Heeeey.
I know it seems so scary for them but they really do put you at ease and actually is quite a fun couple of hours. My daughter loved it. When you get invited for interview they give you 5 questions to answer, these are asked in the interview.
So when you get there, 15 minutes before your allocated time they give you a practice room to warm up (she is a singer) then they take you down to the music rooms where your child will go in on their own and perform for them ( a music teacher and another like maths ) , it's one song no longer than 4 minutes, it is the same for other instruments too.
Then in that room they do the other tests too (you wait outside and can hear everything) once they are done they call the parents in for the "interview" this is very chilled and to the point they don't really have time for chit chat as so many applications!!! They will ask your child the questions and then ask you how you will travel to school, to explain any absences if their attendance isn't over 96% !
Then after this your child is taken up stairs to a class room where they will do a music theory test ( my daughter said this was very basic level 2 theory work so maybe get your child to have a look on line and refresh)
You can get a coffee from the canteen whilst you are waiting, it's about 30 minutes after that we went home. Was there for 2 hours in total.
We had our interview on the 1st of March and found out she got her spot on the 5th of April !
We were told in the interview as we are out of area that the chances are very slim and to not be disappointed if she didn't get accepted. They accept 25 pupils for music strand, these include voice, instruments and production. In her year there was 13 singers
One thing they seemed impressed with was that we got references from everyone that taught her. So we got them from her singing teachers, her performing arts school, head of year, form tutor etc. They didn't ask for these but we took them anyway. She also wrote all her answers on flash cards which they encourage, it deffo helped her not rush her answers and feel at ease with it all.
Hope that helps ?