Our two secondary aged children will be joining us here in Hong Kong and we are about to begin the process of choosing an international school for them. We are flexible about where we live and have had happy experiences of different national education systems. We are not asking you to recommend any particular school but would like advice on what criteria we should use when making our decision. Teacher Adam Conway replies: You are beginning the process in good time: many international schools' places fill up well in advance. I'm sure you have already considered fees - the cost does vary significantly between schools - and you say that you don't require your children to follow a specific country's curriculum, so the choice is broad - which is both a bonus and a challenge. The headmaster of the first school I visited, starting out on my teaching career, advised me to look at its less glamorous, nitty-gritty facilities - not necessarily its most obvious features. I strongly recommend that you arrange visits to any schools you are seriously considering applying to. And go as a family. This will be a joint decision, perhaps even led by your children. How a school reacts to your request for a visit will tell you quite a bit. You cannot expect to walk in unannounced, and a popular, busy school needs to manage visits by prospective parents. So you will have to be flexible about a visit but you should certainly be made to feel welcome at every stage. It is likely that you will be taken on a tour of the school, which may reveal a great deal. You should be given access to a senior member of staff responsible for admissions but students can be the best people to guide you around the site. It says a lot about a school if it trusts its students to take on this role as ambassadors; it will also impress you if they make an excellent job of it. Apart from making sure you look behind the scenes, you will definitely be taken to the showpiece resources that present the school favourably. However, try to notice details such as student behaviour and interaction with staff. Also, are any classroom doors open? Many will, quite rightly, not be but there should be some lessons where staff feel able to allow that openness. You will also need an interview with a senior staff member, during which you can learn more about that school's ethos. Ask frank questions as to what the school can offer your children, its successes and areas it is seeking to improve. Above all, if you have concerns, voice these and carefully note the response - it should reassure you. Perhaps the best measure of a school is how it reacts to and deals with problems when things go wrong. If your children are intending to go on to higher education, you will need to take account of which country they are likely to study in. This, in turn, will need careful checking with the school, in case its curriculum makes it easier, or harder, for students to gain entry to college in the country you are considering. Although a school visit is invaluable, your decision may well also be shaped by various documents the school produces. Recent exam results will clearly be significant but be aware that no school is going to publish or present results in a way that reflects badly on itself. Nevertheless, you can make judgments and comparisons between schools and between subjects within a school, especially over a number of years. Brochures will include a mission statement or set of values that indicate the school's ethos, but these may all look very similar: every school wants to stress academic success alongside a broader aim of developing the best personal qualities in its students. Look for details that help shape your judgment but don't go by just one item; try to get a balanced range of insights that give you an overall view of a school's strengths and weaknesses. There are many excellent international schools in Hong Kong but each one has its own individual, often-changing character and atmosphere.