Interviews for Private School Admissions

Interviews for Private School Admissions

As your child approaches the 11+ independent school interview, it’s natural to feel a mixture of excitement and nerves. This stage goes beyond academic assessments, giving schools the chance to understand your child as a whole person. While exam results indicate their academic potential, the interview reveals their personality, communication skills, and readiness to thrive in a new environment. Understanding what to expect and how to prepare can make all the difference in helping your child shine.

Reasons Many Independent Schools Interview Candidates

Selective independent schools use academic assessments so they can identify candidates who will be able to cope with their challenging curriculums. However, they want to offer places to children with much more about them than just academic ability. This is where the interview comes in.

An interview will enable a school to gain an insight into your child’s personality. The interviewer will be looking to see if your child has the following attributes:

• A desire to get involved in extra-curricular activities.
• A love of learning.
• An enthusiasm to make a positive contribution to school life.
• Excellent communication skills.
• The confidence to express their opinions.

Please do not worry if you cannot imagine your child doing well in an interview. There is plenty you can do to help them prepare and shine. We will discuss this more later. For now, let’s think a bit more about the interview itself.

The Format of the 11+ Interview

The interviewer will want to put your child at ease and help them enjoy the process, so please be assured that your child should not find it stressful. The interviewer will be a senior staff member, maybe even the Head, used to getting the best out of children. However, you are probably keen to know what your child can expect to happen in the interview.

You can look at your chosen school’s website to see if any details about the interview are given or ask the private school’s admissions team. If you are unable to get any information, be prepared for the interview to cover the following:

Hobbies and Interests

Asking your child about their hobbies and interests is an excellent way for the school to determine if they will make the most of the extra-curricular opportunities on offer. Schools can be particularly keen to offer places to children who are gifted musically or excel at sports.

Reading

Your child may well be asked about the most recent book they have read. Reading is essential because it can, amongst many other things, increase emotional intelligence and enhance analytical reasoning. The school will be eager to see if your child is a keen reader.

Talking about an object

Some schools ask candidates to take an item to the interview that they can talk about. It could be a treasured possession or something your child is proud of. The school will let you know if your child needs to take an object in.

Current affairs and topical issues

Asking your child about current affairs and topical issues is a great way to assess their communication skills and ability to form and express an opinion. It is also a great way to check whether they are interested in the world around them.

Academic ability

Don’t rule out that the school might use the interview to further assess your child’s academic ability. Your child might, for example, be asked to read a passage out loud or solve a mathematical problem.

Critical thinking

The interviewer will want to evaluate your child’s critical-thinking skills, which they might do by giving your child a specific task. Critical thinking is about making reasonable judgements based on information you are given.

You can do many things to help your child prepare for the interview, and you can fit these things into your everyday lives.

How To Help Your Child Prepare for the 11+ Interview

We have several suggestions for preparing for the interview, which we hope you find helpful. You and your child can work as a team, so not only will they get ready for the interview, but you will also have quality time together.

Ask your child questions about their hobbies so they get used to talking about them. If they don’t have any specific hobbies, encourage them to pick a club to join and an activity to do at home, such as cooking or gardening.

Please encourage your child to read and ask them questions about the books they have read. You could ask them who their favourite character is and why. You could ask them to discuss what they liked about the book and what they didn’t like.

Pick up an object in the house and ask your child to talk about it. If they struggle to know what to say, you could talk about a few objects yourself first to show your child how it is done. This is also a good show of support and role modelling: “You’re right, it’s tricky to talk about something on the spot!” and then work through what would be interesting to say about the object.

Discuss current affairs and topical issues with your child. Ask for their opinion on certain things and ask them why some people might think differently. We understand that it can be challenging to know whether some news items are appropriate for children, so we suggest your child accesses news aimed at their age group. Have a look at First News Education.

Take opportunities to test your child academically. When you are out shopping, you could ask your child to add up the cost of the shopping as you go along. When baking a cake together, you could ask your child how much flour you would use if you doubled or halved the ingredients.

Create opportunities for your child to talk to unfamiliar people. Your child may feel nervous about speaking to somebody they don’t know in the interview. You can help eliminate this worry by encouraging them to talk to unfamiliar people when appropriate. If you’re unsure where something is in a shop, you could get your child to ask. Make sure your child orders their own food when you are in a café or restaurant. Encourage them to converse with neighbours or members of your community.

Practice positive body language. Your child’s body language will communicate a lot to the interviewer. Having positive body language will not only make a good impression but it will also help your child to feel more confident. Get them to practice sitting up straight with their shoulders back, not fidgeting and making comfortable eye contact. You can show them different body language and ask them to interpret what your body language is saying so they become aware of how crucial it is. If your child is prone to fidgeting, encourage some light exercise before practising interview techniques. They can also divert fidgeting to wiggling their toes inside their shoes.

Look at the school’s website together. Hopefully, your child will have attended an open event or a personal tour at your chosen school and already knows a lot about the place. Looking at the school’s website together is also a great idea. Your child can think about questions they may want to ask about the school in the interview and can look to see what they think they will particularly enjoy there. The interviewer will be impressed if your child shows they are knowledgeable about the school and is also interested in the school being a good fit for them. 

Not only will our suggestions prepare your child for their interview, but they will also help them develop skills that will help them throughout life.

Additionally, we have some top tips for the interview itself to share with you.

Top Tips for the 11+ Interview

Please go through these tips with your child before the interview:

• Ask the interviewer to repeat a question if you didn’t hear it properly. It is better to do this than to guess what they said and give an unrelated response.
• Ask the interviewer to re-word a question if you didn’t understand it. You can’t answer a question well if you don’t know what you are answering.
• The interviewer needs to follow what you say, so speak slowly and clearly. We all tend to talk fast when nervous, but take a deep breath and remind yourself not to do this.
• Don’t feel you must respond as soon as the interviewer stops speaking. It is OK to take a moment to think about your response. You can even say, ‘I just need a moment to think.’ They will probably be impressed by the maturity this shows.
• It’s OK to not know the answer – an interview is about learning who you are as a person and your ability to think through problems or challenges. Even if your answer is incorrect, being able to communicate your thought process carries a lot of weight.
• Remember how important first impressions are. Research has shown that people form an opinion about someone in less than a second! This means it is essential that positive body language and good manners start from the moment you enter the school. It also means it is important to look clean and smart.

The Value of Mock Interviews and Expert Support  

We understand how reassuring it can be to have professional input, advice and feedback when it comes to something as important as securing a place at your chosen school.

Professional interview workshops provide a safe, structured environment to practise:

• Confidence building: Familiarity with the format reduces anxiety.
• Feedback from experts: Children receive actionable guidance on communication, body language, and problem-solving.
• Role-playing challenging scenarios: Children practise handling unexpected questions, group discussions, and one-to-one conversations.
• Mock interviews ensure your child arrives at their real interview prepared, calm, and confident, maximising their chances of success.

For these reasons, be sure to visit our Courses page and join our newsletter to be the first to know about when we’re hosting Interview Workshops. We typically host these in December or early January each year.

Interview Workshops: 7+ 8+ and 11+ Entry  

We are confident your child will benefit enormously from attending one of our workshops. Experts will lead the workshops, and by the end of the afternoon, your child will feel much more confident about their ability to smash their interview. They will also gain valuable experience and insight into performing well in a group assessment, which many private schools also have as part of their school admissions process.

Preparing for Life, Not Just the Interview

While the immediate goal is a successful interview, the skills your child develops – critical thinking, self-expression, resilience, social confidence – are invaluable beyond the admissions process. The experience teaches them to communicate effectively, reflect thoughtfully, and navigate new situations with assurance.

If you have any questions about our workshops, please contact us. We are here to help your child secure a place at their chosen school.