Eton King's Scholarship Tutor Needed

[TTGD]

I am new to mumsnet but I hope I can get great advice here. I apologise in advance for the long post

DS is in Yr 7 but when he sat the Eton pre-test in 2016, outcome was "very strong test results but didn't really shine at interview". I recently called the admissions office at Eton and the very helpful lady I spoke to said, going through his test results, she would greatly encourage us to let him sit the King's Scholarship exam. She went as far as saying, whilst other things are considered in offering a place, his test results are top scores and should easily have secured him a place. Anyway, we didn’t get a place.

DS is very keen on Eton and we would like to support him as much as we can. He moved from a local private school (where all pupils go on to the local grammar or local comp, so limited experience of Independent Secondary Schools – never mind top ones). To be honest, our (parents & primary school) preparation for Eton was non-existent. No interview prep, nothing at all!

He is now in a Prep school, school very happy to support, they have sent pupils to Eton in the past but no King’s Scholar in the last 10 years. We were actually going to send him to a top grammar, then changed our minds, by which time Summerfields, etc was already full.

So my ask now is – does anyone know of a very good tutor for the King’s Scholarship exam who has recent success of getting children through and that they can recommend? This will be of great help to us. Thanks…

Dear all,
Some of these will not apply to you, but my son (a KS) has compiled a list. Those that apply are in bold.
I can recommend no tutor, as my son did not have one, but he still got the scholarship.
I recommend prior to trying to tutor a child, you spend that money elsewhere in his education, for instance on sending him to a school that gets KSs often (not necessarily yearly, but maybe once every 3-5 years, as long as they are commonly seen on the roll). They will take your son a lot of the way as long as he is clever enough. This is too late for you, but not for future parents.
Secondly, my son taught himself the rest with the help of teachers at a good school (not a reputation like SF, but one similar in musical spheres, and a KS every few years) and that is important, as it will be what is required at Eton. Over Year 8 he also taught himself German, as something to do, but also an aide in learning how to learn to its fullest with no teacher. I suggest that you do make sure your child ca learn with no teacher, as it is important over the holiday of four or so weeks before the exams.
Thirdly, make sure your son is familiar with all papers he is taking, and knows which he is taking well before the deadline to decide. My son did not do this and feels it would have been easier to not have spent so much time on French
Fourthly, give your son as much preparation time as possible. You cannot by time. My son had two terms of teaching for KS instead of CE from the school as they thought he didn't want to do the extra work and wanted to learn a language or two instead, and try for OS when he got there, but many boys have two years behind them. This certainly helps
I hope that helps
If my son comes up with any more I will add them
Please PM about any part of the process of application, and I am actually hoping for you to, your son sounds very smart and I want and wish him to have all the best of luck in these exams as, from what you say, he deserves it and Eton thinks he does.
I've pretty much done it all, and am starting anew this year with the younger son. Fun. Oh so so so much fun.

to clarify, ''you'' is TTGD

The grammar and spelling is appalling in the long message I do apologise. I have not quite became a master of dictation yet

My son would like to add that, like picking secondary schools, the process for the scholarship also varies from pupil as to what would be the best, and dare he say most enjoyable, route. He did have (some) fun preparing alongside some stress, and, as many have said, it is useful head start anyway.

Dear All,
I received Eton college pretest results today and my son has passed. I am very grateful to you all for your valuable advice. Special thanks to Petenras for his support and encouragement, I was very reluctant to apply to Eton, he wrote a lengthy encouragement email which changed my mind. He is amazing, goes out of way to help people.
Rose

A very big thanks to birch100. You all are stars, take so much time to help people.

Congratulations to your DS, birch100! My DS2 passed too. I am not singing victory yet as I am aware that most pass this stage but the real hard step is the next one (been through this before....)

Good luck to everyone for stage 2!!

Dear Blackeye72,
Congratulations to your DS. I have no experience with this selection process, but lovely people on mumsnet helped a lot. Could you kindly advise me on the next level preparation. Does you son go to a London prep school, our school as no clue and don’t help with preparation. I will be grateful for advice/suggestions.
Kind Regards
Rose

I am sorry my sons are not at London preps either, and my eldest gained a place with no preparation as we were told none was needed!

Congratulations! Have your ds practice interviews now, ideally with someone he doesn't know. Ask him to think about things he truly enjoys and give him an opportunity to practice talking about it with enthusiasm to others. Is his main hobby something they already do at Eton? Then he will automatically look forward to joining in at Eton and will naturally convey that at interview. If his hobby is very exotic I am sure an admission tutor would be delighted to hear that your ds would love to start a club about his interest ( whether its origami, model making, bell ringing or astrophysics doesn't really matter). To enable him to be confident and feel relaxed at interview, practice shaking a stranger's hand and looking him in the eyes (ask him to remember the eye colour), general chit chat, saying please and thank you. Maybe do a couple of touristy visits so that he feels accustomed to the place and is not overwhelmed on the day. Eton looks for bright boys who are sociable, eager to join in with boarding life and have a passion outside of academics.

Thank you very much NellyBarnay. Really appreciate your support, especially during this busy Christmas time.
Wish you a very happy and prosperous new year.

Dear All,
My son got a conditional offer from Eton. Thank you very much for all your help and support.

Lovely news!