11 Plus Exams Forum

Hi all
A general question but looking for educated answers please. Does it matter which member of staff interviews the child? For certain independent schools for girls, I have heard that an interview by the headteacher tends to be more positive..Thoughts?
Thanks!

Hi Cheerio,

I don’t know the answer but I’ve been wondering the same. We’ve had one interview earlier this week with the HT and another tomorrow not with the HT. The HT one seemed to go very well so I’ll see what tomorrow brings. Along the same lines, I’ve also wondered about timing. Another girl we know who has applied to the same schools had her interviews around 10days ago (both with the HTs) and I’m wondering if interview timing is relevant. Someone mentioned it was likely alphabetical but her surname is near the end of the alphabet.

In DS school, the headmaster was interviewing potential scholarships candidates.

I understand some schools organise scholarship interviews in primary school groups. This apparently limits as much as possible children revealing interview questions to other kids in their school who are awaiting interviews.

I am unsure of the significance of a headteacher vs other member of staff interview. I suspect scholarship candidates would have to be interviewed by the head as the offer and level of a scholarship is usually at the head's discretion alongside an exceptional performance in the entrance examination.

I don’t think it matters regards to timing of the interviews or whether it was a senior member of staff or HT. My DD only had 1 interview with a HT and the rest with staff members. We had generous offers from all the schools. Hope this helps.

I would have thought the Head might want to interview borderline candidates as s/he will 'carry the can' on their results.

Thanks for the interesting thoughts everyone.
It’s a bit baffling the whole independent school process I would say since a highly tutored child has a better chance to do well and make it by getting interviewed by a member of staff where all the schools can talk about is having non tutored children! I know I might receive backlash but to me, a tutored child would fare better than one who is not . Not to say they aren’t intelligent but they have the additional resource , all the training behind them. And on the other hand if a child has had a bad day but is perfectly capable gets a HT interview to make things more difficult? To give more context, I’m referring to children especially from the state school sector..

My child is from the state sector and untutored. We had our other interview today which was not with the HT and I would say we left feeling far less hopeful than st the school where the HT interviewed us. The format seemed scripted rather than reacting to what DD said. But of course I wasn’t in that bit so only have her recount to go by. We both left feeling as though we’d been called to make up the numbers. But who knows.

Thanks Carriethecancan. While I am happy to concede to the fact that DD will get in where the school which is most apt will choose her, I have gathered from school runs/ playground chats that across the board, some very highly tutored kids got to the interview stage whereas perfectly capable, teachable, intelligent untutored kids did not make the cut. So how are independent schools differentiating themselves from the grammars which they deem to have a highly stressful entrance process? If anything it is disappointing to note the pattern in indies and is a scar on the system.
In terms of making up numbers for the interview: why would top independents need to do this? Am asking out of genuinely not knowing..This is when I thought that Headteacher interview meant the child was top of the list and the Head was merely ensuring that the child was not giving predicted, robot like answers. Perhaps not? Very muddled and now I am even more sure independent schools are not for us!