Help: informal indie interview

[blessedmum]

Please help, advice appreciated.

I have just been invited to come for an informal int with my dd at an Indie we are applying to. Anyone experienced this before. What are they expecting from myself and my dd? Told them dh will not be available and can we have another slot but told he does not need to attend.

What sort of questions to they ask?

[hermanmunster]

really depends where it is an what other schools people locally apply to. They will want to see how your DD gets on and chat about interests, books read etc They may be keen to see if you are VERY keen on this school or is it a back up? - how likely are they to have your DD there if she is offered a place. What you say about this is up to you - you can :

a) be honest (explain whatever you are doing)
b) give the impression that it is the only place you would consider
c) say you are applying elsewhere

al lot of people do (b) - I think the schools expect them to say that ... however they are well aware of kids "doing the rounds", In the midlands one of the schools used to have the reputation of interviewing the parents and only taking those who they were convinced would accept the place, they hated being turned down - nearly all were taking 3 anyway and often got offered 3. All got a bit silly really.

[skools]

We experienced this last year at one indie. Was as informal as things can be. Our DD went in for a chat with Headmistress on her own first. Chatted about what subjects she enjoyed in primary school, what she had read lately, what she liked about primary school and what she would change. What activities she did outside school, what she was looking forward to about seniors. Nothing about what other schools we looking at or whether she preferred one school or another., She was in there in about 20 minutes.
Then my DH and I went in. She said how delightful DD was ! and asked if we had any questions about the school. We asked a few questions and then chatted a bit about DD.
That was it. We were in with Headmistress for about half an hour, very relaxed she didn't ask if her school was our number 1 choice , they must know people apply to more than one.
Really think it was a chance to see if DD was the sort of girl who would fit into her school.

[daughter]

We did this a couple of years ago with DD2. We didn't prepare in terms of questions but I went through remember to answer in full sentences, pleases, thank yous etc ... and also don't burp, don't f**t. Needless to say the one thing I forgot to mention was don't yawn ... which of course she did. The Headmistress then asked if she was tired ... luckily she said yes - better than her saying she was bored! She was accepted. DD3 has since been for the same interview - I now say don't burp, dont f**t and don't yawn.

[blessedmum]

Thank you so much everyone
Daughter thanks for that. I should remind her not to burp, f**t and dont yawn. On the full sentences what gets to me is the "yeah" I keep saying there is an "S" at the end of "ye". It makes me cringe.

[muffinmonster]

Hi blessedmum. My DS had a similar interview recently - you can read about it on this thread:

http://www.elevenplusexams.co.uk/forum/ ... 31&t=14470

The beginning of the thread is about bringing materials to the interview, but there's some more general stuff later on, including what the actual interview was like.

Good luck to your DD.

[blessedmum]

Thanks a lot muffinmonster. This forum has been invaluable.

[blessedmum]

Thanks for all your advice.

The interview went well. I got there and saw another girl from another school with a huge folder and lots of medals and I was thinking oh no, we're not prepared

went in and we were told this does not form part of the assessment at all but its just a chance for us to ask questions and find out a bit more about the school.

Also the assessment process has changed and we were given details of the new process plus scholarship details. We were asked to give feedback about the open morning held a couple of weeks ago and dd was invited to come back for a taster morning.

DD was asked if she felt this will be the right school for her and did she see herself fitting in nicely. She was asked if there is nay other part of the school she will like to see again, she choose the art studio as she loves art and that was it.

[muffinmonster]

Glad it went well, blessedmum.

[sherry_d]

Thats nice to hear, I too was worried about my DD's only for her to be asked two question about the activities they had done the night before so it was just a conversation with an adult.