Tutoring 4+ NW London schools?

[Jaylden]

Hey, some mums told us that they are tutoring their 3-year olds (we couldn’t believe it) for 4+ assessments like The Hall and other schools in London.

Is that really the case and what are those assessments about? What is there to tutor?

Appreciate any DMs as well.

Thanks

You can confirm folks do this, it’s savageThey’re determined to get Baceolus into the right School
Trilingual Nannie’s, tutors, sketchy tips on what school look for
Its a fierce jungle here in NW3🦁

Hi, I'm new on here and interested in these 4+ posts as I worked at one of the schools that do the 4+ (I just left this summer). The assessments are based around what children of that age should know. I think it is unfair if schools are asking children to write or read sentences as this has not been taught to them yet at nursery. You would then be setting up the majority of children to fail during the assessment which is not right. We would see which letter sounds they knew, and if they flew through it, we would look at a couple of digraphs and maybe CVC words, but we would always stop if we weren't getting anywhere as we didn't want to stress the child out any more than they were in this strange new school with strange new adults lol

My DD was asked to read not just CVC but some two-syllable words at one NW school, CVC reading was a standard expectation at a couple of others.

Not sure if tutoring is required for that, most parents are perfectly capable of teaching their children CVC reading.

@Ubertomusic wow, really? Two syllable words are not usually taught until the second term of Reception! I just worry for the majority of children applying that are no where near that - it must be really demoralising for them 😞
I found, in general, parents tend to teach letter names, and nurseries/tutors will teach the letter sounds. I would always make a note if a child knew sounds or names. There is also a difference between learning 'cat' or 'dog' by rote, vs being given a random CVC word to decode and read.
It's fierce out there! lol 😳

Yes, really. My DD could confidently read CVC but she said there were longer words so I assume they were two syllable.

That was just one NW school and before covid though. There has been a massive loss of skills in younger cohorts since the lockdowns so probably schools don't test reading even CVC now.

Oh and I totally agree on the difference between rote memorising CVC and the actual reading skills. However, if the schools expect the rote memorising at 4+ that's what parents have to teach, whether they agree to this approach or not. Maybe it was just testing children's memory or the parents' willingness to conform to the standards 🤷‍♀️

Sorry for multiple replies, got distracted at a dance festival :) I don't think 4+ can be demoralising for children, they just go in for a play session and don't understand they are being assessed unless their parents drill it into them which would be strange tbh.

Haha, no worries @Ubertomusic 😆
I didn't mean to imply the 4+ process per se is demoralising, I know it's not. However, if children are being asked these sorts of words and are no where near knowing them, it can be disheartening for them to keep saying 'I don't know'.
I know that we would not touch on CVC/HFW words until they had shown us they knew all the single letters and first set of digraphs. It is really down to how the schools administer the tests, I'm sure they can pre-empt a child starting to get upset. 😁