Pre school assessment (nursery)

[JJAB3009]

Hi. My son will be assessed for a nursery position at an independant nursery. Do any mums/dads/teachers know what this will entail? What are they looking for? He's only 3. I'm keen on giving him the best chance but I'm worried as he is slightly speech delayed. Anyone with any insights?

[OverTheRainbow88]

Have you maybe misunderstood?
Ours is a private nursery and did a home visit to learn more about our son, but wasn’t an assessment.

[mooncakes]

Is he well behaved, confident, chatty - can he talk about stories? Can he draw, can he use scissors? Follow instructions?

@OverTheRainbow88 think this is about an independent school nursery not a normal nursery - they are selective.

[OverTheRainbow88]

Ah sorry; my bad.

[newnamenancy]

Ours have been fairly simple:

• colouring in (important to put the lid back on the pens and tidy them up)
• size ordering objects
• interest in books
• generally chatter, confidence
• ability to answer questions and engage in simple conversation

One of mine politely refused to do all the activities and only wanted to play with the kitchen. He still got in.

[msatlantis]

From memory my son was encouraged to make marks/draw, a teacher chatted a bit to him about shapes, he was asked to stack some items, that sort of thing. It wasn't completely obvious to my son that he was being 'assessed'. It was sort-of built into play.

[newnamenancy]

Oh, I forgot:

• building a duplo building
• stacking blocks to make a tower
• shape identification

[Twilightstarbright]

I've always heard they want the children who are interested in puzzles or books but no idea if it's true!

[LondonGirl83]

Depends on the nursery. Mixed ability school nurseries are just looking for children who are well behaved with no obvious issues.

More selective schools are looking at the EYFS skills including for the most competitive early number and literacy skills.

[KimchiLaLa]

@LondonGirl83

Depends on the nursery. Mixed ability school nurseries are just looking for children who are well behaved with no obvious issues.

More selective schools are looking at the EYFS skills including for the most competitive early number and literacy skills.

How do they assess early number and literacy? Do you mean counting/seeing if they can write their name?