The dos and don’ts of school tours

There are moments in life that serve as a wake-up call to adulthood. Perhaps, the first was sitting in the beige office of a mortgage broker, wondering how my soon-to-be-husband and I had made the leap from meeting on a sweaty Durham dance floor to this airless room in Holborn. More recently, it was looking around a primary school for our four-year-old-son. Mindlessly staring at wall displays of woodland animals, you’re racking your brains as to how you will finish work at 3pm for pick up come September and scramble enough childcare for a six-week summer holiday. Goodbye 52-week-a year nursery. 

But book yourself enough tours at enough schools, and you swiftly find yourself in the swing of things. There are those that can only be described as a bad Tinder date: a headmaster with a limp handshake, peeling wallpaper and sweaty lunches under plastic lids that leave you wanting to bolt after the first drink (or classroom), but you know you have three courses (a whole other wing and the forest school) to endure.