Talk to me about art scolarships (11+) please.

[LovelyDear]

Do you know any children who have been awarded them? And if so, did they have some kind of tutoring? Or is it more of a test of raw talent? How do you know what the required standard is?

DD's school has art scholarships.

On schoarship day they were all taken to an art room and asked to draw a still life. No idea about tutoring.

Bit difficult to gauge standard required as really it's going to be about competiition on the day. DD's school had requirement for min G3 standard for instruments for music scholarships but there were children there already qualified to G6.

Scholarships are very common at 11+. A lot of the time it is for marketing - they offer 10% scholarships to many of their intake, and just hike up the fees. There is one school near me and I don't know anyone who has gone there without a scholarship.

If the scholarship is talent-based (art, music, sport, drama), they will have to audition or present their portfolio and have references.

For an academic scholarship, some schools have them sit a scholarship examination, some will interview those candidates who did well on the entrance examination, and others will simply award an academic scholarship based on the examination.

My DD has an academic scholarship awarded based on how she did in the entrance examination. We didn't have to apply for it or do anything extra.

You don't need tutoring. The best extra preparation is to do some Bond Assessment papers.

They are very competitive and imo a bit of a lottery. I know (not well) one person who got one & several very arty children who tried & didn't. You usually need to meet the academic standards of the school (in some cases you need to be close to academic scholarship standard rather than just scraping the entry standard) as well as demonstrating (lots of) artistic talent. So you may indeed need to practice the bond (or other) papers, but this depends on the school's selectivity for art scholarships (which you would have to check as it varies) and your child's ability. You will need a portfolio and there is also usually an assessment task - sketching/painting something or other on the day (I think one of the girls I knew who did this had to morph a teapot into a person or somesuch - plenty of chance to show creativity anyway).

If you are lucky enough to get one, you usually have to do art for GCSE & A level or relinquish it.

Thanks everyone. I kind of like the idea that it's fairly random, as i'm not very good at forward planning. So we apply to the schools that have good art reputations, concentrate on the academic tutoring/practising, and if he performs artistically on the day, so be it. I can live with that.

Our school encourages them to put a portfolio together and runs invitation only sessions for likely candidates. They also need to meet relevant academic criteria.