Critical Thinking Workshop

The competition for senior school entry at 11+ or 13+ is highly competitive, particularly in London schools or nationally for leading independent schools.  Often children display a similar academic demic performance in the 11+ or 13+ examinations and interviewers are increasingly using the interview to get to know and differentiate students.

In my experience, schools are evolving the interview process each year to keep the assessments novel, and ‘tutor-proof’. Interviewers and school leaders are keen to see how your child thinks and problem-solves. This workshop has been devised in response to feedback from my former students, to increase the confidence of my new cohort to respond to different question types.

In this 1.5-hour session, we will go through questions such as below which have been asked in previous 11+ interviews:

• Debatable questions: your child will be guided on how to approach debatable questions such as- Should a school uniform be compulsory? ‘Should footballers earn more than doctors? what do you think of social media?
• Philosophical questions: consider questions such as Does money make people happy? If you could go back in history, which era would you go back to and why?, ‘Tell me about two subjects in which there are overlaps.
• Value-based questions– to demonstrate the student will fit into the school ethos and be a good fit with the school values such as- What would you do if you had to work with someone you don’t like? how do you organise yourself for school? do you think it is ok if a boy wants to be a ballerina? Or what are the benefits of learning a new language?
• Topical questions– what do you think Rishi Sunak’s priorities should be? What do you think King Charles does all day? What do you think is the lasting impact of COVID-19?
• Problem-solving questions– such as- What would be a good invention for the future? how many people do you think could fit in this room?
• ‘Think outside the box’ questions – how would you utilise this basketball in three lessons of three different subjects? how many different things can you do with this shoelace?
• Riddles and brain teasers– for instance, In Rebecca’s world there is a law- the mirror has no reflection, the pizza has no cheese, there is pepper but no salt, a door but no entrance-what is Rebecca’s Law?

If you book the ‘online gold package’ or the ‘in-person platinum package’, this workshop is already included, and you will be contacted to confirm your preferred date of attendance.

Alternatively, you can book this workshop as a single session by selecting the dates below:

A recording will be provided after the session.