The English senior schools test at ten or eleven for entry at thirteen, with a computer-based pre-test in verbal and non-verbal reasoning, English and maths, followed by an interview and a report from the prep school. The Swiss schools interview the family and assess the language. The American academies interview after the SSAT and read essays. In every system, the interview is the moment the school looks at the child rather than the file.
What they are looking for
Not brilliance. Schools want to know three things: does this child think, does this child listen, and will this child be happy here. A ten-year-old who is asked what they are reading and answers with a title and an opinion has passed the first. A child who is asked a hard question and says "I don't know, but I think maybe …" has passed the second. A child who asks a question back has passed the third.
The questions
They vary by school, and they are less mysterious than the agencies suggest. What are you reading and why? What would you do with a free afternoon? Tell me about something that went wrong and what you did. If you could change one thing about your school, what would it be? Which is the best thing you have made? A picture, a puzzle or a short passage to talk about. Some schools ask a maths problem out loud and watch the working, not the answer.
Preparation that helps
- Read. Real books, with the child, and talk about them at dinner. Six months of this is worth more than any course.
- Practise conversation with adults. Dinner with the family, a handshake, eye contact, questions to the guests. Children who are used to adult company are relaxed in interviews.
- Visit the school. A child who has walked the grounds and seen the pool has something to say and somewhere to picture themselves.
- Do a mock interview with a stranger. A friend of the family the child does not know well, once, so the format is not a surprise.
Preparation that harms
Coaching answers. Interviewers see hundreds of children a year and can tell a rehearsed anecdote from a real one in a sentence. Overtutoring the pre-test, which produces a child whose score does not match their classroom, which the school notices when the prep school report arrives. And, worst of all, telling the child that the family's honour depends on the result. Ten-year-olds who are frightened do not talk, and children who do not talk are not offered places.
The parents' interview
Many schools meet the parents too, and they are assessing you as much as the child: are you going to support the school, are you going to be reasonable when your child is not in the first team, do you want this school or a name. Be honest about the child, including the difficult bits. Schools prefer parents who know their children to parents who sell them.
After the interview
Write a short note of thanks to the registrar; the child can sign it. Then stop. Offers for thirteen-plus entry come months later, and the result you cannot control is the one you should stop thinking about. If the answer is no, the school has done you a favour; the School Finder has forty-four others.
