Interviews/Assessment Days for Private Schools

[JoJoMummy321]

Hi All,

We are planning a move to the Farnham area and are currently looking at various school options.

I have been looking at various school websites, sending off for prospectus etc and I have seen that there are various intervews/assessments in order to gain a place. These vary from:

• DD and parents being interviewed/having a chat with headmistress
• DD having a taster day (obviously without us!) plus the above interview
• DD having a taster day with some assessments.

My concerns are firstly that DD is not going to be terribly happy about moving house and leaving her current school and that this may affect her performance in the interview or taster day. Plus, she can be quite reserved until she finds her feet.

Every website says that they will request a copy of most recent school report and this is a good thing for us as DD's reports have always been really lovely.

Can anyone offer any tips on this? We've never gone through this process before. DD is age 8 years.

Thank you.

At my school we have a child in for the day and they join in with the class work in English and Maths as well as being observed at playtimes. They are taken out with the SENCo to do some basic assessments and have a chat really -we are well aware they have been thrown into a new and scary environment so we try to make it as relaxed as possible for them. The previous school reports are really useful, as well as parents being 100% honest about their child - we often get parents who have not disclosed any SPecial Needs and once we have had their child for 20 minutes it becomes very obvious there are huge issues. any good school should try very hard to make your child as comfortable as possible.

This is really useful as we have a week of meeting with schools in 2 weeks time and have no idea what to expect. We already got a surprise when told our kids should wear semi formal attire, no jeans, ensure a collared shirt etc. So now we are trying to work out what they will be asked. Daughter is 4 and will go into reception, son is 6 and will go into year 2.
Any more ideas on what will be asked, expected from them would be great as it will be pretty grueling for 4 schools in 3 days.

Our visitors just wear their current school uniform which makes things easier. We are not a posh enough private school to 'interview' the parents - they get a tour round the school and we get an impression of them from that. As for the children - I am sure it will depend on the school but hopefully they should really only be asking them questions in order to get them to open up and chat a bit rather than as a 'test'.I am sure some schools will be looking to see if a child 'fits' with their setting - the more academic places will be looking for them being articulate and thinking about their potential abilities. others may be more interested in them talking about their sporting prowess or other interests to show they are 'well-rounded'. You will get a feel for the different schools, as will your children, and hopefully you may all agree on the one that suits you all best. It depends what you are looking for really, and with 2 children and one of each sex it is trickier to get everything in one school! If you feel the interview or assessments are a bit OTT then that is probably not the school for you.

Agree that the norm is to wear existing school uniform (or similar for ds). Not sure that I've ever seen anyone in mufti.

To be honest, if the schools have places in the yeargroups that you need, try not to be too worried about any assessment. But before you do go to the schools, do make sure that the school has confirmed that there is a space for both: you don't want your dc to fall in love with a particular school only to find that only one or neither can go.

Ime the more formal assessment midyear come further up the school, but they will probably want to hear your dd read, and ask her some questions about what she has read, see some writing and numberwork and talk to her, to see how she comes across. It isn't so much of a pass/fail unless there are obvious SEN/behavioral problems (being reserved is not usually seen as a problem). It is worth doublechecking what there expectations are re handwriting (assume by age 6 she is doing joined up), and knowledge of timestables (ds1 had to know all of his by end of year 1, ds2 didn't).

At reception stage they'll just be looking to see how he interacts in a group setting and whether he can follow simple instructions. If he has been to playgroup/nursery then he'll probably have no problem.

I can fully understand why you've booked this number of assessments in a short space of time, but I would honestly advise you to reconsider. Perhaps have a look/tour of all 4, but only choose one or two for your children to be assessed at. It isn't that the assessments are overly strenuous, I just think that it is very confusing for a child that age - it is much simpler to be able to go in with a "here is your new school, we're just trying it out for a day to see what you think of it", rather than leaving everything open with lots of options.

Thanks so much for the input so far, it's very helpful.

CharlieLiz Thank you that's great to have more of an idea of what goes on and it's nice to hear how you deal with things.

Ladymuck At our school DD doesn't do joined up writing all the time. It's been introduced but slowly. Do you think this is something I should work on with her at home?

She knows her 2,3,4,5 and 10 times tables well and 6,7,8 and 9 not too bad so we can work on those too. Luckily her reading is pretty good but I will be encouraging more reading!

VeritytheBrave that's lovely to hear how things worked out for you. I'm glad your DD liked her new school and hope we have a similar experience!!

Ozhodge best of luck with your visits. If you have a chance after them I would be very interested to hear more about your experiences. Good luck!

Thanks everyone...any more thoughts are always welcome.

Re joined up handwriting: what I've found in moving ds2 part way through year 1 was that the 2 schools formed certain letters and joins differently. I don't think that there is a right or wrong answer - once you know which school you are choosing you can find out what they use and then practice (if they feel it to be necessary). I certainly wouldn't try to accelerate what she has learnt until you know where she is going as it would be worse to have just crammed for something and then have to unlearn it.

Ditto tables. If she knows the ones that you have listed then she should do find in any number work and will at least demonstrate that she knows what multiplication is. Some schools may not yet have covered this. Please ignore anything that you have heard about private schools being a year or two ahead of their state peers - they usually are not. Though I've had parents at both private schools that the dcs attend tell my otherwise even though I gently point out that we are on the "correct" textbooks for our yeargroup. Granted there should be fewer children left behind, but please don't worry about your dd having to meet some high level of attainment.

I've moved both my children to different schools during their primary years. In some ways I think that a midyear move works well as they can get plenty of attention given to any particular gaps/needs. The teachers and staff on the assessment days are always very matter of fact and the children seem to fit in easily with what is required of them. I did find that focussing in on one of two aspects of the potential school that they could look forward to helped sooth any of their fears. So for one child the after school cookery club was a huge plus, whilst for the other the lunchtime hockey club was something to look forward to.

With 2 of them starting towards the younger end of the school, it is worthwhile checking how much access you will have to staff, and also how often you will be viewing their schoolwork.

dd moved to a private primary for the start of y3 and had an assessment in November in Y2

We'd already had a chat with the head, which involved tour of the school and talking about what we wanted from a school for dd, what she was interested in, what kind of school we were hoping for for secondary - nothing formal and really just seeing if the school was a good 'fit' for our family

A couple of weeks later, dd had an assessment morning, which involved a couple of lessons with a Y2 class, playtime, 'playing a game on the computer' (verbal reasoning test, but she didn't realise it was a test!), and one-to-one work with one of the teachers doing some maths, writing and reading. They had the applicants in in groups of 4 so it was easier to incorporate the assessment into the school day. Dd loved the whole experience and didn't want to go back to her old school - it was all very low-key which imo was completely appropriate for 6 year olds!

We were completely put off another very well-regarded school as they had a 3 hour exam session, with a couple of hundred little girls all sitting down at desks in the hall, followed by two formal interviews

Thanks everyone. As we are coming from Singapore, we don't have much option on seeing 4 or so schools in the week but it's a really good thought to only do assessments on those we get the right feel for. I am assuming they wont require a taster day in that week. As for the current school uniform, unfortunately given its 32 degrees every day here, the uniforms wont work. We will just get them to wear some nice pants, a collared shirt and a jacket.
Everyone on this board is very helpful and it is much appreciated given we have no idea what to expect coming from overseas. JoJo do let us know how everything went as well.

My DCs school assesses by taster day for children who join other than at standard entry points (pretty common in London schools and other areas where prep school churn is high).

My DS told me that when he was in yr 4 (8 or 9 yrs old), he was assigned to look after one boy who came in for assessment. This meant he sat next to him for that day, steered him around the school, answered any/all questions, made sure he'd seen all parts of the school, was invited to join in playtime games (or sat out with him) , steered him through lunchtime and made sure he knew where all the loos are. It gives the potential newcomer a pretty full and frank look at the school! The potential newbie joined in all the timetabled lessons of the class, only varying in maths where he did an assessment paper. He wore previous school uniform: DS says anything smart would do.

Hope all goes well with your forthcoming tasters and assessments, and good luck in finding the right school.

All assessments done. Phew glad that is over. Daughter got 100% success and has been offered all 3 places. Son got 2 out of 3 places (one school made him do the entire 7+ exam, given we have been living in Singapore for 7 years, we had no idea what it was all about.....).
Now its all about decisions of which way to go. Happy to answer any questions on the days.