Brandon Learning Centre: British Education - process, preparation and practicalities

 Imagine that you are a ten year old boy and you are asked to write a quick descriptive piece ahead of your school interview. Where do you even start? Panic fills you, your mind refuses to co-operate and you are left with a blank sheet of paper.  If you are looking at Winchester College, your child will be asked to write a descriptive piece ahead of their interview.   Skills building depends on repetition; the more you practise, the easier you can access the skills under pressure. Think of an athlete repeating drills.  Stop the panic, learn a framework!  Here is a quick start for you.   Remember the five senses: sight, hearing, touch, taste, smell. Count them off on each finger.  Imagine that your prompt is: the cave, or a picture of a cave.  Sight: what can you see? Write it down Hearing: what sounds are arounding you? Are they different volumes? Write them down Touch: can you reach over and touch anything? Can you feel the gr...

 For the last twenty years, I have been working with students who are hoping to get into selective schools. Our parents are successful, motivated people and they want to help their children as much as they can. Which leads us to one of the biggest errors in interview preparation.... memorisation.   It is always so disheartening to try to interview a child and be bet with a barrage of pre-prepared answers. At best, these are unengaging, at worst they are garbled, rotobotic and express ideas unlikely to be natural for a ten year old.  Is your child REALLY reading Great Expectations? Really? Or do they gravitate towards Harry Potter and the Wings of Fire series?  An interviewer wants to know what makes your child tick, not how well they can memorise Wikipedia...  Do you remember how you used to talk about picture books when your child was young? Try to re-tap into their natural curiosity. A heartfelt discussion about whether Ron or Hermione would be a better f...