Independent Interview: Filter-Out or Filter-In?

Independent Schools as an alternative to Grammar

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Guest55
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Re: Independent Interview: Filter-Out or Filter-In?

Post by Guest55 »

shootmenow wrote:What a strange way to twist what I wrote.
In the context of a very high achieving indie, girls who actually enjoy an intellectual challenge will be the ones that they are happy to teach because that is what is on offer at the school. Nobody who will have to work hard for a C will even make it through the exam. A child who will struggle would never be happy in a selective school and the interview is about finding who will be happy.
I'll remind you of the title of the thread .
The OP was asking about all private schools - some are not aimed at 'high achievers' whatever that means.

Any school that uses such a 'soft' criterion is to be questioned - yes I think they are looking for 'easy to teach' which may reflect on their staff.

I agree with Amber - the most rewarding are often those who really struggle and then the 'penny drops' - such joy for them and me!
Amber
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Re: Independent Interview: Filter-Out or Filter-In?

Post by Amber »

It's a bit scary reading this thread, now that I have gone back over it again.

Where is the room for the shy child, or the one who takes a bit of time to think things over, or the one who finds a 1-1 interrogation, no matter how slickly or sensitively or professionally done, mouth-dryingly terrifying? I kind of hoped that such children might find a haven in the private sector as I know how awful it can be to be a child like that at school - but if they have to go through these kind of interviews to make them seem 'sparky' and 'teachable' (whatever that means) then where are they supposed to go for the kind of nurturing and encouragement which they might benefit from? The hierarchy of parent interviews Vicster describes sounds utterly demoralising. Don't they end up with a school full of really outgoing and confident young things who then just get more and more outgoing and confident as they go through school, and the little shy types, if they make it past the first stage (which sounds a bit unlikely) and who might be just as bright or even more so, get squeezed out or moulded into something else?

I miss the days when it was OK to be shy and quiet without people thinking you had self-esteem 'issues' or no worthwhile opinion or were harbouring some kind of dreadful secret from your past. I would love to see the back of the emphasis on the über confident and outgoing in our society and a return to the idea that being gentle and kind and caring is OK too.

Just musing, sorry - no experience of 'top level' public schools and never likely to have so am hoping someone will come on here and tell me how their little one froze and burst into tears at one of these interviews, asked for his Mum, but still got in and is doing well while still being a bit on the quiet and sensitive side. :)
mystery
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Re: Independent Interview: Filter-Out or Filter-In?

Post by mystery »

I don't know whether the impression on this thread is correct or not either Amber. But if it's correct the country is soon going to be run by not so intelligent arrogant types and independent schools will be unbearable to teach in.

Perhaps these interviews are to ensure a balance ( not of the banking variety ) - I don't know.

It's been my state school experience of my daughters' education right the way through that loud and uninhibited is best - starting with the dreadful reception experience where the child has to spontaneously show the teacher everything they can do and know each day to earn the privilege of being allowed to do something they couldn't already do when they were two.

Then higher up the school when they want the noisiest little oiks to be quiet for a while they sandwich your child in between them all day every day so they can be miserable at the same time as not learning much.
mad?
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Re: Independent Interview: Filter-Out or Filter-In?

Post by mad? »

Ha! Amber, Mystery, we all agree! Crack open the champagne. I must say I think the 'look at me I am so confident and full of self esteem' thing is a modern blight on our society and is pervasive and encouraged (especially in girls!) in both sectors from nursery up. A triumph of presentation over substance that is mirrored everywhere in modern day life. :(
mad?
elevenlevel
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Re: Independent Interview: Filter-Out or Filter-In?

Post by elevenlevel »

Ha Mystery you have forgotten that the noisy oiks will also always get extra house points and star of the week awards before your well-behaved child just for being not quite as badly-behaved as normal. Meanwhile yours looks on getting a lesson in how life isn't always fair.
Daogroupie
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Re: Independent Interview: Filter-Out or Filter-In?

Post by Daogroupie »

Indeed. Anyone waking into the primary classrooms of my dds and looking at the house points chart prominently displayed on the wall would see those names at the top and might think that they were high achievers. In fact as my dds explained patiently to me they were those rewarded for not being naughty. The only way for well behaved students to get on the chart was to behave terribly and then stop for a few hours!

In terms of our local indies there are lots of quiet unassuming but highly academic girls and boys at Habs and St Albans who are lovely and a credit to themselves and their school. They are not all looking for the brash confident types. In fact St Albans girls do a group interview to get rid of those who are not team players and want all the glory for themselves. DG
mad?
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Re: Independent Interview: Filter-Out or Filter-In?

Post by mad? »

Daogroupie wrote:In terms of our local indies there are lots of quiet unassuming but highly academic girls and boys at Habs and St Albans who are lovely and a credit to themselves and their school. They are not all looking for the brash confident types. DG
Likewise at DDs' indie, indeed the majority are like this, but needless to say none of them get to be head girl/boy let alone 'Senior Charity Rep', these roles are definitely reserved for the vulgar and thrusting...whose mothers invariably held such positions before them them and probably consider them a joy to teach. :D
mad?
Amber
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Re: Independent Interview: Filter-Out or Filter-In?

Post by Amber »

mad? wrote:
Daogroupie wrote:In terms of our local indies there are lots of quiet unassuming but highly academic girls and boys at Habs and St Albans who are lovely and a credit to themselves and their school. They are not all looking for the brash confident types. DG
Likewise at DDs' indie, indeed the majority are like this, but needless to say none of them get to be head girl/boy let alone 'Senior Charity Rep', these roles are definitely reserved for the vulgar and thrusting...whose mothers invariably held such positions before them them and probably consider them a joy to teach. :D
I can reassure readers that this isn't confined to the private sector, and that such vulgarity and thrust are equally valued in the selection of prefects/house captains and the like at several cost-free schools I am familiar with (got to be careful what I say here!). So if you have such a child, who fills all who teach her with joy, you can be reassured you won't need to pay to ensure she reaches her true potential in the 'lording it over lesser individuals' stakes. (And yes mad?, I agree it tends to be worse among girls; and yes their parents still have the rose-coloureds on that they acquired at the moment of birth).

Why oh why oh why do so many teachers fall for it every time? It is about my only criticism of my own former profession to be honest - why is it always the confident, in your face ones who seem to be able to convince teachers that they are lovely, 'good sorts', while the shy and understated are so often overlooked? Why is 'popular' considered to be such a positive, which is then reinforced by rewarding it with official status? And yet in 'real life', by the time we have all grown up a bit, we often tend to avoid such individuals as we realise that spreading yourself thinly, looking down on the less popular and blasting off about your own worth does not a great companion make.
kenyancowgirl
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Re: Independent Interview: Filter-Out or Filter-In?

Post by kenyancowgirl »

Amber, I try and look at it from a different perspective - would you really want your son or daughter to have to undertake the Head Boy/Girl/Senior Prefect Role? Most schools now it is, as you say, a "popularity" contest - often a child who "scares" other kids into not wanting to be on the wrong side of them. And then the endless meetings, speeches, sitting outside parents evenings checking people in and out....whilst the real kids, (the ones who aren't shouty, confident, and do absolutely every activity the school offers -mainly because darling mummy has trained them from birth that they are going to be head of such and such school), get on with the real job at hand, quietly and effectively - getting the grades they need/want for the course they need/want - and learning about the real business of life - knowing that they are going to avoid this type of person in future and knowing that they are learning to stand on their own two feet, not being propped up by overly pushy parents living vicariously through them.
Amber
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Re: Independent Interview: Filter-Out or Filter-In?

Post by Amber »

You're right to an extent KCG yes. But what of the child who has spent several years quietly working for charity, in a non-glamorous role at the proper 'hands-on' end; who has busked in freezing weather to raise money for another charity, who has knocked door to door to collect jumble for a sale for a voluntary organisation, who then doesn't get voted on to a school's charity committee, which ends up staffed by the gobby exhibitionists whose idea of charity is a non-uniform day with silly hair? Or the quiet, gentle one who has given up lunchtimes and after school sessions to work with bullied and unhappy children, and lobbied for them via outside organisations, who doesn't get onto the community service committee? And the sports prefects are the ones who have always captained the hockey team - fair, or just rewarding the same ones over and over again?

One local school I know (an indie, as it happens) gave the Head girl role to a total non-runner - one who had just quietly got on with it for 6 years, had a few close friends but was nice to everyone, made a couple of B teams, played an instrument to a not-very-illustrious standard, helped others when she could. It was remarkable because it was so unusual; and the rationale was that the alpha girls had enough headlines on their CV already. I really like that.
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