School open days are on this year, here’s what to ask campus staff

From wellbeing support and curriculum choice to what’s on the menu in the dining hall, here’s what to ask at school open days.

The Geelong College head of girls boarding Leigh Knight. Picture: Chloe Smith

SCHOOL open days may look different this year, due to COVID-safe protocols including caps on numbers.

But campus visits remain one of the best opportunities for families to decide if a school is the best fit for their child.

At The Geelong College, principal Dr Peter Miller said they were taking an “if we can, we will” approach to running open days, hoping to hold at least one a term.

Head of girls boarding Leigh Knight said parents could gain a true feel for a school by watching how students and staff interacted on campus.

“Those interactions are telling for how it will fit with their child,” she said.

For boarding families, Ms Knight said parents should draft a list of questions based on what was important to their whole family.

If the distance between school and home is a high priority, to allow a child to easily return home for weekends, ask about boarding house leave arrangements.

Or, if a student craves a breadth of opportunities, from sport and music to languages, ask about curriculum and co-curricular activities.

“It might be they have a student who needs a bit of additional help with something … so pastoral care systems might be the most important for a family,” she said.

The Geelong College also tries to put prospective families in touch with a current family that shared common experiences.

“Say it is a senior student in Year 11 coming, one of the things we will try to do is have them talk to another family that have done that same journey,” she said. “They are always very honest about the challenges or gains.”

Dr Miller said there were three main things families should take into consideration when visiting schools: physical facilities, how the school functions, and the people – teachers, staff and students – who make the place tick.

He said students were the ones who lead tours at The Geelong College open days, to give families insight into the true nature of the school.

He said the strangest question he had ever received was when one student asked if he could bring his pet snake to live in the boarding house.

Sensibly, the student was allowed goldfish instead.

“Often questions are about food,” he said, explaining those basic questions about the day-to-day routine were productive for families because they helped children envision what their life would be like on campus.

“We address all (those basic questions) and kids are positive about those things.”

Ms Knight said for boarding families, questions about meal times and food were even more crucial, and she often responded by explaining her own children ate in the boarding house three or four nights a week.

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