Year 7 entrance interview preparation?

[Bonsoir]

DD has an interview (without parental presence) for a place in Year 7 this coming Wednesday. She has written a list of hypothetical questions she might be asked and has taken notes for answers and we shall go over these again.

Does anybody have any good tips?

Is she a confident, well-spoken girl who is generally comfortable in the presence of adults/authority figures?

You definitely want to prepare her (as you have done), but don't want to make her feel so anxious or nervous that her natural personality and ability don't shine through. You also don't want to 'over coach' her to such a degree that she is stilted or can't remember what she 'should' say when a certain question is asked. You also hope (obviously) that she doesn't get flustered when an unexpected question comes.

DD went through this process recently and after being asked some questions about herself, was asked
'why are you interested in our school'
'what do you think our school can do for you'

Best tip, I should think, would be to have a chat about the interview session with someone who currently has a child at the school. But I imagine you have already done that.

Maybe the most important thing is for you and your dd to simply RELAX. If you are anxious, your dd will sense it and feel pressure which could make it more difficult for her to present herself well.

Best of luck.

Get her to think about her most/least favourite subject and why. How she'd describe herself and how her teachers would describe her and why.
It can be useful to take something she's proud of/interested in and can talk about as an ice breaker if she gets nervous. And the point about why the particular school Earlybird is a very good one. They want to see enthusiasm for their school.
They are looking for enthusiasm and character. If she has a particular talent get her to take a certificate/medal/example/photo so she doesn't forget to mention it. The most confident child can suddenly draw a blank.
Most important thing is not to over prepare as she will sound stilted. But let her personality shine through. Tell her they want to see the real her, not the her behaving because her parents are present, but they do want to see the polite friendly her.
Good luck!

My did was asked to tell them something interesting about herself, what she thought her best quality was and what her worst quality. It was in a group setting with headteacher, deputy headteacher and 4 other girls.
Due to heads position in GSA I suspect this a format that they are moving to.

Sorry my DD, damn auto correct.

Just to, confidently, be herself. Ready to talk about hobbies, what she wants to be when she grows up, favourite holiday, what she likes/dislikes about school.

But bear in mind DS when asked his favourite hobby said 'golf'. He's never played golf in his life. May have meant crazy golf, who knows. Head confessed a few years later he'd put in his interview notes "barking, but brilliant. " which sums DS up rather well.

I think the worst you could do would be too much drilling/stress/pressure so she clams up. They're looking for someone who's going to be nice to have in the classroom. Pleasant but real.

Dd was asked what the last book she read for pleasure and the talked about that for a while

They did 3 exams -English, maths and reasoning
The strong maths candidates were interviewed by the English department and vice versa

Then she was asked about some recent news stories and what her thoughts were on them

Very helpful ideas, thank you! Definite food for thought.

She will be alone with one teacher for 10', so not long. She is generally very relaxed and polite, so no worries there, but she can sometimes veer off topic. Hence wanting to prepare (but not over prepare!) possible Q&A!

One question they often ask is ' what do you like best about this school'. This is to check that the pupil has actually been round the school in case they have just been entered for so many schools, they can't remember one from the next.

They often end with 'for you want to ask me a question' so it is good to have one prepared.

OP veering off topic is nothing to worry about. That's when they get to see character, don't discourage her.

To help a DC relax and get his/her creative juices flowing, ask a couple of off-the-wall questions (eg, if the Pope and Santa Claus arm wrestled, who would win?).

I did it with my DD (though not on arm wrestling) and I think it helped her deal with unusual questions.

When I say veering off topic, she occasionally needs to be reminded that her extra-curricular activities are not confined to endless repeats of The Simpsons and Les Reines du Shopping

Which is why I suggested taking some show and tell, even if it's just photos of her doing the activities you want her to remember, with her to help her remember. It seriously works.

Except that's not allowed

DS recently did three interviews, which he dreaded because chat is not his strong point. To help we looked at the websites of each school so he could talk about one or two things he liked about it and ask questions about clubs/activities. We got him to think about one if his interests - in his case a food blog he does - and practised reading aloud a piece of prose. We guessed one school would try him out on that.

Had a couple of practice sessions with an adult other than us which we videoed so he could see himself and talked it through afterwards.

Made sure he was reading a book and keeping abreast of main news stories for a week or so beforehand.

It seemed to do the job. Questions for most part were normal, about interests. At one he was asked who he would most like to invite to a dinner party. You can get lists of the types of questions that are asked on the internet as well.

Good luck

I would say just keep to the basics. By all means rehearse walking in to a room and saying 'Hello' audibly, and shaking a hand if it is offered. Eye contact might also be something you can work on.

As far as specific questions go, I left that till the drive to the interview so anything relevant was fresh in my son's mind ie: the book he's currently reading, holidays, hobbies and sports that he does. We didn't prepare a question for the interviewer as there was a strong likelihood that he would nervously spit the question out to first person he met at the school gates.

Unfortunately his first response to a question from the Headmaster at the interview was 'I dunno'. No amount of coaching, electric shock treatment etc.. was going to stop that from happening. Despite the inauspicious start, he was offered a place and an academic scholarship.

The interviewing teachers know what they want from students. The good ones will see through an over-coached child and will coax a bit of sense out of a nervous and under-prepared one

My DS was asked to take along one of his current exercise books. He took history as it was his neatest. The teacher asked him if it was his favourite subject and he said no Maths was but his book wasn't interesting to look at as it was just numbers! Fortunately it was a maths teacher interviewing him. So he perked up. DS then told him about his sports (football and golf) and said he'd just taught himself to do the rubics cube. Teacher gave him one and told him to solve first part, which he did, then second part which he also did. DS asked if he should finish it and teacher said if you can get that far I know you can do it so you might as well. He then said do you know on what basis you are solving it. My husband had told him that it was based on an 8 number algorithm a couple of days earlier but we thought DS ignored him but apparently not as he trotted this out. Teacher wrote something down - probably "smartarse" ;)

Anyway moral is I guess don't say you can do something in case they ask you to do it! I think the interviewer is generally quite adept at getting the kids to talk about something they are interested in.

If this is an Independent school interview then just let your child be themselves...unfortunately too many parents prep their kids and the heads see through this ...much better to have a natural child ...normally they are asked to take in an item to talk about ....