Assessments - private pre-prep

[camgirl]

Can anyone enlighten me about what the assessment for a 3+ year old will involve? I assume it's just a bit of play to see how they are with the other children? Or is there anything more to it? Anything I can do to prepare him?

I'd be very grateful for insights from anyone who has been through it.

wahwah1270 - it is stressful isn't it. We can have a mini support group ;)

I stayed in the room when my very shy dd was assessed at 3 and filled out quite a lengthy questionnaire with surprising detail on her development (At what age did she walk? Can she eat using knife and fork? [Yes, proud mummy emoticon] Can she use the toilet without assistance... etc). I didn't want to stare but saw out of the corner of my eye that dd was asked to play with the teacher matching things by colours and size, join in some counting and nursery rhymes, play with sand, water and playdoh, and draw a picture. My dd was quite attentive but did not say a single word the entire time! She got in and has turned into quite a confident little thing... [Phew]. I think it is impossible to coach for this kind of thing.

Meant to say good luck!!

I wasn't. In some ways it shows the purity of the system if a sibling doesn't get in . Some siblings are as thick as a plank. I wouldn't be happy with a school which let them in without more. Also this was 5+ entry in those days and they were/are pretty good at assessing who would fit into that school. Daughter 2 did really well at North London Collegiate and I would say the family hugely benefited from having girls at two very similar and very good schools. They would both say they were happy to have been at different ones. On the day she was disappointed but it worked out fine.

Xenia How did you manage drop off and pick up times with your dds in different schools? I must admit I will be mightily pissed off if dd2 does not get into dd1's school next year... They have no sibling policy, and I agree that each child should be offered a place on merit, but I couldn't cope with being in two places at the same time.

We had 4 different schools at one point as their father taught in yet another and we educated our children at single sex schools.

The girls got school coaches from age 4/7. That's why they are independent and strong and capable. It is a huge benefit to them compared to the molly coddled mummy's children who litter this country.

Also for seniors all 3 children had private school coaches from a short car distance from when we live so I would drive them down which admittedly with 2 two twin babies in the car at 7.40am was a bit of an exercise to get everyone ready .

Also get the driving theory test taken and passed at age 17 and pass driving tests at 17 , made a difference for us.

Also no sexism,. Men take and collect children int he real world not just women unless someone is silly enough to have married a sexist man I suippose but we weren't in that scenario.

QTPie it is a bit daft and a bit stressful but I do understand that if they have that many applicants, they need to work out a good mix for each class somehow. DS2 will barely be 2 1/2 when he does his assessment :( I feel his childhood is going by so fast.

Xenia - my older son has taken the private school minibus since he was 4. He loves it and it is wonderful for his independence.

I think that there is a lot to be said for accepting that different children may thrive at different schools, regardless of how convenient this is for the parents. And lots of schools make it easy these days with buses etc If nothing else, it helps with any sibling rivalry. The minute I took DS2 on a visit to DS1 school the kindergarten teacher said, ooooh, he seems to be a bit more outgoing than his brother! Yes, I said, but I don't really want him spending his education being known as DS1s brother...

Yes, there are pros and cons and my daughters who are both now at the post graduation stage which is the only reason I would mention their schools as it's quite far in the past, would both say they were happy to be at different schools - NLCS and Habs. It obviously helped that there is very little difference between the two and both are very selective and get very similar A level rules so it wasn't that one got in there and the other to our local comp which gets 34% A - C at GCSE level.

Xenia many thanks, you have given me food for thought. dd1 is at a girls' school and it is absolutely perfect for her. Sending dd2 to the same would be the easiest option but may not necessarily be the right choice. She's only 2 so I have time to see how her character develops before deciding on which school to send her to.

DS1 did an assessment for nursery entry to a pre-prep which claimed it was academic but still had a siblings policy . He went off with other children and "played" while I made bright and frantic conversation with other parents. Other parents doing the same - a woman I had seen once at Crechendo greeted me like a long lost friend. We were standing next to the school secretary at the time so obviously I kissed Crechendo mum warmly on both cheeks and trilled back. DS1 wore shorts, Thomas the Tank wellies and a fleece (in February). Other children in button down shirts, Argyll jumpers and nicely pressed chinos. I tried to look like I had wafted out of the Boden catalogue. I don't think my efforts were successful. However it was clearly the correct look.

DS1 got a place because they taught him how to do a jigsaw - showed he could learn apparently (& not, ahem, that his parents had been neglecting his development). He also went with the teacher and stayed nicely. Trantrum when we left because he didn't want to go! There was a playground he hadn't been to.... He is an April baby and was one of the youngest in the class when he started in September. Twins were at our assessment and one had to be rescued by his mother half way through - no sign of them when term started. The child who refused to take off her coat and smile at these strange grown ups who were being suspiciously over-familiar did get in.

At the time some wise mumsnetter suggested schools were looking for children who would be easy to teach. I think that's right. I certainly had a bad case of PFB about it as well, which didn't help me, though DS1 seemed not to notice.

They want bright ones too who will learn and perhaps a mix of noisy and clever ones. What would spoil the education of the others though it the child whom you can tell at 2 or 3 will be on ritalin by the time they are 5, who is kicking everyone and clearly cannot concentrate. Of course that child desrved a good education but most of us who pay fees won't want it stopping 14 other children learning anything so it may well not get in. Mind you our oldest has never shut up from birth (cried for 4 hours every night before bed as a tiny baby ) to her 20s now (finds it hard to sleep, noisy at work etc).

It seems ridiculous to me at that age. DS was as bright as a button, but he would have put his thumb in mouth and remained silent and then got home and said 'why was that lady asking me to......?!!

Habs used to do entry at 7+ when you can have English, maths and IQ tests but they genuinely found they could work out at 4 or 5 just as well who might fit in. Either they are good and it works (people aren't often weeded out from good schools who know how to choose the right children) or else you could say all children whatever IQ they have are a blank slate and you can make them what you choose by age 11 in the right school.

I did wonder briefly when my dd was assessed at 3 whether who was really assessed was me and how I would 'fit' the school as a parent.... Glad I passed the test though .

Well i think some schools, certainly my daughter's they deliberatey exclude the parents to ensure it's a kind of blind entrance process just like schools which mark the entrance papers without knowing the name, colour, religion etc of the pupils which is a much better purer way but I think it depends on the type of school, how academic it is and which part of the country you are in.

if it's a pupil down at birth and parents assessed type of school it usually means it's full of posh thickos.

I was just looking over this thread as DS assessment is very soon now and I really wanted to thank you Xenia your insights really helped and fridayschild, you made me laugh! Off to dust off the Boden.

And good luck to everyone else who is doing assessments at the moment.

DS was assessed for the nursery school at a pre-prep/prep about a month after his 3rd birthday and I had absolutely no idea what to expect. I found several other mothers who were on their 2nd or 3rd assessment (there are three boys preps in the area) and were a bit blase about the whole thing. We'd only applied for the one school for curriculum reasons, but was soon wishing I'd gone for at least one other!

The School Secretary sat next to me and so we talked about what they were looking for, and for them it was language, sociability and taking teachers' instructions.

I was terrified as DS is loud, articulate (falls into the doesn't ever shut up category) rabidly curious, independent (so far so good) but downright challenging when it comes to doing as he's told without a battle.

He was also the one child who marched out of the assessment after he'd asked a teacher where Mummy was. She told him I was just outside (talking to the Headmaster at the time) and out of the assessment room he marched, having announced he was going to find me!

I nearly died of embarrassment as I was led by a determined three-year-old back into the room, whilst trying to apologise to the Head.

He got in.

They now have him eating out of their hands, doing as he's told and sitting quietly when he's supposed to, and he's been offered a place in Reception for September.

Still don't know how they did it