The short answer: the best questions for a kid to ask a private school interviewer are the ones they actually wonder. "what do kids do at lunch?" outshines every polished question about academics, because genuine curiosity can't be faked and it's one of the strongest signals there is. A kid who asks something real stands out more than a kid who answers everything perfectly. The prep isn't a list of questions. It's permission.
Why do interviewers ask if a kid has questions?
Why this question exists at all: it isn't politeness, and it isn't filler before the goodbye. A child's own question is data of the best kind. It shows what they actually care about, and it shows a mind that does something with what it meets. Curiosity is one of the four things the whole conversation is listening for, and this is the one moment built specifically to let it show.
What questions should a kid actually ask?
Curiosity beats clever, and the gap is audible. The coached questions ("what's your student-teacher ratio?", "how's your college placement?") are adult questions in a child's mouth, and they land the way the brochure answer lands on why-this-school: they signal that the real kid is somewhere behind the prep. Meanwhile "what do kids do at lunch?" is a wonderful question, because it's real, and notice what it actually asks: about friends, about daily life, about whether this place would be good to live in. That's a fit question. The child just asked it better than the adults do.
How do you prep curiosity without scripting it?
The prep is permission, not scripting. Many quiet kids assume that asking is intruding. That their job in the room is to answer and be done. Tell them directly: your questions are allowed, and wondering out loud is one of the best things you can do in there. Then collect wonder instead of assigning it: after the tour, at the kitchen table, "what did you notice that you wondered about?" Whatever comes back (the robotics room, the weird bell schedule, whether there's recess) is the question, already owned. One real question in the pocket, held as an idea rather than a sentence, is complete preparation. One I still remember from my own chair: a student who asked me, "what if I have trouble with the homework?" Honest, a little brave, and it told me something true about that kid immediately. Nobody coaches that question, which is exactly why it landed.
What if my child blanks in the moment?
If they blank in the moment, nothing is lost. "I can't think of one right now, but I really liked hearing about the robotics room" is a complete, warm answer to this question; it returns curiosity even while declining the invitation. And the noticing move works live, too: the honest question found on the spot, about something in the room, something the interviewer said, beats the remembered one every time, because spontaneous curiosity is the genuine article this whole exchange is fishing for.
What does your child's question tell you?
And the part parents forget: this question runs both directions. It's your child's one structured chance to interview the school, and what they wonder about is data for your family, too. A kid whose only question is about lunch is telling you what matters to them; a school whose answer lights your kid up is telling you something about fit. Curiosity can't be faked, which is why it's the easiest thing on this site to prep: you only have to permit it.
Jennifer Hines spent twenty years as a Dean of Admission at Noble and Greenough School. Her free guide, What They're Really Asking, decodes fifteen interview questions from the other side of the table, and shows why the quiet kid is often the one who lands them best.