Schoolect

Parent guide

21 School Open Day Questions NSW Parents Forget to Ask

The questions a tour will not answer on its own, each tied to a fact you can verify before and after the visit.

SchoolectPublished 5 July 2026Updated 5 July 2026
Students sitting on the grass in a school courtyard
Photo by Dominic Kurniawan Suryaputra on Unsplash

Open days are a sales pitch. A good school runs an honest one, but every tour shows you the best classrooms, the most confident students, and the newest building. The useful information sits in the questions the tour does not answer on its own.

Here are 21 questions worth asking, each tied to something you can verify, plus what to check before you arrive and after you leave.

Before you go: 3 checks that change your questions

First, look the school up on My School. ACARA publishes school-level data for every school in Australia: NAPLAN results and progress, student attendance, enrolment numbers, finances, and Year 12 outcomes. Ten minutes there turns "how are your results?" into "your attendance rate moved, what happened?"

Second, know your enrolment position. If it is a public school and you are in the catchment, your child has a guaranteed place and your questions are about fit, not entry. Out-of-area, you are asking about criteria and availability.

Third, check the calendar. Year 7 expressions of interest for 2027 entry were due by 27 March 2026, and Catholic systemic schools in Sydney take Year 7 applications while your child is in Year 5. If the open day is after the deadline that matters, ask about late options straight away.

Learning and the classroom (questions 1 to 6)

  1. How do you run the phone ban day to day? Phones have been banned in NSW public high schools since Term 4 2023, during class, recess, and lunch, but each school picks its own method: pouches, lockers, or collection. The answer tells you how the school handles any rule.
  2. What changed since the ban? A department survey of nearly 1,000 principals in October 2024 found 87% saw fewer classroom distractions and 86% saw better socialisation. Ask what this school noticed.
  3. How do you group students in Years 7 and 8? Streaming, mixed ability, or something else, and how a child moves between groups.
  4. What does learning support actually look like? Not whether it exists. How a child gets it, who decides, and how parents hear about progress.
  5. Which subjects run in Years 11 and 12 this year? A subject listed on the website is not a subject that runs. Ask what happens when only 6 students pick a course.
  6. How do teachers tell you when something goes wrong? The honest version of the communication question.

The students you do not meet (questions 7 to 11)

  1. Can we speak with students who are not on tour duty? The rehearsed student tells you the school trains presenters. The Year 9 student in the corridor tells you the culture.
  2. What does an ordinary Tuesday timetable look like for Year 7? Bell times, class lengths, movement between buildings.
  3. How does the school handle the child who is struggling socially? Ask for the process, not the philosophy.
  4. What happens at lunchtime for a child who has not found a group yet? Clubs, libraries, structured options, and who watches for it.
  5. How many students leave after Year 10, and why? The answer (and how comfortably it is given) says a lot. You can sanity-check enrolment numbers by year level on My School.

Money and admin (questions 12 to 16)

  1. What does a full year actually cost? Public school tuition is free (fees were abolished by 1925) and voluntary contributions, around since 1995, are optional. Every sector adds uniforms, devices, camps, and activities. Ask for the real annual figure for your child's year.
  2. If fees apply, what is included and what is extra? For context, the median fee across NSW independent schools is under $6,500 a year, so ask how this school's fee compares and what it covers.
  3. What device does my child need and who pays?
  4. How do payment plans or hardship arrangements work? Easier to ask at an open day than mid-year.
  5. What are the uniform rules that generate letters home? Shoes, sport days, seasonal changes. Small, but it is your Monday morning.

Places, timing, and what happens next (questions 17 to 21)

  1. Is the year group we need open, full, or waitlisted? Direct question, ask it directly.
  2. If we are out-of-area, which criteria matter here? NSW guidance lists siblings, additional needs, medical reasons, and special interests, and no out-of-area place is guaranteed. Ask how this school weighs them.
  3. What are this cycle's exact dates? The public EOI takes up to 3 preferences and the enrolment form follows in Term 2 or 3. Catholic and independent schools set their own closing dates. Get them in writing.
  4. What does orientation look like? Most high schools run transition days in Term 4. Ask how many, and what a nervous Year 6 child gets.
  5. Who do we contact after today, by name? The quality of the follow-up contact usually matches the quality of future communication.

After the open day

Do the debrief within 48 hours, while the details are fresh.

Check the answers you were given against My School's published data, your notes from other tours, and the enrolment dates you collected. Then cut the list. A shortlist of 2 or 3 schools you can genuinely compare beats 6 tours that blur together.

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