Academic scholarship interviews (13+)

[Birmingbacon]

I'm hoping someone might have some tips for me with regards to scholarship interviews at 13+

My son is coming from a state school and next month attending two full back to back scholarship days for a boarding school.

The school keep telling me he won't be disadvantaged not coming from a Prep but I'm increasingly not believing that! The latest is that I've just had an email casually giving timings for group and individual interviews. This has never been mentiond before - I was told papers in sciences, maths, english, geog, history and MFL. Nobody said interviews.

The prep kids will have been going over this stuff for months I assume so does anyone with experience have any clue where I can start to help my son? He's quiet and shy which doesn't help. What do you think they'll ask him? Even a vague ballpark guess would help give me a starting point.

Interviews vary from school to school but this is a pretty good overview 'Prepare Your Child for Independent School Interviews: 11+, 13+, & Scholarship Tips'. My DC's prep school followed the advice on there of getting them to engage with the news. They recommend First News (which I thought was great), it gets delivered each week and explains the news in an age appropriate way that the children are then able to comprehend, so if asked about it are able to explain. Firstnews.co.uk. They also asked a few abstract questions, such as 'what would you bring with you to a desert island' for example. There's no right or wrong answer to these (if your DS is into music, for example, he could say his musical instrument, sheet music and some snacks and that would be a perfectly fine response!)

When my DD sat a group interview, the teachers were watching to see how they engaged with the group. So they were set a group project (Eg: Can you design a TV show) and had to work together to make a poster. You just want to encourage your DS to be himself, so kind, respectful of others in the group, and to speak up/ offer ideas.

DD did 13+ scholarship interview at her school (she didn't go ti the prep but started in Yr 7).
Consisted of: panel interview, individual assessment + group work.
The school didn't prep her for it in anyway and we just told her to be herself.
He won't be disadvantaged at all.