4+ school assessment rejection

[Pyracantha1]

Where we live the competition for state schools is very fierce. Too many children and far fewer places in good state schools. So people often have no choice but to apply to local private schools in case their child does not get into a good state school.

So my 3.5 year old had an 'assessment' at one of these private schools and we have now Been told that he was unsuccessful. This particular school I didn't really like anyway but it was a backup option.

I didn't expect to feel so bad after getting the rejection but to be honest it stings. My son is very bright, well behaved, inquisitive and loved his time at that school. So I am not sure what went wrong that they rejected him.

Anybody have insight into these 4+ assessments? What are the general reasons for rejection? AIBU to feel bad for my son even though I didn't particularly care about this school?

YAB a bit U, but there again no one likes rejection for themselves or their children.

They probably had far more 'bright, well behaved and inquisitive' kids than they had places. This goes all the way to Oxbridge where they will have far more qualified applicants than places too. Sometimes it is luck of the draw.

ps If you do end up with a state school, you may find the state schools aren't as bad as you think. Plus, think of all the tutoring / enrichment you could do with money not spent on private school. Plus further, if people like you send you child to state, you will help the state school improve. (Which is probably no consolation at all.)

YNBU to feel bad.
There are several threads in Primary Education that discuss the 4+ assessments and often requests for insight to a particular school.

Not wishing to be harsh, but your assessment of your child is possibly at odds with the school's and presumably they saw something which made them think they were not right for him. I'm not a fan of it all myself but such schools do have a great deal of experience in assessment of potential pupils and if he s not going to manage for whatever reason, it's better you know now.

My suspicion is that a lot of these assessments come down to who you know and the contribution of the parents to the school.

Also the school tend not to focus on academics so much. My daughter knew the alphabet by two, was reading by four and can count beyond 100. She knows addition, subtraction and the two times tables in her last year at pre school (state by the way). The fact is the first term at reception all the other kids catch up so early academics are less important to a school than whether Mummy can donate £5,000 of books etc. because she works for a publisher or Daddy can get work experience for the secondary school pupils at Inns of Court.

I find the very idea of assessing 4 years old ridiculous and I would not be sending my child to any school that thought this was appropriate, you have dodged a bullet!

don't feel bad, these "assessments" are meaningless

There will be a lot of factors at play - maybe they are not strong in what they think are his strongest area. maybe they have sibling priority, and trying to balance the class for gender and temperament (and had already loads of energeetic boys). they don’t want a class with 20 boys and 2 girls, or 20 extrovert kids and 2 introverts. or they realised they are only your back up option. loads of reasons

Generally these assessments aren't looking too much at academic ability at 4+ but how the children relate to other children in a play setting. Also it may be a heavy year for siblings. My DC school had 16 out of 20 reception places taken by siblings the year my DC2 started. Of course any rejection at that age feels terrible for you. But take heart that it could be many other circumstances other than his ability.

(and quite often they don’t look for academics abilities,but for social ones). They’ll teach them to read and write, but they want a class that works well together with inquisitive, socially competent kids, and might have gotten your son on an off day. My oldest couldn‘t read or even reliably count to 10 at 4. He was very good at sharing, good manners, asking questions and volunteering answers though

An assessment at 3.5 is absurd! At 3.5 my DS was only just out of nappies and giving up the dummy. He's now at Secondary in all the top sets. It's far too young to judge their academic ability in my opinion. Don't worry about your son he sounds perfect as he is.

Any school that assesses at 3 years is ludricous and EOD not get my vote. Children change and develop.

@lilraven mostly these have nothing to do with academic abilities.

How many spaces were there? When we were in the private system, DS2’s intake was filled with 15 siblings and only 3 non siblings (siblings not guaranteed a place but would be very unusual). The teachers looked more for how well they followed instructions and got on with the rest of the group at assessment than how bright they were.

I wouldn’t take it to heart. It’s a numbers game and there are so many factor at play. They would only have so many places for a boy born in a particular month. Your son may not have been n the right mood that day etc. I agree it’s pretty meaningless (except for outliers). And my children are at such a school. At least it wasn’t something you set your heart on...

As an example, my oldest couldn’t read, write his name of count reliably at 4. He did follow instructions well, gave thectask his own creative twist (didn’t do only what hecwas asked to butnoffered some extra), helped immediately when clean up time came, asked for directions when he needed them and shared craft supplies with others.

No I woulden't worry, he is still only little, and has a lot of development yet to come. It probably is a numbers game.

My niece was unsuccessful at her 4 year assessment for a local private school. I'm not sure why her parents thought it was a good idea to look at the school because they had an excellent state school nearby.

Anyway, she went on to achieve 4 excellent A levels and a 2.1 science degree from a Russell Group university, so it didn't do her any harm.

Tbh I doubt they care about how inquisitive, charming and well behaved your child is. They will be looking to see if can they read and what are their early maths skills like. And does this child have parents who will push their child academically at home to ensure they get results which will help us sell our school.
They will likely get a much better quality of education at the local state school. Results probably won’t be as good but then they aren’t only taking the smart middle class kids with tutors.

They will be concerned about behaviour within reason but so long as your child isn’t disruptive in a way that would be off putting to other parents it wouldn’t be a problem.

Honestly I wouldn't worry about the rejection (easier said than done). If the school is over subscribed it will just come down to very minor and often subjective differences in how the children reacted on the day. It's really no reflection on how well he's going to do in education. Believe it or not there are people who go to insane lengths to prepare kids for these assessments (specific nurseries, even tutors for 3 year olds) so that may factor in to it too.

Even though my eldest is academically very bright I avoided selective schools because I just hated the pressured environment. I also knew that he might just be a quick starter - being an early reader and good at maths doesn't mean he'll continue to excel so I wanted him in a mixed ability environment. I know not every area has the luxury of non selective but good schools so this isn't meant to come across as judgemental. Good luck.

I can see where you're coming from - any knock back for our kids is a personal knock back.

Honestly it is no indicator at all of future success (or happiness!) - they have 20-30 minutes to assess how bright/sociable a child is and it's all completely random. They may well be oversubscribed and had to see loads of kids for v few places - so any selection process is very arbitrary.

Among my friendship group, the 11+ results bore no relation at all to the 4+ ones - kids who didn't get into 'the' prep' school still went on to get places (and even scholarships) to their preferred 11+ choice.

HTH

at high school stage my very bright ds was rejected by school which was nearest to us after his very successful results (staight a stars) he looked round for 6th form they offered him place & kept pursuing him to go there although he had already got into another v good 6th form elsewhere - I know other kids that got in & it was basically because there father had a business (MONEY!!!) I took a lot of pleasure in his success elsewhere & him turning the school down. Don't take it personally about your son its their problem with attitudes & your dc will flourish elsewhere

And if it’s any consolation I wouldn’t want my child going to a school that felt it appropriate to test 3 yr olds!
My ds managed to get in to the local grammar (and was also offered 2 other scholarships) despite going to a state primary. If a child is bright they will do well in any school.

Wtaf? 4+ assessment? I despair.

Speaking as someone who went to a selective primary school, I can tell you, they don’t always get it right.

Out of my class of about 20, I’d say only about 10 were really clever and ended up going to good universities.

The others ended up going to polytechnics/private unis.

Wtaf? 4+ assessment? I despair

They’ve been around for years!

They’re mostly for private junior schools attached to secondary schools - the secondary school will want as many junior school girls as possible to stay on, so if the primary school wasn’t selective, they’d end up having to reject a lot more of their own pupils than if they assess for ability at 4.