11+ interviews

[willow]

Ok, so DS has his first one of these next week. What on earth do the kids get asked? How should they dress - is smart casual not smart enough? Am I over thinking this? You know it, but post anyway.

Private school ?

They often ask. Why do you want to go to this school ?

I have been trying to recall :

What book are you reading and what do you think of it ? What do you want to be when you grow up ? What would you do if you won a million pounds ? What charity is important to you and why ? If you could invent somthing what would it be ? What are you really good at ? What have you achieved that made you feel really proud ? Those are a few that I have heard of.

Good luck, as long as a child is fairly personable they will be very happy to have them.

Ds wore his uniform - I think all the children did (well, except for the poor soul in the very strange cords).

Different schools asked different questions. One was quite focussed on academic stuff and another asked about his activities outside school.

"Is this your first choice school?" was always asked!!

Only did 10+, not 11+ - have heard they sometimes ask currenty-affairs type questions @ 11+ - not too deep but at least the kid should know basics - eg who is president of the US, PM etc, and that some miners were rescued from underground in a Chilean mine etc . Agree about school uniform - we kept a specially clean jumper in the car not to be used other than for the interviews so at least he was vaguely respectably dressed. Again, maybe different at 11+, but at 10+ the conversation meandered - probably to make it difficult to prep for. They really tried to make the child at ease - and am sure your DC is the sparky type who will make them laugh just by being naturally hims/her self (in the nicest possible way). At one school, there was tea in the waiting room - DS (polite child! asked me if he could pour me a cup, and was doing so when the HM came in - seemed to make a good impression, because the HM remarked on it to him in the interview.
Good luck!!!!!!!!!!

"Is this your first choice school?" was always asked!!

and they may get asked which other schools they've applied to.

If this is the same one that my ds had an interview for it was very friendly & general. He wore his school uniform, as did the other boys we saw there.

However one boy had a smart grey blazer with a badge (HH - where's that? Not Hill House as pullover wasn't handknitted & mustard coloured), cords, shirt, and tie. Made our school sweatshirts and polo shirt look very state school!

Cheers m'dears. Mrs G am hoping he will be himself and not too nervous! Better get him prepped for that "is this your first choice" and variables on theme or could fall at first hurdle!

"HH" is probably Hornsby House. And the strange corduroys w3ere probably Newton Prep uniform.

I know someone who will spend an hour preparing children for their interviews - not rote learning, but just giving them tips and preparing them for what to expect. Let me know if you want details (she is in SW13).

Why do you want to come to this school?

Practice shaking hands too.

Advice given by head of DDs prep is not to coach for interviews as this can make DCs nervous as they will worry about giving a "wrong" answer.

She advised getting DD to read the headlines of a daily newspaper in the week before the interview so she has an idea of the main current news stories. Not really any more than a bright DC would probably pick up anyway.

The interview is to find out what the DC is really like so it is important they realx and be themselves. Coached answers can be spotted a mile off.

willow - your Ds has 11+ interview next week? That is pretty early. I thought most were not until Jan. What school is that?

DS had two. At both was asked what his hobbies were, what he wanted to do when he's older, what he watched on TV (!!) - he said he watched v. little (slightly distorting truth!) - and what his favourite books were and why. Nothing difficult really - I think the main point was just to get him to talk. He was asked what his first choice school was at both. At one he said he didn't really want to go there (!!!!) but they still offered a place....

just a thought re the newspaper - a friend's DS was was asked at an interview last week about what he had seen in the news and he said 'Wayne Rooney' so might be an idea to point our some interesting articles, not to give the answers, but to think about 'First News' is good for giving a child-friendly perspective. Also, today for instance I saw a small article in The Times about some guys who launched a paper place from space (weather balloon) with a tiny playmobil astronaut in - kind of thing that DS finds interesting and can lead to a further discussion, also yesterday there was an article about 'sniffer rats' being trained to defuse bombs - could discuss how you wuld go about training a rat etc and also then can avoid the type of political news that would reveal his parents as loony lefties/raving facists....

paper plane

My DS was asked: what's your favourite subject and why, what activities do you do out of school, "I see you have a House Captain badge on. What does that involve?" to which he replied "er nothing much. Think we help at sports day?"!, if you could go anywhere in the world (other than Disney/theme park) where would it be and why, what would you do with a million pounds, and why do you want to come to this school? They didn't ask any news stuff, but I did get him to watch "Newsround" for a week beforehand just in case!

MrsGuy - my DDs school know what a looney lefty I am, they don't mind

Holding any opinion is better than none.

DS1 was asked among other things at various schools: Which period in history would you most like to go back to and why (which led to a very long and winding discussion on finding out whether Jesus really was the son of God)? What's your favourite subject was and can you tell me about a piece of work you've done recently that you've really enjoyed? Which schools are you applying to and which is your favourite? Do you have a favourite football team? He was also asked to read a poem at one school, and to talk about a picture at another.

Basically the questions are just to get the DCs talking and find out if they are capable of thinking for themselves.

There is no right answer or opinion to express as long as it is well argued.

You can't coach that kind of independent thinking so the best thing you can do is leave well alone and say "just be yourself".

A belated thanks to you all for all this info. My dad died suddenly and unexpectedly on the 11th, hence radio silence more or less since then.

Sorry about your dad, willow.