As you begin thinking about your child’s school list for fall application, we can recommend no better starting point than a spring tour. Most schools begin opening up online registration for prospective families to tour in early March, so mark your calendars to check in!   

Touring a school is essential for making informed decisions about educational options for your child. It offers you firsthand experience of a school’s environment, culture, staff, and facilities. A visit also allows you to better grasp the ethos of a school — its philosophies, practices, and teaching styles — and gauge whether it aligns with your values and expectations. 

Experiencing a school’s “halls and walls” in person offers invaluable insights into daily life. The visceral experience of exploring a school's physicality, including its ever-important hallways full of life, conversation, and camaraderie as students pass one another throughout the day, can help you better imagine your child’s comfort level in doing the same. Visiting classrooms in action is an invitation to picture your child interacting with peers and teachers in similar ways and helps you answer the question, “Is this school a good fit for my child?” Taking a close look at the featured student work on a school’s walls speaks volumes about what kinds of learning experiences a school deems valuable. Do you see work that reflects deep thinking? Honors collaboration? Sparks curiosity? Invites questions and exploration? Can you imagine your learner thriving in this environment? Or does it feel off to you — perhaps a good fit for some, but not for your own child? What does your gut tell you?

If your child is very young, as a parent you fill dual roles; you are both advocate and interpreter in your search for right-fit schools. When you tour potential schools, keep in mind the kind of learner you see your child to be through your own eyes, as well as those of trusted teachers and family members, who may see different aspects of your child. Ask yourself, “What sparks my child?” Do they gravitate toward structured activities or more open-ended, creative ventures? Is your child, for example, one to dive into a bin of mixed Lego pieces and spontaneously build, or are they more comfortable with the clear goals and delineated process of building a specific object? Does your child gravitate toward independent activities, such as reading a book, or more social ventures like playing family in a pretend kitchen? Is there room for both types of learning opportunities in the schools you tour? Can you imagine your child participating in the discussions you witness in the classrooms you visit? Ask yourself, “Can I see my child in this classroom, can I hear their voice here, can I imagine them succeeding and blooming here?” at each school.  

If your child is of middle-school age or older, remember to involve them in the school search as much as possible to encourage their own investment and ownership of the process. Ask them to self-reflect about what type of learner they think they are and what things are most important to them in a school environment. Encourage them to research the course and extracurricular offerings of each school they will apply to before visiting, and identify those that resonate strongly with them.   

Regardless of your child’s age, touring a school not only opens your eyes to the physicality of the educational environment, its facilities, academic offerings, special programs, and faculty, it also yields invaluable insights into a school’s “feel” — its community, its culture, its values, and its philosophies at work. 

Stay tuned next week for some reminders about school tour do’s and don’ts!

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