Reception Interviews/Assessments - Help!

[Earlybird]

DD is due to start reception in September '05. Quite a while ago, I put her name down for several private schools, and sent in registration fees. I am not English, so this entire process is alien to me, but am told that I will be contacted soon by the schools to arrange an interview/assessment for dd. As I understand it, we will go to each school sometime after Christmas. She will be placed in a room with several other children she doesn't know, and will spend about an hour with a representative of each school. Based on how she "performs", we will be offered a place....or not.

To be honest, the prospect of this entire process makes me anxious. DD is bright, but quite shy, and is initially nervous in new situations. She seems to do best when I can prepare her for unfamiliar situations. Any tips on what they're likely to be looking for?

It seems a bit mad that children are already "labeled" and accepted/rejected at such a young age, but that seems to be how the system works. Any advice on how I can make this entire process easier for her (and me!) would be much appreciated. Also as we won't have the advantage of alumni or sibling policies, would appreciate any advice for how to "play the game" as a prospective new parent. I don't want to get caught up in the manic school anxiety I see exhibited by parents of some of dd's contemporaries, but also don't want to lose out by being too casual about it. Help!

I've only got anecdotal experience of this, as we went for a private school that has open entry - suspect in a different area to where you are, though, but happy to talk offline if you're interested in details.

Anyway: processes vary, but some I've heard of: a series of puzzles at a series of tables, starting easy and getting harder, object being to see child's persistence/problem solving abilities/self-directedness; "real-life" tests like a table with 4 little girls but only 3 toys; and general observation with the aim of putting together a class which is a good mix of personalities. I would have found the first two kinds of process easier to cope with, in a way, as you might be able to prepare for them - but the "mix of personalities" idea is just luck .

Oh, I always think of my main point after I've posted.

I wanted to say: my own gut feel is that it's the children who actually seem to have fun at their assessments who come top of the list for places. So the most you can do for dd to get her to relax and enjoy herself will be the most helpful (I think)!

binkie - thanks for your thoughts/advice.

Anyone else? Any anecdotes/suggestions will help me more than you know as I struggle to understand and demystify this proceedure! Thanks.

Earlybird, a few other tests that I know of - drawing a picture of a person to see if the child includes things like hands, fingers etc. Colouring in a picture using the colours the teacher asks them to use for particular bits. Identifying their name from a set of name tags (often they need to be able to identify their surname as well). All the schools set different tests though, and it may be helpful to ask around and see if anyone knows the focus of the particular schools you have applied for. Its also useful to find out just what the odds are - the schools will sometimes tell you how many applicants they had in a previous year and how many placed they offered.

I am reading this with interest. DS will be 4 on August 27th next year and is down for September 05 entry. How on earth can he "compete" on some of these tasks with children who are almost a year older?

Further thought: my grandpa (headmaster of a boys' prep school years and years ago) apparently used to ask boys when their birthday was - said response to that was failsafe test.

(As on note below, it's probably got as much to do with wanting to answer (and then chat about birthdays, etc.) as to being able to produce the date.)

azure

We had a friend with 2 dd 's who have both been through this recently . Her dd2 was only 3 in September last year when she took the assessment in the Novemeber, and passed with the result that she started Reception this Septemebr at almost 4, with children a full year older. I'm sure they take younger ages into account in assessing their point of development/maturity.

dd is 4 the day after your ds and doesn't seem to have to got through this, although I think the private school she is due to go to next September would like to meet her for a visit during the summer term , but her place is not conditional on that - it just depends on each school's selection procedures. In fact we have already been told by the same school that even for ds, who is 7 in March, it is potential that they are judging not purely actual achievement through their assessment papers which we will submit shortly. Whether that proves strictly true remains to be seen.

Forms of assessment used at this level I've heard of are :-
Drawing a person - do they draw just a head, a face, add arms and legs, body, eyebrows and other details ? Perhaps a house or similar too.
Joining the dots in a particular order. Colouring in the lines.
Observations of general play /Role play.
Conversation
Listening to a story and responding.
Attempting to write name.

And many of these activities are also used in LEA Reception classes when children begin, for the baseline assessment.

Thanks for this information. It's just the sort of thing I need to understand how the process works.

By complete chance, I found out that dd and her classmates were actually assessed yesterday by the upper school head (no advance notice to parents so that everyone would be relaxed, evidently). The head spoke to each child individually, looked at their pencil control, asked them to cut paper with scissors, asked them to identify letters, asked them to do some colouring, and watched them interact with the other children to observe them with their peers.

Evidently dd did well, and I've been told off the record that we'll be offered a place by the end of the month. This school is not my first choice, but tbh, I haven't even had a tour yet as I'm scheduled to go next week.

No matter what happens with the other schools, it's a huge relief to know that dd will have some place to go as state schools in my area are dire. Who knows, we may be fortunate enough to be offered places at several different schools. I had nightmare visions of a worst case scenario with no place offered anywhere. DD is lovely and bright (of course I'd think so ), so I'm glad to know that came through when she was being observed by an impartial judge!

Issymum - absolutely LOVE the idea of a fairy party for the assessment interview!

Well done! A weight off your mind to know there's a back up. Not sure where you are, but in our area of London the schools do play a game with offering places. They seem to all offer in a different fortnight and the order of offers seemed to me to follow the formula that the most popular (or most in demand) school offered last. That meant that parents had to accept offers at their lower choice schools (and thereby pay the acceptance fee) before knowing if they had an offer at one of their higher choice schools. As it was, we paid two registrations, but we were only applying to two schools. I have heard of other parents who shelled out what we would consider a fortune, accepting each offer as it came in and waving goodbye to the registration fee from the "less desirable" school. I couldn't see a way around it I'm afraid.