what are they looking for at assessment for entry at 4 to a private school?

[olivo]

We are thinking of putting DD down forthe local private primary, and were sent some info, saying that the admissions assessment process would be starting soon. what kind of things are they looking for? DD has only just turned 3 so seems very young compared to some of her fellow year group. do they take things like that into account? presumably they wouldn't want a year group full of september birthdays!

'Uses developing mathematical ideas and methods to solve practical problems.

Begins to form captions and simple sentences, sometimes using punctuation.'

Shows an understanding of how information can be found in non-fiction texts to answer questions about where, who, why and how.'

Speaks clearly with confidence and control, showing awareness of the listener.

Maintains attention and concentrates.'

OMG! People from Planet Posh! All your 4+ and 5+ assessments are borrowing their objectives from the Early Years' Profile, completed by every single state primary in the country.

they are looking for a gullible parent ID say

This is an interesting thread. It another world to me

It has made me curious. This is a genuine question not meant to stir:

How would a child with SN get into a school that had this sort of selective procedure. At 4 my DS couldnt really communicate. He couldnt color match, stack blocks etc.
He would not have appeared ready for school.

Surely he would have been automatically turned down?

There must be lots of parents who can afford PS and have a child with SN. What happens?

can most 3 year olds write their name? my DD recognises hers but can't do actual letters.

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chegirl someone has allready said it a lot of them are looking to actively exclude a child with special needs.

There are some I've seen that will take children with mild specific learning difficulties they expect the parents to pay for the specific help needed privately.

I have seen one that sells itself as for children with LD but havn't looked into how it funds the additional help

'Tis interesting to speculate about whether if a school is truely unselective what is it that allows the results they achieve to be so much better than some state primaries?

parental income and motivation?

does that follow intelligence?
(ie do clever adults have clever kids)

small class sizes?

resources?

better teachers?

who knows-look at the numbers of State school teachers on here who use private schools

is it the same thing that motivates one of the local private schools here to take every child swimming once a week (in the State pool ie not on site) whereas my dcs state school (which is about the same distance away) manages to take them for about 2 terms in 6 years despite having huge numbers of staff?

round here, they are looking for basic maths skills, language 'skills' and an 'understanding of the world' at 4.

Dilemma - I too wonder about how non selective independent schools do it.
I mean, it's obvious that academically selective school, howver they are funded, will do well. But what of the schools that don't select?

The school my DCs attend is not particularly selective in that the 'test' at 4 is very, very rudimentary. They cannot possible know how clever or not the kids are based upon it.

It is not a hothouse - indeed the curriculum is incredibly broad with music and sports every day. And art and drama at least three times per week.

Yet the results are superb. How? I really do want to know because I volunteer at my local primary where the results are very poor indeed and we need to know how to make things better.
Yes, the class sizes are smaller at the indie and yes, the parents are far more supportive. But also, the head of seeting told me that only five children out of the whole year group ( 60) came under the national average in CAT tests.
But since there isn't any test of real merit on entry the school can't possibly be ecluding children who are below average.
I dunno.
It's a conundrum.

Yes lit I'd love to hear a teachers take on this

of course some of it may be accounted for by the need for a certain amount of money 'spare' (as it were) in order to pay the fees and in order to have that a number of parents will be of above average IQ!

I don't think the Disability Discrimination Act applies to academic selection in private school, seeing that private schools that choose their own curriculum. All that the act demands is that a school should make "reasonable adjustment" to accommodate a child with a disability. So that would mean something that, with moderate adjustment, would enable a child to access the particular curriculum of the school, not a demand to change the entire curriculum iyswim.

You can't even demand of a state school that they re-build the entire school to accommodate a disabled child- in this case, "reasonable adjustment" would usually mean sending the child to another school.

The act is there to ensure that disabled children are not deprived of an education, not that they are educated at any one particular school. There are private schools that cater for SEN; or for children who are not academically bright. There are also private schools that select on sporting ability or musical talent, because that is an important part of their curriculum. It is not discrimination if a cathedral school does not select a bright child who is tone deaf: singing in the choir tends to be a big part of what they do, so they tend to go for the ones with good voices.

This is the beauty of state schools: they deal with the pupils they've actually got

correction to first sentence: "seeing that private schools are allowed to choose their own curriculum"