Top 12 books your child should read before they are 12
Twelve challenging and rewarding books which should read before the age of 12. They will stay with you for life.
read moreCategory: School Interview Skills
Five ways to FAIL in your school interview
I have just finished reading Alice’s adventures in Through the Looking Glass, so here is a tongue-in-cheek mirror-world version of my usual tips! 5: Have no idea about the school (including the name sometimes!) Seriously, this is really an issue, particularly when agencies have big fairs, generate a list of schools and then plonk the…
read moreTeach Your Child to Love Reading: Shakespearean Drama and Performance
What if you could transform the way your child experiences stories? Drama can help children not just see words on a page, but provide them with opportunities to explore and the freedom to imagine. Performance allows the words on the page to come to life, and ignites a new way of experiencing a story. Actors, sets,…
read moreTeach Your Child to Love Reading: Graphic Novels Exploring Shakespeare
Do you want to encourage your child to engage in reading? There’s no better place to start than the Bard himself, king of the UK English curriculum, William Shakespeare. With plotting uncles, epic battles, and maybe even a talking donkey or two, it is clear to see how Shakespeare has captured the hearts of so…
read moreNovember Poem: In Flanders Fields
November 11th is a poignant time in the UK, and acts as our day of remembrance. Usually accompanied by a two-minute silence, we are reminded that on the eleventh hour, of the eleventh day of the eleventh month was the moment the guns of the First World War fell silent. Nowadays, it is common to…
read moreSchool Interviews – Looking At The World Differently
Your child is unlike any other. They have insights, ideas and interests which are unique to them. School interviews are a time when this should shine forth! The worst advice I hear is that students should memorise answers for interviews. The best interview is a conversation. Even if a child is an Oscar-level actor, interviewers…
read moreTop Tips for School interviews – the book question!
We’ll be posting a new series of top tips for school interviews starting with the classic question; what are you reading now? This question has come up in interviews for school as diverse as Wellington College, Beneden and Harrow School. In this video, Dr Jessica shares a few ideas… and a few things to avoid!…
read moreInterview seasons – Get ready now!
If your child is going into year 6 and you are applying to UK selective schools, you will be heading into interview season! Remember these stages: 1: Create your timetable. The first step is going to be taking the ISEB Pre-test (Winchester, Eton, Westminster, St Paul’s, Tonbridge) and you need to be ready for…
read more“My friend says that the ISEB Pretest pass mark is … ” and other myths!
If your child has just taken the ISEB Pre-test as part of their Eton, Winchester, Tonbridge, Charterhouse, Wellington, Cranleigh, St Paul’s (continue ad infinitum, see the list here!) then you may well be surrounded by a fog of panic and misinformation. So here we go, the top myths… 1: There is a pass mark…
read moreAlmost there, but not quite – Waiting List Woes
You get through the ISEB Pre-test, fly through the interviews… only to get a waiting list offer. Don’t despair! A waiting list place is NOT a rejection. You are still in the picture. In 2020, five of my boys moved from reserve to general places at Winchester. One of my boys moved from the Eton waiting list…
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