Assesment/interview at an independent non selective north london primary school what shall we expect ??? ol

[teobaldo]

sorry message was not complete... Our son is meant to start reception this year in the local state school, however we have never been too happy with the school and all of a sudden a vacancy has come up in an independent non selective school 9which has a very good reputation) and we have been called to meet the head (my son and husband will go as we are not in London at the moment and I just had a baby ) we have no idea on what we should expect, i.e. what will they ask and so on. Any ideas ? We obviously do not intend or have time to prep him, but it would be good to know a bit more on how these interviews are held. Thanks for anyone who can help.

I teach at an independent non-selective school and we have a child in for a morning in the right age class and see how they get on with the class work, as well as having a chat with them about home/family/likes/dislikes anything to get them talking really. We are really just looking to see if they are able to join in with their peers -we watch them at playtime too to look at behaviour/social skills. We don't 'interview' the parents -they have a tour and get to talk to the class teacher.

In our non-selective interview, our DC sat and played with some toys, colouring etc with a teacher whilst we spoke to the head. The advice I have always given friends is "Make it clear you WANT the place and you are sincere about sending your child to this particular school if a place was offered."
The main thing she wanted to know was where else we had applied. i.e. it appeared she was fishing to find out if we were serious about taking this place, or did we have a list of preferred schools we were waiting on, as so many London parents do. She seemed much happier once we told her this was our plan A and we didn't have a plan B, and made it clear we would take a place if offered one.

We were also asked about our jobs, I think they try to sort out any families who are likely to up and move due to relocation etc too. Schools are businesses - they want and need customers to stay, and spend a lot of time talking to families who don't then take the places. A school's worse nightmare is children who leave further up the school, harder to fill places and harder to incorporate a child into an existing class. Our reception class list had changes on from the June settling day to the September start date. I think schools try to eliminate the risk of not filling places or having to scrabble around with the waiting list at the 11th hour by offering places to families who seem sincere.

HTH

At my son's assessment afternoon at his non selective prep they had him playing with toys with the other children and were looking at how he interacted. They then did some one on one "work" with him e.g. asked him to draw a picture etc. As bobala says a lot of it is about their ability to cope with the other kids, handle a classroom situation and follow instructions (to the standard of any other YR child i.e. not all the time!).

We weren't interviewed but they did tend to wander around an chat to everyone. I think washed up makes some very good points on the interview.

DS had an interview to move to his school, he was 5 at the time. The head of the junior school took him in to a room and chatted to him about school, they read a book together, and did some colouring. DH was outside and said he could hear lots of laughing. DS says it was fun. The school's view is that it is to see if the child would be happy in that school. We didn't prep at all, and we didn't tell DS it was an 'interview'.

thanks everyone this is very helpful... would not have time to prep anyway (and not really like the idea as well at this age...)

Hi everyone

Pls am new to this site and sm kinds of worried about my kids schools . I have 3 kids age 8, 5 and 3months
We recently moved to Sydenham from Camberwell London .as change of environment as the kids are growing up and we want better lives for them. But I applied for Elliot bank sch and kelvin grove primary school to be honest I really like Elliott bank pry but

kelvin grove primary is right at the bank of my house I
was told to space in Elliott bank pry but my 8yrs son
was offered a place at kelvin grove which I recently
dont like because of I checked Lewisham pry league
table they re quiet low. So checking online if I could see a cheap and good independent schools or schools can can offer Busarary straight away because we cant afford any independent school but I saw Virgos fidelis svh my kids went for assessment because my son was extremely brilliant the head teacher told us that he could offer him a scholarship next term base on his performance next term . My problem is that we cant afford any huge bill as am not working my husband is an average income earner . I want to ask whether I can get any independent schools around that can offer scholarship straight away or any school that will do test or assessment for them and take like grammar schools
I really like independent schools pls help on advice pls thanks

Hi everyone

Pls am new to this site and sm kinds of worried about my kids schools . I have 3 kids age 8, 5 and 3months
We recently moved to Sydenham from Camberwell London .as change of environment as the kids are growing up and we want better lives for them. But I applied for Elliot bank sch and kelvin grove primary school to be honest I really like Elliott bank pry but

kelvin grove primary is right at the back of my house I
was told to space in Elliott bank pry but my 8yrs son
was offered a place at kelvin grove which I really
dont like because of I checked Lewisham pry league
table they re quiet low. So checking online if I could see a cheap and good independent schools that can offer Busarary straight away because we cant afford any independent school but I saw Virgos fidelis school my kids went for assessment because my son was extremely brilliant the head teacher told us that he could offer him a scholarship next term base on his performance next term . My problem is that we cant afford any huge bill as am not working my husband is an average income earner . I want to ask whether I can get any independent schools around that can offer scholarship straight away or any school that will do test or assessment for them and take like grammar schools
I really like independent schools pls help on advice pls thanks

Hi everyone

Pls am new to this site and sm kinds of worried about my kids schools . I have 3 kids age 8, 5 and 3months
We recently moved to Sydenham from Camberwell London .as change of environment as the kids are growing up and we want better lives for them. But I applied for Elliot bank sch and kelvin grove primary school to be honest I really like Elliott bank pry but

kelvin grove primary is right at the back of my house I
was told to space in Elliott bank pry but my 8yrs son
was offered a place at kelvin grove which I really
dont like because of I checked Lewisham pry league
table they re quiet low. So checking online if I could see a cheap and good independent schools that can offer Busarary straight away because we cant afford any independent school but I saw Virgos fidelis school my kids went for assessment because my son was extremely brilliant the head teacher told us that he could offer him a scholarship next term base on his performance next term . My problem is that we cant afford any huge bill as am not working my husband is an average income earner . I want to ask whether I can get any independent schools around that can offer scholarship straight away or any school that will do test or assessment for them and take like grammar schools
I really like independent schools pls help on advice pls thanks

You need to start your own thread with a title that reflects your question or you're unlikely to get any answers. Almost all bursaries are senior school only