Rugby School interviews every 13+ candidate, and it does so twice. On the assessment day your child meets a Housemaster or Housemistress for a conversation focused on pastoral fit, and a Moderator for a conversation focused on academic potential. Both are built partly around the handwritten questionnaire your child completes beforehand. The interviews are friendly rather than formal, but they carry real weight in the decision. This guide explains what each involves, what Rugby looks for, and how to help your child prepare without turning them into a rehearsed performer.
- How many
- Two: one pastoral, one academic
- Pastoral interview
- With a Housemaster or Housemistress
- Academic interview
- With a Moderator
- Based on
- The handwritten questionnaire and your child's interests
- Alongside
- A group activity, a house tour and lunch with pupils
The two interviews
Rugby's assessment day includes two distinct interviews, and it helps to understand the purpose of each. The interview with a Housemaster or Housemistress is pastoral in focus, exploring how your child will settle into boarding life, what they enjoy outside the classroom, and whether they will thrive in a house community. The interview with a Moderator is academic in focus, exploring how your child thinks, what engages them intellectually, and what they read and are curious about. Both are conversational rather than interrogations, and both draw on the handwritten questionnaire your child completes before the day, so the questions tend to follow your child's own stated interests. A child who is comfortable talking about what they genuinely enjoy, and honest when they are unsure, comes across far better in both than one delivering answers learned by heart.
What Rugby is looking for
Across the two interviews, Rugby is forming a rounded picture of your child along two dimensions: whether they will fit and flourish pastorally in a boarding house, and whether they have the academic curiosity and potential to thrive in Rugby's classrooms. The school is not looking for a polished performer or a child who can recite facts. It is looking for someone who is genuinely interested in things, who can talk about them with warmth, who works well with others, and who will contribute to the life of the school.
The interviews are about who your child is and what engages them, not how many facts they can recite.
This shapes how you prepare. A child who can talk warmly about a book they love, a hobby they pursue, or an idea they find genuinely interesting, and explain why, will impress far more than one who arrives with rehearsed, pre-packaged answers.
Common interview themes
No two Rugby interviews are identical, and because both draw on the questionnaire, the questions are tailored to your child. That said, they tend to explore familiar ground. Your child may be asked about the subjects and activities they enjoy and why, about a book they have read or an interest they pursue, and about what attracts them to Rugby in particular. The pastoral interview may touch on how they feel about boarding and living away from home, how they get on with others, and what they do outside lessons. The academic interview may invite them to think aloud about an idea or a problem, so questions without a single right answer are common. None of this needs a scripted response. What helps is a child who has thought a little about why they want to go to Rugby and can speak honestly and warmly about themselves.
How to prepare your child
The aim is a confident, genuine child, not a rehearsed one, so the best preparation looks very little like exam practice. The single most useful thing you can do is have real conversations at home, so your child is used to expressing and explaining their opinions. Encourage them to think about what they enjoy and why, and to come up with a question or two they would genuinely like to ask about Rugby. Make sure the handwritten questionnaire is done thoughtfully and in good time, in their own words, since it shapes both interviews. Reading with reflection helps, as does any experience of being away from home, which makes the prospect of boarding feel familiar rather than daunting. A single relaxed practice conversation can settle nerves, but more than that risks making your child sound coached. For the academic side that runs alongside the interviews, our guide to the Rugby assessment covers the wider day.
Help your child make the most of the Rugby assessment day
Our consultants run realistic, supportive mock interviews tailored to Rugby's two-interview format, building genuine confidence rather than rehearsed answers. Book a free consultation to find out how we can help.
Book a free consultationOn the day
A few practical things help your child give their best across the day. A good night's sleep matters more than last-minute preparation, and arriving in good time means they are relaxed rather than flustered. They should know that the staff they meet want them to do well, and that it is completely fine to pause and think before answering, or to say they are not sure. Encourage them to throw themselves into the group activity, share their ideas, talk to the current pupils at lunch, and be themselves in both interviews. Because the day is designed to see the whole child, one who treats it as a chance to show who they are, rather than a test to pass, tends to come across exactly as Rugby hopes.
A note for parents
It is natural to want to prepare your child thoroughly, but Rugby's staff are experienced at telling a genuinely curious child from a heavily coached one, and they consistently favour the former. Your most valuable contribution is not drilling answers. It is giving your child a home where ideas are discussed, opinions are welcomed, and reading and real interests are part of daily life, and making sure they complete their questionnaire honestly and in their own words. That preparation lasts well beyond a single day, and it happens to be exactly what the school is trying to find.
