Safety is the one area where you should be politely relentless. A good school will answer everything below without flinching; discomfort with these questions is itself an answer.
CCTV
- Coverage: Are cameras in every classroom, the play area, corridors and the gate? Bathrooms should NOT have cameras, but the corridor outside should.
- Access: Can parents view live feeds through an app, or view footage on request? Live-feed apps are common now at mid-range and premium schools. If neither is offered, ask how an incident would be reviewed.
- Retention: How many days of footage are stored? 15 to 30 days is reasonable; "the camera is not recording right now" is not.
People
- Verification: Are police verification and background checks done for ALL staff, including helpers, cooks, van drivers and attendants, not just teachers?
- Gate policy: Who can take your child home? The standard answer is photo ID cards issued to named adults, with written authorisation required for anyone else. Test it: a school that hands a child to "the uncle who came today" fails.
- Male staff policy and washroom protocol: who accompanies children to the toilet, and is the door policy sensible?
Premises
- Child-height washbasins and toilets, covered electrical sockets, gates on staircases, soft flooring or fall zones under climbing equipment, and secured or barred windows above the ground floor.
- Fire readiness: extinguishers in date, a mock-drill schedule, and a clear assembly point.
- Drinking water source and last tank-cleaning date. Mundane, and it matters.
Medical readiness
- Is at least one staff member first-aid and CPR trained per shift? Ask to see the certificate date.
- Which doctor or hospital is the tie-up, and how far away?
- How do they handle allergies, and where is the written allergy list kept? (The right answer: visible to every adult who serves food.)
- When is a child sent home, and what is the fever protocol?
Transport, if you will use it
GPS on vans, a female attendant on every route, first-aid kit on board, driver verification, and a no-child-left-behind end-of-route check.
The two-minute verification
Policies are words. On your visit, watch the gate at pickup time for five minutes. Is every child matched to a known adult, or is it a crowd grab? That single observation tells you more than the brochure ever will.