At age 11?
My daughter got in at 4 and the other to NLCS at 7 but they both had to do the 11+ test too without an interview. Amusing they both also tried the other's schools at 11 and failed to get in.
Assuming you mean 11, good luck. I wouldn't worry about it. Things matter much less than we think at the time. Daughter 2 (cleverest child in the family reading at 3 etc didn't get into her sister's school at 5, seemed such a pity at the time but NLCS was as good, probably better and it actually did the girls good to be at different schools. It was gain for the family although it seemed like a loss at the time.
If you mean academcially - just find a tutor who has got a lot of children into those schools at 11 and do a lot of practice papers. If she gets an interview I'm not sure because mine didn't have one at 11. I suppose they look for someone who will talk - hard to interview someone who is silent and crying, someone who says they have some genuine interests whether it's insects or trains, netball or gardening but probably best if it's not just pop music and TV. Do a few practice interviews.
I think the main thing is to make the child think it is of very little significance and you'd be delighted whatever shcool they get into. Avoid taking a child to an interview who is a nervous wreck and thinks the whole future happiness turns on their performance that day. It's no big deal.
I wrote this in our local free magazine earlier this year not that I'm an expert. I don't think it gives away who I am...
"More School for Thought
Heather Harris? excellent article School for Thought (Optima 15th April) about the difficulties for parents finding state schools to suit their children in Hertfordshire prompted me to write too about the independent school side of things, as a parent with some children still in the system (hence my anonymity here) and some children at university. We certainly shared her concern to get the right education for our children. Who doesn?t? Having been right through the system to university entrance with some of our children I certainly feel much less worried about things with the youngest children. I was privately educated from age four and in part I chose my career when a teenager to enable me to pay schools fees later (good forward planning there) so there was little question that we would pick private schools for the children, despite having a large family. Living in this area gives us some of the best state and private schools in the country.
Where else but Herts/Harrow/Brent would you be able to choose between Jewish, Catholic and even Muslim state schools, real live grammar schools in Bucks, schools like Watford Grammar (which is not 100% selective so the grammar name is a bit misleading), never mind at least 15 or more independents from schools like North London Collegiate (often third best in the country of all schools for raw A level results), St Paul?s and Westminster to those for the less academically able in the private sector. There are even a smattering of boarding schools like Harrow too for those who think that is not emotionally damaging. Unlike inner London, schools out this way in the state sector are not too bad. However any glance at the academic league tables shows that it is rare to see a single state school in the country in the very top placings.
We are lucky to have reasonably intelligent children who have been to Haberdasher?s, Elstree, North London Collegiate, Edgware and Merchant Taylor?s, Northwood. Is there choice is the first question? Certainly there is more choice than in the state sector. Indeed quite a few parents pay to send their children to independent preparatory schools to help their children pass for state grammars at 11+ (or use tutors as Heather?s article mentioned as indeed the Blairs did for their children who exclusively went to state schools) and then if they fail the 11+ and cannot go to the selective grammar, send them to independent schools at 11 or 13 as a fall back (if money is tight). Other parents cram into the independent sector at 11 where there can be more competition for places than at the same schools at age 5.
We simply followed my own education and started our children at 4 or 5 in the private sector. Most of the schools can see through coached children, so the important thing is to pick a school your child will be happy at. Sadly many parents have an over inflated view of how bright their child is. Good primary and preparatory schools can let down parental expectations gently when secondary education is being considered. I would not have wanted to send my children to a school where so few parents wanted to send their children there that there was no competition for places, so I am delighted it is competitive to get into the best schools with several children for each place, just like real life, just like the workplace. Learning to cope with failure and realising you may not be the bee?s knees and there actually exist people in the world cleverer than you are does not do children too much harm, particularly if they have some areas in which they can excel.
The cleverest children may well get offers from all the schools they apply to as you would expect. It is a free market. There will also be other children you almost feel a parent should pay the school to take off their hands. Such is the way of the world.
What can parents do to help their child get into the private school that suits them? First do some research. Know which schools are the most academic and which suit children who perhaps have a lower IQ and find lessons hard. Look at past papers. Visit schools. Read prospectuses. Look at logistics. The best biggest independent schools run private coach services which we found so helpful. Some have 50 coaches a day from Hampstead to Potters Bar and beyond. Each summer look at the A level league tables for private and state schools. Look at the position over 5 years (often schools have a fluke year). Look at various newspapers nationwide leagues tables for A levels, still our gold standard and what counts for university entrance. Do this well in advance, not just a year before you will pick a school. Look at your child. Are they bright? Do they need special help? Lots of private schools have very good dyslexia units for example, but you need to pick a school with that kind of assistance. Find out where children who go to the schools you prefer come from. A primary school which gears up the children to an entrance exam of a certain kind is likely to be better than one which regards private education as an insult to Marx and that encouraging bright children to pass exams for the private sector as their lowest priority.
Personally I think the most important thing you can do, particularly with little children, is read them every night a bed time story, enjoy books with them, let them see you reading, hear them read every day, encourage their spellings, practise times tables with them, give them structure, routine, good food, security, comfort, love, loads of time to be bored and at all costs avoid activities every school day. Imagination comes from boredom and playing in gardens and woods with sticks and ropes. However we certainly found learning musical instruments helped our children in lots of ways. The discipline of practising and the pleasure from the instruments was good, as was parents sitting down and helping whatever the activity might be. It is the parental interest and time that matters rather than what the activity is. All the sport our children did helped them as well and was fun. I remember years of the ?no television watching in the week rule? and the like. All these things help. Encourage them to be outgoing, have friends and be able to interact with other children. Help them to learn how to concentrate and listen. No one wants a class of 20 badly behaved children, although schools at the very young end may well choose a mix of loud and quiet children to achieve balance.
It is hard to interview a 3 or 4 year old who will not speak and has never been apart from their mother or father. Make sure they know how to hold a pencil and turn the pages of a book and perhaps can write their name or recognise it on a card. If you want to there are a few companies which help prepare children for entrance and help parents choose schools (and indeed can be engaged for consultancy advice on how to get into Oxbridge!) although more people use normal academic tutors.
Children in most decent private schools tend to be at least a year ahead of state school children in most areas of work, so if you start in the state sector you might need to help them move forward a bit for private school entrance tests at 11. Very clever children from very poor homes may get all their fees paid at some private schools if they win academic scholarships. One of our children won a music scholarship.
So for us the principle was get them in as young as we could to the schools we thought would suit them which might make competition at 11 easier, although those schools like North London Collegiate and Haberdashers with junior and infant parts do not guarantee, for obvious reasons, a place at 11. Some children get in by a fluke at 4 and clearly at 11 are in the wrong school. Such changes are however rare.
The greatest misconception I ever hear from some parents (usually not those of children at the academic schools) is that the schools push the children too hard. Parents saying this are usually just jealous their little darling failed entrance to the school concerned or did not have a cat in hell?s chance of getting in. We never found any undue pressure. The schools are full of bright children working to a similar standard and the schools play down the competition, do not display marks and treat the children as individuals. If there is pressure it tends to come from the children themselves. The school is saying take a break from revision, do your Gold Duke of Edinburgh award, be a rounded person, debate, travel, do voluntary work, obtain an education in the very broadest sense of which exams are one small part. If anything the opportunities for sport and music and other hobbies from learning Mandarin to chess club are much broader at the bigger more selective schools and often brighter children are better at their hobbies anyway as their general competence extends to all areas of their lives.
For parents with a child who is not very clever, in some ways the private system can be an even more important choice. The really academically gifted can get their 11A*s in many a reasonable state school. 94% of children in the UK go to state schools and do fine at them. The child who always follows the herd in copying the worst behaviour possible, has no personal discipline or impetus and is happy to settle to work at the average of a very low average class might be the one who would benefit from a class size of 20 or under and lots of individual attention in a private school with a huge value added score.
School is about fun and learning for learning?s sake. I love it when my children?s teachers have gone beyond the curriculum on the GCSE or A level course. I remember my brother?s school used to teach the boys university level science in the sixth form because they found the A level then too easy and they wanted a broader scope. The private sector has no obligation to follow the national curriculum or ridiculous teacher administration imposed by Government on the whole. A whole afternoon a week for sport, Saturday school in some schools, a school day to 5.45pm to allow time for hobbies and indeed sometimes to do all homework at school, all these things and more are possible in that kind of an environment.
Play the market. Why apply for one school if your child may not get in there? Sit for several just like university applications and have a back up, if all else fails. No child will feel too pressured by that unless the parents put on the pressure. The state system in some areas of the UK is a mess with a new system where if you do not get your first choice school you can be allocated the school no one else wanted. Therefore parents have been having to decide whether to put what is really their 2nd choice first so that they do not end up at school number 5. Selection in much of the country is by house price anyway. Often paying private school fees and having several good private schools to choose from is a lot cheaper than having to buy a house within a catchment area where prices are high without having the power or control or choice that admissions policies will not be changed anyway.
The best private schools do not interview parents and often mark papers without knowing the identity of the candidate. If a school gives places based on registration at birth you can bet it is not very academic. Use that as an indicator too. You will however need to apply about a year before the child applies for entry at 11+ and 4/5+.
Children love pressure and competition, who won, who is best, who won the fight so I have never believed competitive pressure on them is a problem. On the other hand I never placed it on my children. They do not need to know competition for places at a school is hard or that it even matters to you at all where they go. Do not talk about it in front of them. Just say there is a little test they are doing for a few schools so that the schools and they can choose who will go where. For many children their pushy anxious parent is the worst pressure they have. Play up all the schools to the child, even your worst private school choice. It is likely to be fine whichever they go to. I know whatever they do in terms of school entrance or exam results what really matters is that they live good and fulfilling lives which exploit their potential. They can do that in all manner of ways.
Finally do not assume private is always best. Many a little private school set up in someone?s house with few subjects offered and poor exam results is much worse than a good state primary or secondary. Just because you pay does not mean it will be better so do compare all kinds of schools. For me the selective academic environment has always suited me and my family and that was first school priority. Other things matter too, good physical school environment, teachers I felt we could trust, lack of parental interference in the school (which you can get too much in some state schools), not to mention sitting on acres of lawn of school grounds, in a pretty summer dress and high heels drinking wine, listening to Handel whilst a wonderful fireworks display is set off in the background. Bliss.
By a parent"