ALL NEW; WHITGIFT/TRINITY/DULWICH/CATERHAM 10+/11+ 2017

[123littlepigs]

Every year I have watched with interest and excitement as all of these types of threads have progressed to offers.

Finally in the same boat. The Christmas prep is wearing...And couldn't find anyone to share the experience with.... hence this attempt to start one....

Anyone else want to join? If I have missed a school... please feel free to still join in and add your school of interest.

Currently burning the night oil trying to find more comprehension material... anyone have any online suggestions?

There was a boy who got called for a scholarship interview at Alleyn's a few years back. In normal circumstances all you'd have to do in order to secure a full fees place if called for a scholarship interview is act reasonably normally and not assault the HM as you'd be one of the top performers in the exam. However this boy was so arrogant and rude (according to the a member of staff at the school) that he got offered nothing at all ...

Haha @fabfortysomething 😂😂 just imagine! I've not heard anything of the sort and wonder if it does happen?
I'm sure they can possible relate if ds divulges mums drinking habits? 👀😉 might even stand you in good stead??

Oh the horror of blowing it like that, Noitsnottea! I would die! Although maybe the parents were similarly arrogant and didn't care? Maybe you're right, missmillsie - I'm sure boys must blurt out embarrassing family secrets all the time.
A teacher at another school once told me it was very disconcerting when boys greeted with a crushing handshake, stared them straight in the eye without blinking once throughout the interview and professed to play the oboe in their spare time while reading James Joyce.

At my parent interview at W after DS2 had been in, the interviewer laughed and said "he's very honest about his faults isn't he...?"

He still got an offer :)

I imagine it is rare for a boy to actively stuff up an interview.

fabfortysomething, that old tip "maintain eye contact with the interviewer" might indeed work against naive little boys who try so hard to do the right thing! We read the recommended tips with our DS too but I told him to act natural and respectful and not to be afraid to show humour if appropriate, actually go with the flow. He is polite anyway so I trusted his instict as what to say without rehearsing too much. At the end of the day, in our daily life we also prefer people who are friendly, open, natural, funny and not faultless! Interviewing teachers are normal humans too.

@mamanm completely agree with you, we are much the same. Has you boy done his interview already and is he W or T? Sorry I struggle to keep up! X

My DS told his Whitgift interviewer a few years back that W was his first choice over Dulwich because he would have to work too hard at Dulwich....it was a white knuckle ride home for me that day. He still got offered both schools and yes, he chose Whitgift. Now half way through his degree and working hard!

Finally done with all the interviews and sports assessments .. DS did what he could do and so if he is not good enough for any schools .. so be it .. we will try next year .
Our interview at T was in English ( not his fav subject ) he was asked to read a proceedings and he was asked 3/4 questions . DS thinks he got them right most of them , though he struggled to read couple of words which was very hard to pronounce and he was helped by the teacher then. Not sure if that's a good news . We didn't meet the HM or any of the admins . We were in a group of 4 parents and children and were chatted through by a parent whose child is already in school . Can someone from previous years tell me if that means he is on borderline for even a place at T ? We are sitting quite nervous as T has been the first choice and somehow I think my DS must have messed up his written exams . His W was good feedback so we always thought T will be better as he was more confident but going by all previous discussions and that he couldn't pronounce couple of words correctly though he got all the answers right at the end . So am confused . Anyways all the best to everyone .. agonising wait for us now .

Read a piece *

That made me smile Jody!

Aww @sbmum, I've no idea whether this means borderline or what, my ds had exact same at his interview too. Try not to worry over finding it hard to pronounce a few words. They are only 9/10 after all! Even adults stumble over words still! I'm certainly one of them haha. I wonder why my ds found his easy? It was a short passage and then asked to find similes etc. Comprehension is his weaker side, no idea what this means! Do you know the name of you teacher who interviewed or what she looked like? Wonder if the same... 👀

In any case, I'm going to stop overthinking it! Doesn't help when my dad is convinced from what he has been reading that my ds will for sure get some sort of academic as well. I don't want him to get our hopes up too high! Have already applied for a bursary too. Has anyone else applied for a bursary? Don't they contact you about that at any point? X

Jody - "white knuckle ride home" - I can so see it! .

@missmillsie . She was an English teacher sorry I forgot her name . But she wore specks if that helps . Did you see the HM when was your interview ?

Our DS Interview at T sounded just the same - reading a short passage with follow up Qs, as well as a general chat. FWIW I sort of assume he is borderline as we didn't have any tutoring, and English is always his least favourite subject. Realistically, we're seeing it as more of a learning experience for next year. But you never know! Roll on Feb 10th...

Maybe all your boys did scholarship well in the maths and they just wanted to scope out their English?! Definitely sounds more scholarshipy than borderline to me...
Good luck all!

Can someone from previous years tell me if that means he is on borderline for even a place at T

I don't think so. It sounds very like DS2's 11+ interview and I know he scored something like 90% in Maths and 45% in English for T which I don't think would have made him borderline for a place.

TBH, I'm not sure you can read a lot into what format the interview takes. They have a lot of boys to interview in a relatively short space of time. Potential scholars might get a different interview as I imagine they want to be more sure they are Bright and not hot housed.

With the benefit of not being in this position, I think over analysing actually proves nothing and any theories could be pure coincidence and similar to "Elvis is alive!" Theories :) Of course, that isn't going to stop anyone! :o

Hi all. I have heard of a couple of boys who were interviewed very early on in the process whose parents were told by the HM to expect scholarships. At least one of them was asked a very testing maths question. What this means in the context of the rest - who knows??

That is very interesting, Soup. I was wondering what "borderline" means in real terms. Obviously 90% in maths would be excellent - if I were an admissions person, I would jump to have a boy with that kind of score in my school. It's hard to know what a good score is, though - especially after grammars, where I pretty much came to the conclusion (maybe wrongly?) that you would need at least 95% in both maths and english to get a place. I understand that it depends on the strength of the cohort, the difficulty of the exam etc, but does anyone have any kind of experience of what percentages we are talking about? With DS1 we were told he got 89% for english and 86% for maths. He was offered a full fees place and was never considered for an academic scholarship (not that we expected one) - and he has since been only slightly above average in his year group, although that may be because he's lazy a daydreamer. I have also heard of boys who passed the grammars but weren't offered a place at T - is that true? And is it true that there are boys who get 100% in maths? If that is the case, I would imagine it would be quite hard to get an academic scholarship.
Also - apologies for all the questions - does anyone know if there is a weighting for the three papers. In other words, how important would the verbal reasoning be? Am very suspicious that DS stuffed up the vr - he wasn't tutored and the sum total of his vr prep was to do three practise papers.

Interesting thread and wishing you all best of luck in this rollercoaster of an entry process - My DS is going for 13 plus at W and DC. If you are in the incredibly fortunate position of getting both DC and W which will you choose and why?

Hi everyone

I have been reading everyone's post eagerly, my son took the whitgift 13+ entrance and was called for an interview on Tuesday. We had our interview wiith deputy head of the lower school, DS went in first and then us. The deputy head was very positive about him, first words I like him and he is funny. We felt the chat went really well, he said DS done well etc. What I am worried about, is he wasn't asked any academic questions at all! The two to other people i know who were called for interview, were asked both maths and to read poetry! Has anyone else had this? I am now worrying that they just called DS for interview to make up the numbers and that they aren't interested in him!

Hi. My DS had the 13plus interview at W last week. I wouldn't worry. He got asked only one mental math question. They told him he did well on exams but math was his lowest. I really don't think they would invite you to interview to fill numbers. We had an interview with the same person you did. He was very friendly and said positive things. Fingers crossed for us both!

It could just be interview style of different people or that the other boys did less well on those subjects thank your DS so they wanted to test them. I don't think you can read much into not getting asked many questions...

They do not necessarily ask academic questions, particularly not at W. The admissions departments are all overworked this time of the year. They have to take senior teachers out of classrooms to do interviews. I would be really, really, really surprised to learn they invite anyone to make up the numbers. Why would they? As I posted earlier, we were told at W that they sometimes ask academic questions to draw boys out or to relax them. If they don't ask academic questions, it might mean that they did so well they don't have to test them!

The danger with a thread like this or school gate chatter is that it can induce unnecessary panic. We should not fall into the trap of comparing them and trying to read more into them that we should. Each interview will be different. If they just stuck to the same formula for every single boy, there would be no point - then they could just have added a written questionnaire to the papers. Stay strong, peeps!