Preparing for 11+ School interviews Winchester/Harrow/Radley/Westminster

[kcmum73]

Hi there

We've been told by our school to start thinking about school interviews that will be coming up this term.

Has anyone had any experience of these interviews in previous years and what is the best way to prepare for them? What do they ask?

DS is trying for Winchester, Harrow, Radley and they all do interviews, maybe as early as this term. We are also looking at Westminster in case he wants to day

My first interview was when I was 18 so not sure what an 11 year old can do!

Any help / advice much appreciated!
x

The school should really be the ones preparing your DS for interviews. They will / should know the different interview styles and requirements for each school.

When DS and DD went through this, they had two interview sessions in small groups then had three practice interviews with members of the SLT.

Maybe ask the school what support / guidance they will be offering.

I can only tell you about wardens list entry to radley. Is that any good to you?
Agree this is prep schools job though. Ds should be led through the process by his school.
Good luck. That's a lot of schools to register with though!!

At Winchester you're interviewed by the HM of the house you've registered with. The interview lasts about an 1 1/2 yours and some tests are done during it. When my DS was interviewed (I'm assuming it's the same now over 5 years later) each housemaster conducts the interview differently. But I think all are very much trying to put a boy at his ease, and work out what sort of person your DS is. Will your DS fit in he his house and Winchester in general? In fact it's described as a "conversation" in the letter informing you of the date it's to take place, so no tricky question. IMO they're looking for very bright, articulate but thoughtful individuals, not the well coached over confident. Quirky is fine, opinions are fine as long as your DS can genuinely explain why he believes what he does. We didn't really prepare our DS, we wanted Winchester to take him for what he was not what he was told he had to be at an interview.

We interviewed here for day and boarding SPS and Eton . I would suggest that your DS has read lots of interesting age appropriate books , my DS read all of Sherlock Holmes , plenty of science mags as well as a couple of biographies . All were really useful . He was asked about most of the books he had read. Novels like Sherlock are easy to read and can form the basis of a discussion. Otherwise just general hints , don't mumble , make good eye contact speak clearly . Don't be complacent either . Good luck !

My DS was also interviewed for SPS a very different more challenging interview, again we didn't bother to prepare for it and his prep hadn't done anything much just reminded him to shake hands with the interviewer, look the person in the eye and say "how do you do" or whatever.
In short interviews your child obviously has less time to shine so they need to be quick with answers which need to be interesting. In the interview he was strongly challenged on some of his opinions and he gave as good as he got.
We were told by the interviewer at the slightly pointless separate parents interview that as DS was not at a prep they were overly familiar with (a rural boarding prep generally sending children to big name senior boarding schools not London day schools) thus he was very unlikely to be offered a place as the prep wouldn't know what they were looking for and competition for places was exceedingly fierce that year. Six days later he was offered a place, in the letter they commented on how bright articulate he was and just what they were looking for!
My DS is dyslexic so is not a great reader, although we've always read extensively to him and had audiobooks on all the time, I doubt he'd ever read a biography at that age or any kind of interest magazine beyond the weekly edition of Horse and Hound! But as family we debate lots of things all the time, I come from a family of political activists so endlessly arguing debating current affairs/politics/environmental issues is the norm!. He also had some slightly unusual interests for a child of that age in particular 20 th century art which he'd had since he was little. He was very knowledgable for a 10 year old, all we'd done was encouraged him and enabled him to pursue his interests.
Whilst sitting in the waiting room for SPS with other families we couldn't help notice how very anxious both the boys who were about to be interviewed were (some looked like they were about to face the firing squad) and their parents were. We in contrast just rocked up on our way back to school (it was the end of half term I think) we'd only been given 5 hours notice as the school had a cancellation and we weren't sure if we even wanted the place as we'd set our hearts on Win Coll. So frankly didn't take it very seriously. If possible I would say the most important thing you can do is not over stress about it, as a parent don't be so nervous that your DS isn't picking up on this and getting nervous too especially of the interview is very short. Let him be himself.
Good luck.

By the way Radley and Winchester are very different schools, I know Radley quite well and it wouldn't have suited my DS, I also know boys at Radley who wouldn't have suited Winchester. Just a thought.

I think you a while as westminster doesn't interview until next term - he has to get through the preselection exam this term first. They interview about 2 boys for each place. The interview includes a maths paper and English comprehension, or at least it did last year but as that was the first year of computerised assessment they may change this year.
Doesn't Winchester kick off from January , dragging on for months? I understand that this much longer - can be an hour, and makes up the main body of the assessment, compares to short papers (20 mins?). Will v wise ranging as housemasters really want to know the boys.
I thought Radley wasn't until year 7 and harrow definitely is, unless you are one of the boys called for early interview but this doesn't give rise to a result , I don't think, more of a taster

I think you need to ask your prep for more detail if they have given the impression that all this lot happens in the first term of year 6

General advice to your DS would be to be polite, give full and positive answers to questions and to be honest in those responses (otherwise he might not end up at the right school for him). Let him start thinking about what he finds interesting (does n't really matter what it is) and verbalising why. Ultimately a school can only judge him on what he reveals of himself, although they will be experienced at getting boys to talk. Stilted rehearsed answers however impressive the content will mask the 'spark' they will be looking for.

Michaelah is correct the house masters at Win Coll interview next term, they like boys to be as close to 11 as possible and send out offers at the beginning of June. Friends DS's who went to Harrow were interviewed in yr 7 but some did do some sort of early interview in yr 6 don't think this remotely guarantees a place I think although could be wrong it was some thing to do with choosing a house.
I think most interviewers can see through "stilted rehearsed answers".