SW London boys, 11+ grammars and independents

Good luck to everyone who has interviews today. We have our Hampton one today, just trying to keep everyone calm.

@Jumpalicious we were told the same as @BookShark. 2x15 mins with 2 staff involving general plus some English and Maths qs.

I’m sure you are all correct - I’d want a mix of people in my school, a school of 99% extroverts would be interesting, especially for the other 1% who aren’t! They are only 10 or 11 as well.

• hearing not heading.

It really doesn’t help that he hasn’t had a chance to see either school properly. As none of our DC have, I know. It kind of feels like we’re flying blind a bit.

@BookShark - what you write about KGS doesn’t surprise me sadly. I get the impression their admissions team are not the most organised. Friends had a bad experience a few years ago when two DC applied for places who had the same fairly common name (think two Olivia Joneses, or two James Smiths, for example) and KGS got them muddled up when they did interview invites. Really crap. I mean yes, not ideal to have two dc with the same first and surname, but it can’t be unheard of in any school, and it’s surely not too difficult to make absolute bloody sure that dates of birth are checked!

Anyway, rant over. I do agree that the way some schools have behaved through this process will have a knock on impact in terms of how people view them. Hampton and RGS have definitely come across as being more organised, friendly and pragmatic than many others!

Good luck to your son on today’s interview @FlyingPandas. I would definitely ask about the cookies as they were a big hit with the 10+ candidates when they went for interview.

Totally agree with @Jumpalicious on schools wanting a mix of personalities too. Our more introverted child got an offer and the other children in our son’s interview group didn’t look particularly extroverted/alpha to me. They will also be looking at everything in the round including results, report, interview.

Be prepared for the “Have you been tutored?” question which is poor taste to ask a young child, but was definitely asked. 😳

@Jumpalicious we've been told it's a be 30 minutes interview via Teams, but split into 2 x 15 minute conversations. And DS needs some paper and a pencil to hand. Interview will be a mix of Maths, English and general discussion. And that's all I know!

Best of luck to anyone with an interview today - will be good to get it over with! Ours isn't for a couple of weeks...

Oh, and @FlyingPandas, I don't know about cookies, but DS tells me he was given a massive sausage roll as a snack when he did the 10+ last year, so I'm sure that will get a mention at some point!

DS also has Hampton interview today, and RGS next week. As I understand it, Hampton have pre screened via ISEB (I know that two of DS’s friends didn’t get through sadly) but RGS are interviewing everyone.

I’m planning to go and do some gardening once I’ve set DS off on his Teams interview as it will be so anxiety inducing actually heading what he says! I’d rather not know! Unlike some of your boys he will be more likely to tip into slightly silly and showy off mode - driven by anxiety, but it’s how he is - and I dread to think what he’ll say.

The only interview prep we’ve done is to try to encourage him to think of a question to ask about the school and fo think about the “why Hampton?” one too. DS is genuinely likely to say “I don’t really want to come here, I want to go to * (state option which is is his preference) with my friends but my dad wanted me to do private school exams.”

Last night he said he was planning to ask if there were any toilets (!) and whether there were ever chocolate chip cookies for pudding.

We’re doomed, aren’t we?

Good luck to all of your boys, and to you all too. I just want this over now...

I think you’re spot on @Growupsofast! We did another short interview for a school where they interview everyone and DS sounded really stilted and over-rehearsed. Which probably counted against him too! So probably best to stop preparing and let it play out!

@BookShark I can totally relate to "my mother and father" comment and putting on a slightly unnatural voice: no idea where he got this from, as we haven't told him to do that.

As for the prep, we did a very light "role play" of the Qs from the forum here, and went through the SPGS comprehension paper (he wanted to do that one for a while anyway). Plus he had his with Emanuel, who interview everyone.

He is disappointed he isn't going to see Hampton himself though. After all, according to him, the main thing that attracts him there is "luxurious premises"

Who knows what they look for! Surely they look at exams results still but maybe not. I don’t feel there is much we can do to affect the outcome now anyway - just let them do their best and not get them stressed about it.... ie hide mine!!

Oops sorry @Growupsofast, I means delayed interviews 🙈. Thank you for the advice - we are yearning to bin the practice papers so will probably go ahead with that ceremony tomorrow as originally planned!

I wish DS was more confident with adults, but he isn’t, and not going to change in the next couple of weeks. Just got to hope he can pull it out of the bag on the day - and if not, so be it! I wonder if it’s all down to the interview at this point or if they still include the ISEB/ school reports in their decision-making

Definitely not practice papers. Ours were ceremonially binned after KGS on Wednesday! Honestly, based on our experience so far, there's very little we could have prepared for. And we have the opposite - DS isn't generally shy, but for some reason he goes incredibly formal in an interview, taking about "my mother and father" instead of "Mummy and Daddy". It's quite funny - I'm just hoping everyone else has their quirks, otherwise he'll look like a complete nutter!

@NoToMisogyny what did you mean by the delayed exams? We might be talking about different things - we had the Hampton school exams scrapped and replaced by the ISEB pre-test. We had to take those at the end of November - it has been a wait.

In terms of interview prep - I showed DS questions on a forum on here I think and left him to look at them. No point rehearsing.

If we ever get to a point of getting to choose between offers, not sure how much about the schools we will really know. I had hoped DS would actually go to Hampton for the interview but that is off the table as well. Not anyone’s fault but hard to choose.

Thanks @bookshark was hoping someone would say that as we are all so desperate to burn all
the remaining practice papers! I’m aware some people pay for practice mocks but I’m inclined
to just let my son be himself. I just wish he wasn’t so SHY! Every school seems to want the sparky, extrovert kids!

No real interview prep other than the "Why Hampton?" question. DS has had a couple of other interviews already (schools that are interviewing all applicants) and so he's got a vague idea of the kind of questions they ask. But I'm not really sure how you can prepare - and I suspect Hampton may be more academic than some of the others anyway.

It’s a real shame the Hampton exams have been delayed so much (although of course I understand it’s been hard off them) - I am so keen to have everything done and dusted at this point! Is anyone doing any specific preparation for the interview?

@BookShark I didn’t even think about post. But Feb feels an age away at the moment!

Still good news for you with the Hampton interview, I think it is some positive feedback that the ISEB went ok.

This is stressful for everyone involved, I feel for the admission staff as well.

@Growupsofast I feel your pain on the KGS exam. We ended up emailing scanned copies of both scripts as well, as I wasn't convinced the photos were legible - who knows what they'll use, but at least I've tried. Although I have to say, the KGS approach is the worst of the schools we're sitting, which has put DS off it slightly - the others just seen more friendly - better comms and exam arrangements, Christmas cards etc. Little things, but they matter when you're 10!

We've also got a Hampton interview in a couple of weeks, and after that it's a waiting game to see what else comes up. The problem with lockdown part 3 is that I'll now be home every day when the post comes - I'll be a nervous wreck by half term!

Joining the thread after lurking for a while. Anxious times ahead waiting for results/ interviews. I’m not sure being able to hear DS on interviews is great for the nerves. I found KGS quite stressful with the scanning.

Anyone else looking at RGS? We also have our Hampton interview.

I’m not sure how this year will pan out as I think ISEB/online testing has made things hard to predict.

KGS is expecting parents to have to scan the written work by taking pictures on the smartphone within 10 minutes of the exam finishing (by authorising using QR-code).

Emanuel expect us to pick up sealed papers, break the seal on camera over Zoom, then seal them at the end and deliver to the school next day.

Hi all,

Thanks for the reassurance about the Halliford interviews. We've done a bit of prep over the holidays, but tried to take a balanced approach - we definitely don't want him to come across as over-coached.

We've just had an email to say the Halliford entrance exam is moving to online rather than in-person, which seems very sensible given the current state of the pandemic and the imminent announcement from Boris. It'll be interesting to see how they adapt the format to work online, particularly for the written English component.

The Hampton yellow box has arrived!

Skittles were meant for a scientific experiment!

@Sterou - interesting - I think that’s the first time they are doing that. Both my DS went to preps I don’t think anyone ever showed any interest in CATs up to now.

Re interview at Hampton - little bit thrown re academic questions - again I think they are doing that this year for first time as it looks like they are then doing a second interview for academic scholarship?