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If you are considering an independent school for the first time, the world of open days, entrance assessments and prospectuses can feel like arriving somewhere everyone else knows the rules to a game you have never played.
This guide is for you. Not for the family who has been sending children to prep schools for three generations, but for the parent who is approaching all of this fresh, perhaps because their child is at a state school that is not working, or because they have just done the financial maths for the first time and realised it might be possible, or because something shifted and they are now asking a question they never expected to ask.
Here are the ten things that actually matter. Not the things that look impressive on a tour. The things that tell you whether a school is right for your child.
1. Class Size - the Real Number
Not the average class size stated in the prospectus. The actual class size your child will be in. Ask specifically: 'How many pupils are typically in a GCSE group in this subject?' and 'What is the maximum class size in Year 7?'
The difference between 28 and 12 is not incremental — it changes the entire nature of teaching. In a class of 12, a child who is confused gets found and helped within minutes. In a class of 28, the same child can spend three weeks confused before anyone notices. The question is worth asking directly and specifically.
2. The Pastoral Architecture
Every school will tell you pastoral care is excellent. What you want to understand is the structure behind that claim.
Ask: Who is my child's first point of contact if something is wrong? How does information flow from that person to the relevant people? Does every child have a named tutor, and how often does that tutor make individual contact? Is there a counsellor, and is that person full-time or visiting?
The school with a genuine pastoral architecture can answer all of these questions quickly and specifically. The school where 'pastoral care' is more aspiration than system will be vaguer.
3. Staff Retention
Ask how long teachers have been at the school on average. Ask whether the school recruits from within, whether teaching assistants become teachers, whether junior staff progress.
High staff turnover is a warning sign. It means children are frequently losing the adults who know them, and it often reflects a culture problem that eventually affects pupils too. A school where teachers stay for five, ten, fifteen years is one where people are happy and happy teachers do better work.
4. What Happens at the Bottom of the Academic Range
Every school is brilliant for its highest achievers. Ask about the middle and the bottom.
What does the school do for a child who is performing below expectations? How quickly is that identified? Is there in-house learning support or is it referred out? What does 'learning support' actually mean in practice and is there an additional cost?
This matters even if your child is not currently struggling, because children's needs change. A school with a strong support structure will be better placed to help your child if they hit a difficult period.
5. What the Child Does Between 4pm and 8pm
The academic day is one part of the story. The co-curricular programme, activities, sport, music, drama, clubs, Duke of Edinburgh, community involvement, is where a lot of the formation actually happens.
Ask for the full list of what is available. Then ask which of those activities are free within the fees and which incur additional costs. And ask, honestly, how many pupils actually participate. A school that lists forty clubs but where most children leave at 4pm is not the same as one where the after-school programme is genuinely embedded.
6. The Exam Track Record - Read Carefully
Look at results, but ask questions that make the results meaningful.
Value-added data, how much progress pupils make relative to their starting point, is more useful than headline results. A school that achieves B grades with children who started as C-grade students is doing something genuinely valuable. A school achieving A grades because it exclusively admits A-grade students is not.
Ask what percentage of the cohort achieved their predicted grades. Ask what the destinations were, what universities, what courses, what apprenticeships. And if you have a specific ambition in mind (medicine, competitive sport, music conservatoire), ask how recently the school has supported someone on that path.
7. SEN and Additional Needs
Even if your child has no identified additional needs today, ask about the school's approach to SEN support.
How does the school identify needs that emerge mid-career? What is the relationship between teaching staff and the SENCO? Are exam access arrangements managed proactively, and who oversees that process?
Again, this matters for every family, because young people's needs change, and you want a school that will respond when they do.
8. How the School Handles Conflict and Complaint
Ask directly: 'If I had a concern about my child's experience at school, what would the process be?'
A school confident in its culture will have a clear, genuine answer. It will include named people at different stages, and it will not feel defensive. A school that becomes vague or slightly defensive at this question is telling you something worth knowing.
9. The Sixth Form
Even if your child is entering at Year 7, ask about the sixth form provision.
What subjects are offered? How many students continue through to sixth form from the lower school, and how many join from outside? What are the university destinations, and how active is the careers guidance programme? A strong sixth form means you are not facing another transition at 16.
10. What Your Child Actually Thinks
This one is not on most lists.
If it is at all possible, bring your child on the visit. Pay attention to how they respond, not to the buildings, but to the people. Do they make eye contact? Does a current pupil talk to them unprompted? Do they leave looking lighter than when they arrived?
A child who does not want to leave is telling you something no checklist can capture.
The Visit as Research
An open day is curated. The school is showing you what it wants you to see. The more useful visit is a quieter one, a weekday morning visit where you can walk through the school while it is actually operating, see a lesson, eat lunch in the dining hall, and ask unrehearsed questions.
Most good schools will offer this if you ask. The ones that do not are also telling you something.
At Leweston, we would rather you arrive with a list of hard questions than leave without the answers you need. Our admissions team will always make time for an honest conversation, we will answer all of these questions and more, and we can offer th kind of visit that tells you what you need to know.
Ready to find out more?
Call 01963 211015 or visit leweston.co.uk to book a visit or speak to the team.
Leweston School is a co-educational independent day and boarding school in Sherborne, Dorset, for pupils aged 3 months to 18, offering Nursery, Pre-Prep, Prep, Senior and Sixth Form on a single campus.