive system requires teachers who know their students well enough to notice, and pastoral structures with enough bandwidth to act. What you're listening for: specific programs, named systems, and evidence that the school has thought carefully about students who don't self-advocate.
What you don't want to hear: "Our teachers have open-door policies" or "Students are encouraged to seek help." These are passive systems.
2. What has changed at this school in the last three years?
Leadership change, curriculum reform, new programs, changes in culture — these are the signals of a school in motion. A school that has been under the same leadership for eight years with no significant changes may be stable or may be stagnant. A school that has had three principals in five years is worth understanding further.
The answer also tells you whether the school is self-reflective and honest about its evolution. A registrar or principal who can articulate what the school has changed, why, and what it is still working on is a more trustworthy indicator of institutional health than one who presents only a perfect status quo.
3. How does the school handle conflict between students?
Social conflict — friendship breakdowns, exclusion, bullying — is a near-universal experience of adolescence. What matters is not whether it happens (it will) but how the school responds when it does.
Ask specifically: "Can you describe how the school would typically handle a situation where a group of students is excluding another student from their social group?" A specific, procedural answer — who the student would go to first, what happens from there, what the resolution process looks like — indicates a school with thought-through systems. A vague answer about "taking these things seriously" and "not tolerating bullying" tells you almost nothing.
4. What does a typical week look like for a student who is good but not exceptional?
Every school has its elite tier — the students who excel academically, win the competitions, captain the teams, and feature prominently in the marketing. What you want to understand is what the experience looks like for a student who is good but not exceptional.
Does that student get stretched? Do they get noticed? Does the pastoral system see them? Or are the school's energy and attention concentrated on the top performers and the students in difficulty, leaving the capable-but-not-remarkable middle somewhat invisible?
This is a question worth asking specifically about the year level your child will be entering.
5. How many counsellors and wellbeing staff does the school have, and what is the caseload?
Mental health and wellbeing support in Australian schools is stretched. The Australian Psychological Society recommends a ratio of one counsellor to every 500 students. Many schools operate at lower ratios than this.
Ask specifically: how many full-time-equivalent counsellors, psychologists, or wellbeing officers does the school employ? What is the student-to-counsellor ratio? How does a student access a counsellor — do they self-refer, or can teachers refer?
A school that can answer this question specifically, with good ratios and a clear access pathway, is a school that takes wellbeing seriously. One that struggles to answer, or deflects to the pastoral house system, may not have adequate professional support.
6. What is the school's philosophy on academic pressure?
Academic intensity varies enormously across Brisbane's private schools, and it is one of the most important environmental variables for your child. A school whose culture treats academic competition as motivating and healthy will feel very different to one that emphasises individual growth over comparison.
Ask: "How would you describe the academic culture for students in Years 9 and 10?" and "How does the school approach the wellbeing of students who are experiencing significant academic pressure?"
The answers will tell you where the school genuinely sits on this spectrum — not where its marketing positions it.
7. What happens to students who change their mind about subject choices?
This is a practical question with significant implications for your child's senior school experience. Subject selection happens formally at the end of Year 10, but the patterns and peer group dynamics around subjects often solidify earlier.
What you want to know: how flexible is the school when a student realises in Year 11 that they have chosen the wrong subjects? What are the switching pathways? What support exists for a student managing that transition? The answer reveals how student-centred the school's approach to senior schooling really is.
8. Can you describe a student who didn't thrive here, and why?
This question will surprise most admissions staff, and the reaction is itself informative.
A school with genuine self-awareness can describe the type of student who doesn't do well in their environment — and articulate why. A school that cannot, or responds defensively, is either lacking in self-awareness or unwilling to be honest with you.
You are not trying to expose problems. You are trying to understand whether your child fits the environment. Every school has a type of student who struggles there, and knowing what that type looks like is important information.
9. What do parents most commonly misunderstand about this school?
This is an inversion of question 8, and it often produces revealing answers. It gives the school permission to correct misconceptions — which means they will tell you what assumptions families bring in that turn out to be wrong.
Common answers: "Parents assume we are more academically competitive than we actually are" or "Families sometimes expect the school to be more faith-focused than it is" or "Parents underestimate how much pastoral care is built into the daily program." Each of these tells you something real.
10. What are you most working to improve?
The best-run institutions in any field know what they are not yet good at. A school leader who can answer this question honestly and specifically — "Our Year 8 transition program is something we're actively redesigning" or "We have identified that our boys in Years 9 and 10 are underserved by the current pastoral model and we're addressing that" — is a school with the self-awareness and the culture of continuous improvement that good institutions have.
A school that deflects this question, or answers it only with minor cosmetic improvements ("we are redoing the Year 10 common room"), is a school that either doesn't know what it needs to improve or doesn't want to tell you.
A note on how to ask these questions
Not all of these are appropriate for the main open day presentation. The principal's address and the group tour are not the right contexts for probing questions that may put staff on the defensive.
The right moment is the end of the open day, in the one-on-one conversation with a registrar, head of year, or senior staff member. Come with two or three of these questions written down. Be genuinely curious rather than adversarial. The best conversations happen when a parent is clearly engaged and serious — schools respond to that with honesty.
The answers to these questions, alongside everything else you observe on the day, will give you a far clearer picture of whether a school is the right fit for your child than any number of glossy brochures.