Questions for a school or class reunion: memories to share with old classmates

Short answer: Ask about the things everyone shared: the classroom, the teachers, the school trips, the friendships and what happened after the last day. Pick a few questions, ask them in small groups with an old class photo on the table, and record the stories with permission.

Last updated: 3 November 2026.

A school or class reunion brings back people who once saw each other every day and then lost touch for ten, twenty or forty years. Everyone remembers a different version of the same years: one person remembers the teacher, another the bike shed, a third the trip that went wrong.

The questions below help those versions come out. They are grouped from the school years to the years since, and they work for a big reunion, a small table of old classmates or a group of friends from the same street or club.

How to ask

• Bring an old class photo. Ask who is who and where everyone sat. Names come back in conversation that nobody remembers alone.
• Ask in small groups. Three or four people around one question works better than a speech in front of everyone.
• Start with shared memories, not careers. What everyone lived through together is easier to talk about than what came after.
• Leave room for those who are not there. Someone will mention a classmate who died or could not come. Let that moment be, and ask what people remember of them.
• Write names on the back of the card. Pass around a card where people write who they are and one memory. It becomes the guest book of the evening.

The school and the classroom

1. What do you remember of your first day at this school?
2. Where did you sit in the classroom, and who sat next to you?
3. What did the school look like then, and what has changed?
4. How did you get to school every day, and who did you travel with?
5. What did you eat at lunch, and where did you eat it?
6. Which smell or sound still brings you back to those corridors?
7. What were the rules everyone tried to break?

Teachers

1. Which teacher do you still think of, and why?
2. Which teacher was everyone a little afraid of?
3. Is there one sentence a teacher said that you never forgot?
4. Which subject did you love, and which one did you dread?
5. Did a teacher change the direction of your life?
6. What nickname did you have for the teachers?

Friends, jokes and trips

1. Who was your best friend in this class, and how did that start?
2. Which joke or prank does everyone still talk about?
3. What do you remember of the school trips or the class outing?
4. Was there a party, a play or a sports day that you still remember?
5. Which music did everyone listen to in those years?
6. Was there a moment when the whole class stood together?
7. What was the most trouble you ever got into at school?

The last day and after

1. What did you do on the last day of school?
2. What did you think you would become, and what did you become?
3. Who did you stay in touch with, and who did you lose sight of?
4. What did these school years give you that you still use?
5. Which classmate would you like to thank for something?
6. Who do you miss tonight, and what do you remember about them?

Looking back together

1. If you could tell your younger self one thing on the first day, what would it be?
2. What surprised you most tonight about someone here?
3. Which memory from these years would you like your children or friends to know?
4. Shall we meet again, and who will organise it?
5. What would you put in a photo of this class now?
6. Which story from tonight should we write down before we forget it?

Recording and keeping the answers

• Ask first. Say why you would like to record: so the stories are not lost, and so others can hear them later. If someone prefers not to be recorded, write down a few words afterwards instead.
• Use the voice recorder on your phone and put the phone on the table, not in your hand. After a few minutes people forget it is there. A voice says more than a perfect transcript.
• Write down the basics the same day: who answered, the date, the place and the names that came up. Without names and a date, a recording is hard to place ten years from now.
• Photograph the photos and objects that were passed around, and keep them with the recording.
• Keep two copies in two places, and send them to the people who were there.

A place for the answers

If you want one place for the answers, The Memory Palace is made for this: your own 3D palace with rooms you walk through, where photos, voice recordings, videos and written stories hang side by side. You can make a room for this reunion, write the questions and answers in it as stories, and hang the recordings next to the photos they are about. With a collect link, relatives or friends can add a photo, a memory or a voice recording from their browser, without an account. A palace is private by default and you choose who gets in. It is made by a small team in Leuven, and you can start one for free.

Questions for other occasions

• St Nicholas and Sinterklaas
• Christmas dinner with grandparents
• New Year's Eve with friends
• A 70th, 80th or 90th birthday
• Your parents' wedding anniversary
• Mother's Day
• Father's Day
• A funeral or condolence visit
• Grandparents meeting the new baby
• A road trip or holiday with old friends
• A retirement farewell

Read on: how to collect photos for a school reunion, where to keep memories with friends privately, questions for a road trip with old friends, the free printable sheet of twenty questions to ask your parents.