Westminster School Stage 2

[newtothislondonmum]

Please can some one advise how to prepare for Stage 2 + interview at Westminster. Must note that this is a bit early as we haven't heard if we are selected or not.

[mad?]

I'm afraid I can't help you as I have DDs but thought I'd reply to say welcome and also to flag up your post in case anyone else can help. It might be worth doing a search on Westminster in the indie section, I'm sure this has come up before. Good luck.

[grgygirl]

Stage 2 is logic/wordy maths and written English (comprehension) and analysis. The creative writing piece last year was along the lines of..'imagine you are (the character from the comp)... describe yourself. It was a similar level to the stage 2 Grammar school tests. English will seperate out the boys at this stage. The interviews were more challenging; boys get taken off with an English teacher and they discuss a piece, then go off with a maths teacher and work through a problem (nothing ds had encountered in maths lessons at school). Finally there is an 'informal chat' with the master of the Under School and The Master of Westminster himself - very daunting! However, ds was a bursary candidate so maybe the bar is set higher or the process is different?
I think they are looking for a particular type of boy as ds and our friend's son were offered and they are both able but shy/quirky.
It's the most wonderful school but sadly for us, the bursary offer wasn't enough for us to take up the place as I'm sure you know it's almost £10,000 a term!
Daogroupie on this forum has experience of children being offered WUS.
Best of luck.

[newtothislondonmum]

Thank you grgygirl, much appreciated! Any suggestion on what types of books you followed for logic/wordy maths? and English? Any preparations you did for Interviews? When we do we hear about Stage2 from the school? I appreciate if you may not have these information. How can I ask Daogroupie questions? I am new to all this.

[ontarget]

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[grgygirl]

You're welcome. Ds had a group tutor but basically worked very hard on the general 11+ material. Firstly Bond in early Year 5 then went on to the GL papers and First Past the Post gradually. After Easter of Year 5 we worked on past papers from the Independent Secondary schools; Manchester Grammar, Alleyns, Sevenoaks etc The real tests were harder than most of the sample papers, particularly the second stage. We worked on creative writing very slowly from Year 4 - see my previous posts as this was definitely the hardest bit. Speed is of the essence - try speeding things up from the summer holidays before Year 6 starts.

No interview practise really other than speak clearly and practise at home discussing books read and favourite things to do. All of his general interviews were just a chit-chat really. The subject specific interviews were trickier; try reading and analysing poems verbally. We took out an Oxford Book (I think) of poems which were aimed at older children and we would talk a little about the various poem layers. A good rule of thumb for poems is that the themes are usually about love, death, ageing/loss of youth/innocence/seasons. Poems seem to feature quite heavily in the second stage tests/interviews for the independents and also for one of the super selectives. You can pay £££ for specialist interview practise (and some did!) but I don't think it's necessary and I have a shy child.