Hi everyone, I have recently had my child went to the Victorian high school academic scholarship test for year 7 entry in 2020 with a couple private schools. They use ACER and Edutest as part of requirement. We were told to wait for a couple weeks before any interview or notice about the result yet. Have any one been through this before for your children. If we manage to pass the 1st very competitive stage of the written test, how is the second round? . Any advice or recommendation would be greatly appreciate. We are thinking of paying for the full tuition but the thought of being able to obtain a scholarship is extremely helpful at this stage. What are your experience, put aside the discussion between private and public pros and cons, with private high school , particularly Victorian system.
Thanks in advance.
High School Scholarships with Private Schools
Comments
Is your child academically strong? Do they want to do the assessment?
If so, they should be ok with maybe just a little coaching about how to approach the assessment, handle nerves on the day, etc., (not subject focused).
In not so academically strong, or even not interested, just get them enrolled in your local government high school.
Been there. Done that :) last couple weekends !!!. Now we are waiting for the next stage.
I'm in NSW. 2 kids, and the younger one is doing academic scholarship exam next month for the year 7 enrolment in 2020. Very competitive from what I can see. However according to some who have done both scholarship exam & selective high school test, they reckoned NSW selective high school tests are harder.
Not sure what advice or recommendation you are after, especially you have already done the exams and have already decided to enrol to that school regardless the outcome.
Thanks for reply.Yes we did the test. Good luck with your kid in the next few weeks then.
To me, the Victorian academic scholarship may be quite competitive because of the narrow selection. What happen is after the test, we still have to go through the interview process. I wonder have any of us here had been through this and what to be best prepared for if our chances ever come. Also on the top of that, what is the social interaction of a scholarship awarded child with other class mate, would there be anything we need to be concern or aware of speaking from your own experiencesMy 2nd kid is under quite a bit of pressure, partially because her older sister got some scholarship from the same school (so I am a bit experienced regarding your questions). Not really fair for her though, as everyone is different. She is more of an all rounder, rather than excelling academically, which puts her into a bit of disadvantage with scholarship tests. We too are ready to pay full-fee though, and gee, independent schools in Sydney are expensive.
Anyway back to your questions:
What happen is after the test, we still have to go through the interview process.
We had interviews before the test. Afterwards we just received a letter congratulating us for getting the scholarship. During the interview they would ask whether we will still consider enrolling if we didn't get the scholarship — which we said yes, but other friends have warned that school might sometimes give the scholarship to those who otherwise would not come.
Otherwise it's just a normal interview. Like appraisals — get your kid to prepare to answer why s/he should be the one receiving the scholarship.
social interaction of a scholarship awarded child with other class mate
You do find that not only with other classmates, but also teachers as well, as they have different expectations with scholarship kids. After all it's Sydney Eastern suburb private school. There are some smart nerdy kids, and there are some extravagant snotty kids — they don't usually hangout together (especially when the nerdy ones are also frugal, bargain-hunting type).
Getting into private school the OzBargain way! Go for it Scotty junior!
I did the selective test a long time ago but it was very easy
Regarding the interview, my daughter did an interview for select entry (after the test). It was a group interview, with parents in the room. I'm sure scholarships won't be group interview but having watched it was clear which of the kids had been heavily coached - they were like parrots reeling off prepared speeches that didn't appear to be their own words or even answer the question
I'm in Sydney. Both my daughters currently have full scholarships but in different private high schools. The 2nd round was very different for both kids.
In the first one, the interview was basically an 'offer' interview. She got an academic scholarship. For the second daughter, 2 years after the first (last year), the 2nd round was an interview of the child with the parents in the room. Questions were along the lines of "What attracts you to this school?", "How will you contribute to the school?" etc. This was an all rounder scholarship. We were asked if we would join if we did not get a scholarship and we said "No".
In the end, it came to a decision between a good selective school and an independent private, and we chose the private with the scholarship. This was mainly because of the access to good sporting facilities as well as a better teacher-student ratio.
Both my daughters currently have full scholarships
Wow… you must be doing something right! Good work! hahaha
What do you consider to be a better teacher-student ratio? 20 students per class?
Thank you all for your comments. It is informative for us now to figure out a little bit what the next step will be. Well done to any of you who had put a foot into the private schooling for their children. I have been to a few forums and noted there is always a heated discussion about private and public schooling. To me at the end it is probably not the destination that matters, it is the journey that counts the most. For us, now it is a waiting and see approach before next move. Cheers.
Hi all, I now have the result for my daughter. Out of the two spots we got one and we had now completed the whole enrolment process.The interview was not so bad. It is pretty straight forward and we are really happy because this school is much closer to home and seems to be more caring and support. I think we were just too anxious. Once you got into the interview the chance seems to be much further away from nil. Thanks god this over for now and I can sleep better.
Get them into a past participle programme stat!