To get a child or teen into private school in The Sims 2, call the Headmaster from any phone using the “Invite Headmaster” option, then earn at least 90 points during his evening visit by giving him a house tour, serving him dinner and schmoozing with him. The option only appears once a child or teen in the household has a grade of C or better, and the whole scenario is base-game content, so it works identically in the Legacy Collection and the older Ultimate Collection. Below we cover the setup, how each of the three scoring categories is calculated, the bonus points most players miss, and the conditions that make the Headmaster reject everyone regardless of score.
Before you call
The “Invite Headmaster” option lives on the phone (a cell phone works too) and appears only when at least one child or teen in the house currently holds a C grade or higher. Have that Sim, or any older Sim, make the call. The Headmaster arrives at 5:00 PM the same day, and the six-hour scenario clock starts when a household member greets him, not when he pulls up.
Three preparation steps matter more than anything you do during the visit:
- Save just before calling. Long-running player documentation describes the scenario as one of the game’s glitchier events; a save lets you reload and retry the same evening rather than waiting a day.
- Check the grade after school, then call. If a child’s grade slips below C between the call and the visit, the Headmaster rejects them anyway.
- Clear the driveway and unlock the doors. If his car door is blocked by the mailbox or trash can he simply leaves, and if he is locked out or left ungreeted for around 40 minutes he departs and rejects the children outright.
Start cooking before 5:00 PM. A Sim with high Cooking skill should have a group meal ready to serve the moment he walks in, or cook it earlier and keep it in their inventory.
How the 90 points break down
The scenario tracks three scores plus bonuses, and the visit ends the instant the combined total passes 90, even with hours left. Player documentation puts the maximum at 136.
Tour (up to 40 points). Click the Headmaster and choose “Entertain…” then “Give Tour”. Walk him into each room, including the yard, and use “Show Room” on him once he is inside. He rates each room on his Environment motive at that moment: roughly 15 points for a room he loves, 10 for a good one, 6 for a neutral one and a single point for a room that scores negative. Expensive furniture, paintings, plants and rugs raise the score; unpaid bills, dirty or broken objects, weeds, unpainted walls and rooms with no roof drag it down. The tour ends automatically at 40 points or when you pick “End Tour”.
Dinner. Once the meal is served, click the Headmaster and choose “Entertain…” then “Call for Dinner”. Do not use “Call to Dinner” on the plate itself: that does not count as part of the scenario and earns almost nothing. The food score is based on how much Hunger the meal restores, so complex, high-skill dishes (pork chops, lobster thermidor, baked Alaska) outscore easy ones, and community testing consistently ranks chef salad as the worst choice on the menu. With Seasons installed, which the Legacy Collection includes, home-grown produce in the dish doubles the food score.
Schmooze (up to 60 points). Click the Headmaster and choose “Schmooze…” then a topic: School is always available, and Work, Money and Politics unlock as the relationship grows. Success is partly random and partly tied to the Sim’s interest in that topic, which is why children and teens, who tend to have high School interest, are often the best schmoozers in the house. Any relationship-building talk, including chatting over dinner, feeds this score, but a single Sim’s contribution is capped, so rotate family members.
The bonus points most players miss
Getting the Headmaster to do any of the following once adds 10 points each: drink a cup of coffee or espresso, take a drink from a bar, or get into a hot tub. Coffee is the easiest, so a cheap coffee maker on the counter is worth its price. The hot tub is the riskiest because he can be hard to get back out of it, and he needs to be out to keep scoring elsewhere.
Watch his needs. Unlike most NPCs, the Headmaster’s motives decay like a normal Sim’s, and the game warns you when he gets hungry or bored. If either drops too low he ends the visit and rejects everyone even if you have already passed 90.
After the visit
Once the score passes 90 he shakes hands and leaves, and every child and teen in the household who meets the grade requirement is accepted, whether or not they applied. The next weekday they change into a uniform and board the usual school bus. Private school costs nothing per day, despite the Simoleon icon. Its benefits: a school day drains needs less, performance rewards are skill points rather than pocket money, and teens in private school start teen and adult careers at level 2 instead of level 1 (see how to get a job in The Sims 2 for how much of a head start that is).
Two caveats. Toddlers who age up after the visit, and children born or moved in later, are not covered and need a fresh Headmaster visit with the full 90 points again. And if the timer runs out short of 90, you can call again the next day; there are several Headmasters per neighborhood with different interests, so a second attempt may go better with a different one.
If the scenario glitches out (the Headmaster vanishing mid-visit is a known symptom with some mods), our guide on how to reset a Sim covers the Force Error tool, and the Sims guides hub has the rest of the cluster, including how to go to university once those private-school teens graduate.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why is “Invite Headmaster” missing from the phone? No child or teen in the household has a C grade or better yet. Get their grade up through homework and attendance and the option appears.
How many points do I need? At least 90 out of a possible 136, per long-standing player documentation. The visit ends automatically as soon as you cross 90.
Does private school cost money? No. Enrolment and attendance are free; the only real costs are the furniture and food you buy to impress the Headmaster.
Do all my children get in at once? Yes, every child and teen who meets the grade requirement at the time of the visit. Sims who join or age up afterwards need their own visit.
Does this work the same in the Legacy Collection? Yes. The Headmaster scenario is base-game content and none of the 2025 Legacy patches changed it. The only Legacy-specific difference is that Seasons is always installed, so home-grown produce doubles the dinner score by default.