How to Visit an International School  (Parent's Checklist)

Visiting an international school in person still tells you more than any website, prospectus or virtual tour ever will. You'll see how a teacher greets a child who's clearly having a rough morning, whether the corridors feel calm or slightly frantic at the bell, and how the front desk handles a question they weren't expecting. None of that shows up in a photo gallery. Ask for a normal school day if the school will allow it, not only an open day, and go in with your questions written down rather than deciding on the spot.

Plan the visit properly

Contact the school directly to arrange a time, and ask for as much of a normal day as they'll give you, a half day is fine, a full day is better. Ask in advance for face-to-face time with the head or admissions coordinator and at least one classroom teacher, not just whoever leads the tour.

Questions the website cannot answer

Most parents arrive with curriculum and fee questions they could have answered from the school's own page, then run out of time for the things that actually matter. Read up first, including a quick primer like IB vs British curriculum if you're still choosing between systems, so your visit time goes on questions like:

• What does pastoral care actually look like, and who do we call if something goes wrong on a Tuesday afternoon?
• How many pupils in this year group joined or left mid-year last year, and why?
• What's included in the fee, and what turns up as a separate bill later, buses, uniforms, trips, exam fees?
• If my child doesn't yet speak the language of instruction, what happens in week one?

For a longer list of deeper, values-led questions to bring, doris's guide to school tour questions is worth reading before you go. This checklist focuses on what to notice once you're actually there.

What to watch for in the classroom

Ask to sit in on, or at least look in on, an ordinary lesson, not only the demo class you've been shown. Notice the balance of control: does the teacher run a tight, quiet room, or is discussion welcome? Are teaching assistants actually teaching, or just supervising? None of this is automatically right or wrong, but it tells you what a normal day will feel like for your child, which the prospectus won't. Look at what's pinned on the walls too, recent pupil work suggests a curriculum that's alive right now, while faded, months-old displays suggest otherwise.

Ask a teacher directly, not just admissions

Admissions staff are trained to sound reassuring. A classroom teacher, asked directly, tends to be more candid. Worth asking: where did you train and how long have you taught here, how much homework do you set at this age, and how do you handle a child who's falling behind or not being stretched? Staff turnover is a fair, direct question too, a school with mostly long-serving teachers usually means a more stable environment for your child.

Walk the parts of the school that aren't on the script

Ask to see the canteen and how lunch is supervised, not just the marketing photo of it, and take a look at the library and sports facilities. Watch how pupils behave between classes: do they mix across nationalities and language groups, or cluster by home language? That tells you more about how easily your child will make friends than any diversity statistic on the website.

Size is a trade-off worth naming for yourself before you go, not after. Parents who've toured Stamford American International School (Singapore) often bring up its genuinely international mix of nationalities as the reason they chose it, alongside honest reservations about class sizes at certain grade levels. Neither point cancels the other out, that's simply what the trade-off looks like from the inside.

If your child comes with you

Don't ask them what they think while you're still on site, their answer will often be shaped by what they think you want to hear. Instead, watch their body language and listen to unprompted comments, then give it a few hours before asking open, specific questions: who did they sit near, what did they do at break. Specific questions get more honest answers than "did you like it?"

Save this before you go

• Your three non-negotiables written down (language support, class size, pastoral care, whatever matters most for your child)
• Five questions the website couldn't answer, plus two for a classroom teacher directly
• A notes app open, not just a mental list you'll trust yourself to remember
• Ten minutes blocked out after the visit to write down first impressions before they blur into the next school

What to do after the visit

Write your notes within 24 hours, while details are still sharp, and hold them against your non-negotiables list rather than your general impression of the day. If something still feels unresolved, a second visit is entirely normal, a school confident in what it offers won't mind. If you're comparing more than one, doris ai can help you check what you saw against the fees, curriculum and SEN support listed on each school's actual profile, so the comparison isn't just memory against memory a week later.

FAQ

Should I bring my child along on the school visit? For under-8s, a short visit or open day usually gives you what you need without overwhelming them. For older children, seeing the school themselves tends to matter more, both for their buy-in and for how quickly they settle in once term starts.

How many schools should we actually visit before deciding? Three or four is the sweet spot most parents land on. Beyond that, visits start blurring together and the comparison gets harder, not easier.

Is it rude to ask about fees and refund policy on a visit? No, and schools expect it. A school that goes vague or evasive on costs or deposit terms when asked directly is worth flagging as a caution sign, not a rude question on your part.

What if the school won't let us visit during term time? Ask why. Safeguarding reasons are a fair answer. But you should still get a genuine look at real classrooms somewhere in the process, not only a marketing-led tour.

doris is a free, impartial international school discovery platform designed to help parents find the right international school for their children worldwide. Every school profile includes fees, curriculum, admissions, pupil numbers and more. Parents can compare schools, contact schools directly, access expert parent guides, and connect with a community of parents around the world. Start your search at doris.

This guide was written by Aziza F, part of the doris editorial team. doris sources school data from institutions worldwide and speaks directly with parents navigating the school search process. Fee data reflects published and publicly available information for the 2026 to 2027 academic year and is reviewed annually. External sources: school open day pages, doris parent community.

Schools are listed for informational purposes only. doris does not rank or promote any school.